My Grace Is Sufficient

My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12.9.

My wife, daughter and I were driving back home after our Sunday Worship service. Our discussion turned to “Prayer” for some reason. Suddenly my wife said, “When anyone desperately cries to God, He will certainly answer him!” My daughter asked us, “What about Tom and Liz (not their real names)? They have been praying earnestly for a child for the past many years! They haven’t got one yet!”

Prayer should be the simplest of all spiritual exercises for a child of God. A preacher once said, “Prayer is simply asking God and receiving!” The Bible abounds in God’s promises to answer our prayers. Let me quote the three-fold promise of the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt 7.7,8).

Yet, prayer has turned out to be one of the greatest puzzles of all time! The reason is that ‘not all our prayers are answered as we expec!’ But if you would take a little time to recount, you will find that God has answered many or most of our prayers immediately or in His time!

Unfortunately, the problem is that we often set our minds on our unanswered prayers! We must change our mindset about prayer! First of all, we must learn that it is wrong to doubt God’s promise to answer our prayers because of the few unanswered prayers. Don’t you think that you should be thanking God for the many prayers that He answers daily? Then it would dawn on us that our loving God and Father in heaven might have had good reasons not to answer some of our prayers! Hear the argument that Jesus put forth, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Mt 7.11).

Why then are some of our prayers, desperate and even broken-hearted ones, not answered by our loving Father? Let us take a little time to understand from the experience of the apostle Paul and try to solve our eternal dilemma about unanswered prayers! It will encourage us to engage in prayer with renewed vigour and trust.

The apostle Paul related to us his own experience. “There was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12.7-9). We clearly see here that there was a reason and a purpose for the good Lord not to answer Paul’s repeated prayer. But the merciful Father answered his prayer by granting him ‘grace sufficient to sustain and strengthen!’

Dear believer, God is always faithful to all His promises (2 Cor 1.20). He answers all our prayers. Often times it is “yes" pretty quickly! Sometimes He makes us wait for His time to answer. At times the answer may be different than what we prayed for. Other times it may be "no!” and we know it because we do not receive what we asked for! Paul’s experience teaches us and gives us confidence that when the answer to our prayer is ‘no’, God has very good reasons for it. We might as well accept it even if it be sorrow or pain. His grace will be sufficient for you!

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, I thank You for all answered prayers. Thank You that when Your answer is no’, You give me ‘grace sufficient’ to live with it! Help me to keep on praying no matter whether Your answer is going to be 'yes or no'. Amen.