My Grace is Sufficient for You
Legend tells of a little girl who had an ugly hump on her back. The girl was so deformed that she was either ridiculed or pitied by everyone. When she died, it turned out that the ugly hump concealed angel’s wings. Can it be that all the ugly things in our lives have in them angel’s wings? Can it be that even our sin, our ugly sin, can be turned to good; could it conceal angel’s wings?
This is the glorious promise of conversion. God is able to make all things work together for good. Even the sinful years, the ugly years, need not be wasted but can result in good. Is this not the most comforting assurance? For many of us our ugly years were numerous, and they cause deep remorse. They may have struck at the prime of our lives and ministries.
For so long we have grieved them, feeling that many years of ministry were wasted. But the love of God dawns upon us, and with it comes a most amazing promise and a new hope. What we cannot redeem, God can; and what we cannot erase, God will.
—Norman Shawchuck
One of the more difficult passages for me to read in the New Testament is when the apostle Paul pleads with God to remove his ‘thorn in the flesh.’ Scholars have argued for centuries over just what ailment Paul was referring to, but to me it’s better that we don’t know. We can substitute any struggle or suffering we’re enduring in our pleas; “Lord, please remove ___ from me!” The difficulty I mention arises when we realize there are some thorns God will not remove. In Paul’s case, here, God says “My grace is sufficient for you.” That translates, my grace is sufficient to help you bear this thorn. In embracing this grace that is sufficient, though, we experience what Shawchuck references above—”a most amazing promise and new hope.” In other words, the thorn doesn’t get the last word! The thorn isn’t the end of the story! God is in this thing, and that thorn is going to play an important role in filling out the bigger picture. Let us pray in faith, believing. That thorn … may be angel wings giving flight to opportunity we can neither see nor imagine. May it be so! —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics