One of the greatest struggles we go through is suffering with something long-term. It could be a prolonged illness or battle with a condition or a disease, a severe allergy that could lead to death, or fighting cancer. It could be the pain of something that happened in our childhood and has a lingering, life-long effect. It could be a sinful habit that we can’t shake. Or maybe it is the consequence of something we did that brought harm to us or to others and still causes hurt and regret.
What do we do with a burden like that which won’t entirely go away? We wish it wasn’t so. We’d like it to be different, to have never happened. Are we simply left to suffer? Is there no answer? How does this kind of thing fit with faith in God and life as his child?
If you would like a God-pleasing way to look at this kind of thing…if you would like an answer, some kind of relief…if you would like an example to follow…then consider the Apostle Paul and what he wrote to Christian friends about his issue. He personally dealt with this kind of thing and he did it with faith. He reached out to God and found several blessings that came from what he saw as a curse. What Paul found out was that…
God’s Grace is Enough
1. It Provides Blessings
3. It Proclaims God’s Power
2. It Prevents Pride
4. It Produces Trust
It Provides Blessings
Just before this, Paul had written about the incredible visions God gave to him. He doesn’t give a lot of detail, but they were so spectacular that he wasn’t even sure if they were visions or if God had actually taken him physically and showed him heaven! At any rate, it was the kind of experience that could turn a privileged person to pride.
It is pretty clear as we read about the life of Paul, that he was not deserving of this kind of love and attention from God. He was a man who formerly persecuted Christians and tried to stamp out the Christian church by killing people who followed Jesus. Everyone would agree that a guy like that should have been stamped out by God—crushed like the cockroach of person he was under the divine shoe of the almighty God!
But that’s not what God did. Sudden blindness to get Paul’s attention… baptism… instruction by Christ himself… and he was literally a new man! His terrible sins forgiven, God turned him loose by God to spread the saving gospel to many people in many lands. Given his past, Paul is a shining example of the blessings of God’s grace in a person’s life, isn’t he?
Few of us have personal stories so dramatic, but God has done the same kind of work on us. We came kicking and screaming into this world with a sinful nature that made us just as deserving of God’s judgment as Paul was. And what did God do? He came to us with the blessings of his grace his undeserved love in baptism and in his saving Word. Instead of letting us die eternally, God reached out and blessed us, giving us faith to see forgiveness and life in Christ.
Sometimes we focus on the thing we struggle with, the thing we hate, and lose sight of God’s blessings. His love that saved us when we didn’t deserve it is the greatest of these. But, no doubt, God has provided you with more. For Paul, some of those things were visions, revelations straight from God. What are they for you? What are the amazing blessings in your life? Your parents? Your children? Friends? Church family? Is it easy access to God’s Word and the sacrament? The abilities and the time God gives you to serve him and others? Is it all the stuff you have or your education? All of these blessings come to us also as the Lord provides them even when God’s Grace is Enough.
It Prevents Pride
To keep Paul mindful of God’s grace in his life and to keep him from becoming arrogant because of the blessings he enjoyed from the Lord, there was something difficult that he had to deal with: I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me, so that I would not become arrogant.
We know how he got it. We know why he got it. We know it was hurtful to him. We even know how he reacted to it. What we don’t know is what it was! Some people have decent guesses based on things Paul wrote: poor eyesight, malaria, a chronic illness, , sinful pride, persecution. Others, I’m not so sure about a speech impediment…he was short…he was bald…he walked with a limp…there was a person who constantly gave him a hard time. But we just don’t know. Ultimately it doesn’t matter, but the other stuff does.
This difficulty was given by God but called a messenger of Satan. Yes, God allowed Satan to constantly bother Paul with whatever this was. I imagine that all the while Satan thought that this would be the thing that would turn Paul against God, causing him to give up his faith and his wildly successful preaching of salvation through faith in Jesus.
But all the while, the Lord was using it to constantly steer Paul to his need for God and his ongoing grace! This reminded Paul that he was still a weak, sinful person, even though God spoke to him and gave him glimpses of heaven. He was still dependent on the grace of God. Humility and service to God and people around him was the result.
If you have a particular weakness or a struggle of some kind, some nagging thing you can’t shake it is obvious proof that you and your life are not perfect It also proves that you do not have the knowledge or power to fix it! This thing—whether it is known to others or only to you reminds you that you are a sinful person living in a sinful world.
