My Grace Is All You Need

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”   2 Corinthians 12:8-9

Paul begged God for relief from the thorn in his flesh (see 2 Corinthians 12:7), but God chose not to give him what he asked for. There may be times when God’s Word to us is, “You are more useful to me with this thorn than without it.”

Consider the cross. When wicked men nailed Jesus to a piece of wood, he said, “This is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns” (Luke 22:53). But then Peter tells us that “God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out” (Acts 2:23). Nobody had the power to take Jesus’ life from him. He chose to lay it down (see John 10:18). In fact, it was for this very reason that he came into the world.

Paul prayed three times that God would remove the thorn. When I read that, it reminds me of when Jesus prayed three times in Gethsemane, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me” (Matthew 26:39). God didn’t take the cup from him, and our salvation is possible because Jesus accepted the Father’s answer.

God the Father didn’t remove the suffering of the cross, but when Jesus prayed in the garden, an angel came and strengthened him (see Luke 22:43). And when Paul prayed, God gave him a particular promise: “My grace is all you need” (2 Corinthians 12:9). The person who walks with God will often know what it is like to draw strength from that promise and to discover that God has a purpose in the hardest things in life.

There will be times when God does not give you the answer you are looking for in your prayers, but you can be certain that when you seek him in prayer, he will always give you the strength you need. The mark of true spirituality is not that God gives you everything you ask, but that you walk with him when he does not.

For further reading, see Luke 22