My Grace Is Sufficient for You

In the old translation of the preface for martyrs, we prayed to God: “You choose the weak and make them strong.” There is nothing that God cannot do with us and through us if we are open to God’s grace. The sacred Scriptures are filled with examples of very weak people being chosen and empowered by God.  For example:

 

-When Jeremiah was asked to become a prophet, he protested: Ask someone else, I am too young. God told him to do it anyway. (Jeremiah 1:6-8)

-When Moses was called by God to go to the Pharaoh and ask him to let the Israelites go free, Moses said to God: Not me. I do not know how to speak. God gave Moses Aaron as his spokesperson. And they both went. (Exodus 3:11-14; Exodus 4:10-17)

-When Sarah was told she was going to give birth to a son, she laughed and said: I’m too old. God intervened and gave her a son. (Genesis 21:1-8)

-When Mary was told that she was to give birth to son, she said: I am a virgin, I do not know man. God intervened and gave her a son. (Luke 1:34-37)

-And when Paul struggled with an unknown human weakness, “a thorn in the flesh,” he told God it was getting in the way of his preaching and he needed to be healed.  God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” (II Corinthians 12:7-10) 

 

God’s response to Jeremiah, Moses, Sarah, Mary, Paul, and to each of us in our weakness is the same: “My grace is sufficient for you.  I will be helping you.  I will do what you cannot do.  What more do you need to know?” 

 

When we become stressed over things not going the way we want them to go, God says: “My grace is sufficient for you.” When God asks us to do something we do not want to do, or do not feel capable of doing, God says: “My grace is sufficient for you.” When God nudges us to forgive someone, to ask forgiveness, to share our faith or embrace our suffering, God says: “My grace is sufficient for you. I will be helping you. I will do what you cannot do. I am with you. You are not alone.”  

 

God tells us that if we acknowledge our weakness and need, he will help us. If rather we have the attitude, I want to do it myself, my way, God will say: Ok. I’ll let you. So God waits and waits and watches. God keeps watching for an opening, for a crack in the wall we have put up between God and ourselves. When the crack comes, God moves in with his presence, with his grace. 

 

Chris Lowney, in his book, Heroic Leadership, said the following: “Ignatius believed that when we set ourselves toward some worthy purpose that transcends our meager strength, we tap into a source of meaning, strength, peace, and courage that is beyond us. We come to realize, in a graced moment, that we are called to some great purpose, that we cannot do it on our own, but that we don’t have to do it on our own.”  

  

We never have to do anything on our own, for God is always with us. When we ask God for help, he gives us himself, his grace. There is nothing more we could want or need. 

 

One of my favorite quotes is: “If you agree to be with God, God always agrees to be with you.” God is always ready and willing to be with us, supporting us, encouraging us, loving us, helping us. God’s grace is sufficient, for us for when God’s grace is active, God is present.