This should move us to rely on God’s grace. Otherwise, if we didn’t have that thing in our lives, we might be tempted to think only about the good things we have and think that this all has something to do with how wonderful we are kind of like Paul’s temptation to arrogance because of the revelations he received What if we could view that constant irritation or pain we have as a reminder that we really must rely on God? Might that lead to a greater humility before God? Might that lead to humility before other people? That was the purpose for God allowing Satan to afflict Paul to prevent sinful pride. It may also help keep that in check for us—even if we don’t think we need that.
It Proclaims God’s Power
At first, Paul was not aware of the reason for his suffering. He was only thinking that this “thorn” of his was unpleasant and getting in the way of him serving the Lord. And so, Paul kept on praying, asking God to deliver him from his suffering. This may remind us to pray trusting that God can do all things but also to pray trusting that he knows what is best for us. Paul’s example might make us think of Jesus too. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane also three times that his suffering would come to an end and that there be another way for sinners to find forgiveness before God. But God’s answer is sometimes different than what we may want or what we expect. And that was the way it was with Paul.
He had the benefit of God speaking directly to him, so he got something we don’t always get a clear answer to his prayers: “My grace is sufficient for you, because my power is made perfectin weakness.” He actually received an answer and an explanation, didn’t he? God’s grace was enough and God’s power was made perfect when it was seen through Paul’s obvious weakness.
Nothing came close to the importance of God’s grace to Paul. And so, God said, You can deal with the other stuff if you know you have my love and you know you’re going to heaven when you die And God’s purpose in this? Because in addition to it keeping Paul humbly linked to his Lord, the power of God—working through this weakened man would be magnified.
It was obvious to Paul and probably to others that even though the man had issues or a condition or a difficulty of some kind, God was still doing incredible things through him! Pastor, missionary, a scribe for the Holy Spirit, started churches around the Mediterranean…incredible stuff! His “successes,” were due entirely to God working through him. It was even more obvious when someone knew his troubled past or his ongoing struggles! The grace of God to Paul Proclaimed God’s Power!
Whenever God uses one of us today, his power is also displayed through weakness, isn’t it? He uses defective and damaged people, ravaged by their own sin and the effects of sin brought down on them—to care for other people as Jesus tells us to, to lead people to know Jesus as their Savior, to serve and show love, to do so many helpful and God-pleasing things.
You and I should have a wide view one that takes into account other people and the kingdom of God—and not a narrow one that focuses only on ourselves and our problems. It can be very freeing to realize that God may be accomplishing some great things for you and for others through the struggle he allows you to endure. There is comfort here. Listen to your Savior say to you as you are troubled and consumed by the struggle: “My grace is sufficient for you, because my power is made perfect in weakness.”
It Produces Trust
Confidence in God’s grace allows us to change our outlook on our life and our struggles. So, we can respond just like Paul did. Wait…glad about our weaknesses? Delight in our difficulties? Strong when we’re weak? Does Paul make sense? Does it make sense for us to think like that when we are hurting?
Yes, it does! Only someone who knows Christ and his suffering…only someone who gets the grace of God…only someone who has an ultimate trust in the Lord can look at things this way. But that’s who we are. That’s you. That’s me. This is faith.
Faith is thankfulness for the blessings of grace we have received. Faith puts selfish pride away. Faith realizes that God’s power is shown through us despite our weaknesses. And faith trusts in the shelter of forgiveness and love of our Savior.
Today…
We repent of our sins of gladly accepting all the good things from God’s hand, but complaining about our difficulty.
We repent of our sins of not persistently praying to God about our struggles. We repent of our sins of not accepting God’s answers and not seeing how he might be using those things.
We repent of a self-centered view of our lives instead of a kingdom-of-Christ view.
We look to Jesus who did not complain about the struggles he endured for sinners. We look to Jesus who prayed to his Father in difficult times and accepted his answers. We look to Jesus who saw the good that the Father would accomplish through his suffering.
We look to Jesus whose death and resurrection are the basis for the grace of God given to us.
We are forgiven. We are forgiven for our sins, and we hold the promise of heaven as we trust in Christ.
Our Savior calls us to listen to his voice when we are worked up over our struggles: “My grace is sufficient for you…” God’s Grace is Enough, my friends. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.