God’s Amazing Grace Pt 2 – The Strength You Need for the Trial You’re In
If we had our choice, we would all rather God remove our trials rather than have us go through our trials, right? But if you have prayed, and prayed, and prayed, and the mountain isn’t moving, it might be that God has something else in mind for you.
Often times when we are waiting for God to remove our trial, He is waiting for us to depend on His grace to get through the trial.
Truth: God’s grace is sufficient for you no matter how deep your trial is and no matter how hard your life gets. The two questions we are answering in this series regarding the grace of God are:
1. What is it?
2. How do I access it?
So, what is grace? Well, it is much more than undeserved favor. It is actually undeserved everything! The word for grace in Greek that is often used in the New Testament is *Charis*. Charis – undeserved favor, blessings, and divine ability. BUT the root word for Charis is JOY! Isn’t that amazing? (See my last blog post titled, “God’s amazing grace Pt 1 – What’s Joy God to Do with it?”, where we took a deeper dive into experiencing God’s gift of joy in the midst of our trials). And what did God tell us about His joy?
“…the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10b
And that is the expression of grace I want to write about today.
God’s grace is STRENGTH
Look at what the apostle Paul said about God’s grace.
1 Corinthians 15:10 NKJ “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
Paul not only gave God’s grace the credit for changing his identity from a persecutor of the church to the greatest apostle of the church, but he also said it was the empowerment and energy that enabled him to “labor more abundantly” than all the other apostles. That is; to travel around the world in very dangerous conditions, preach under death threats, endure suffering and even torture, to write the Bible from prison, come back from near-death experiences, maintain hope, do miracles, go without food, as well as endure betrayals and abandonments. And this same grace is for you as well – to give you your identity, calling, ability, and strength to endure hardships and to fulfill God’s purposes in your life!
NOTICE: But Paul said something extremely telling about this grace that we must pay attention to. He said that even if you have God’s grace in your life, it might not help you at all. How is that possible? Well, let’s read that passage again:
1 Corinthians 15:10 NKJ “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
“In Vain” means to be wasted, useless, unproductive. This means that the grace in your life can be useless. How? Well, this leads us into answering our second question about grace:
How do I access this amazing grace of God?
There are four things you can do to access and activate the grace of God in your life. We will cover one of them today:
1. You must be aware of it
This may sound very basic, but stick with me. If you are not aware that the empowering grace of God is with you, you won’t know that you can activate it.
What if you were the heir to a fortune but you did not know it, and nobody ever told you about it, and you struggled financially your entire life, then died. What a shame that would be – when all you had to do was make a call. You might say, “Well, if I knew I was an heir I would have made the call.” That’s my point. You didn’t know, so you didn’t call.
That is what it is like for a Christ-follower who is not aware that God’s all-sufficient, amazing grace is available to him/her every minute of every day for everything.
And how much grace is yours? Check out what John says:
John 1:16 Amp “For out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor, and gift heaped upon gift].”
But don’t think there is something wrong with you if you need God’s grace. Even Jesus, in His earthly form, needed the grace of God!
Luke 2:40 NKJ “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.”
Now, you might think you are aware of it because the Bible says it, or you heard it preached. It’s common knowledge to the Christ-follower. BUT the test is when you are suffering. When the pain, persecution, and pressures of life are sucking you under. When betrayal, injustices, and hurts are all you can feel and see. When the losses, failures, and shame are owning you. THAT is when you will know whether or not you are aware of God’s grace.
And don’t feel bad if you are not in touch with God’s grace for your trial. Even the apostle Paul who was caught up to the third heavens, who was discipled by the resurrected Christ Himself, and the preacher of grace, when he was in pain, needed help realizing God’s grace was with him for his trial.
2 Corinthians 12:7-8a NKJ “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you…”
Let’s not concern ourselves with what Paul’s “thorn” was. That was his thing. The question is, what is your thing? And do you think the grace of God is sufficient to help you through it?
Look at what the word “sufficient” means here:
Sufficient = To be possessed of unfailing strength
Paul was looking for his mountain to move, but God was looking for Paul to depend on His grace to power through. That is, to be a world-changer in spite of his sufferings. Or more accurately, in the midst of his sufferings.
Do you want to be a world-changer – to influence and inspire people around you for God? I promise you; people will be more inspired by watching you in your weaknesses than in your strengths.
People are more impacted by character than charisma.
But the first step to being a victor and not a victim is a simple change in perspective. When you are in pain, depressed, fearful, tempted, discouraged, or hurt, you can easily feel alone, helpless, and hopeless. But if, in that moment, you remember that God’s grace is with you, and that it will “possess you with unfailing strength” you will find the power you need to get moving forward.
Think About It:
– What are you going through right now that is really tough?
– Do you believe that God’s all-sufficient grace is with you?
– Do you believe that God’s all-sufficient grace is enough for you?
– If so, what are you going to do next?