"Three different times I begged God to make me well again. Each time he said, 'No. But I am with you; that is all you need. My power shows up best in weak people.' Now I am glad to be a living demonstration of Christ's power, instead of showing off my own power and abilities" (2 Corinthians 12:8-9).
Paul was preaching to the people of Corinth. They were thinking like so many people today, that they were self-sufficient, and they boasted about it. Paul wanted them to know that all of their boasting was of foolishness. He told them that he have had some awesome visions, experiences, and revelations from the Lord. He let them know that those experiences were worth bragging about, but he was only going to boast about how weak he was and how great God is, and he would use such weakness for God's glory.
He spoke about a thorn in his side and that he had asked God to remove it three times, but God wouldn't take it away. God told him, "No. But I am with you; that is all you need. My power shows up best in weak people." Paul told them that he knew it was all for Christ's good, he was quite happy about "the thorn," including insults, hardships, persecution, and difficulties, for when he is weak, then he was strong, the less he had, the more he depended on God.
What is grace? We often define "grace" as "underserved favor" or as "unmerited favor and not getting what you deserved." Romans 3:23-24 states, "Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious ideal; yet now God declares us 'no guilty' of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins." Grace is what inclines God to give gifts that are free and undeserved to us sinners.
Life is full of trouble. We are often faced with one disaster after another. Everybody will face some type of struggle. Sufficient grace means that God gives us enough grace, and He supplies us with as much grace that we will need, to help us face whatever situation that confronts us. He gives us enough grace to face our illness, financial needs, our rebellious children, hardships, persecutions, insults, relationship problems, or whatever troubling situation that confront us. Whatever your needs, you can rest assuredly, that God's grace will be sufficient for everything that you may lack and everything that is lacking within you.
Whatever grace you need, you can make an inexhaustible, never-ending withdrawal from Jesus' National Bank of Grace. There God's grace is in super-abundance and can never be depleted. Where you are deficient, God is sufficient. You cannot do nothing on your own. So let go and let God handle it, and experience God's transforming power in your life. His love is unlimited and His grace cannot be measured.
Three times God told Paul, no. God told him that His grace was sufficient for him, and His power was made perfect in weakness. God isn't just talking about Paul's weakness, but about yours and mine as well. If you love Jesus, you will have trials, you will have trouble, you will be tested, you will have tribulations. James 1:12 states, "Happy is the man who doesn't give in and do wrong when he is tempted, for afterwards he will get as his reward the crown of life that God has promised those who love him."
Grace is God's amazing power, where He applies His own goodness and His own resources to our lives. His grace saves us, keeps us, enables us, delivers us, justifies us, sanctifies us, and glorifies us. God is unendingly gracious towards us. Everything given to us by God is by His grace and this grace comes through Jesus Christ. John 1:16 says, "We have all benefited from the rich blessings he brought to us - blessing upon blessing heaped upon us."
In Jesus Christ, we have the complete package, in whom we have all things pertaining to life and godliness. Through the Holy Spirit, He fills us with all strength, comforts us, and give us the fullness of God. This complete spiritual package enables us to do all things through the power of Jesus Christ. Our sufficiency is from God and it is God who gives us Sufficient Grace. He constantly reminds us, "My grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness."