Sufficient Grace

October 27, 2019

We are often caught by surprise, but God never is. The worship leadership team meets prior to the mornings’ services to rehearse, but before rehearsal comes a devotional led by one of the team members. An email sent out the week before lists the songs for the week and the name of the one leading the devotional. Grandson Ian was on tap for today, but hadn’t caught the email, so was scrambling, grabbing a devotional from his mother and frantically leafing through for something appropriate. He found it.

The gist of the devotional was how we compare ourselves to others, either for good or ill, either of which is destructive. When we offer up comparisons, we are second-guessing God’s hand in our own lives, thinking either that he could have done better with ourselves, or with the other. it’s often hard to see the uniqueness of how God has shaped us; we envy the gifts and personality of the other, or wonder why they can’t be more like us. The message resonated with everyone in the group; I don’t know their experiences, but after spending yesterday with some spiritual giants, I was feeling somewhat like the spies of Canaan who told Moses, “We were like grasshoppers in our own sight...” (Numbers 13:33). I envied their passion, their evangelistic fervor, the network of believers committed to spreading the Gospel, their scholarship...the list goes on and on. I come away from such gatherings wondering why I was included—everyone I met seemed so much more accomplished than me, but there I was, one of three asked to speak at my friend’s memorial service. 

Failure to accept the grace of God as it pertains to ourselves is as much a sin as lust or pride or theft, for it is unbelief; an insistence on believing our feelings instead of the Word of God. Part of what it means to trust in God is to believe that the work he is doing in me is exactly what he intends for the purposes he has in store. I frustrate those purposes not only by disobedience to his Word, but also by unbelief in his grace.

Years ago as a teenager, Sunday evening song services were as regular a part of my life as Sunday morning worship. We did a lot of singing, the lyrics and melodies of which occasionally pop into my head. “Wonderful Grace of Jesus” is one of those songs, of which the chorus goes,

“Wonderful the matchless Grace of Jesus,

Deeper than the mighty rolling sea;

Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain,

All sufficient Grace for even me.

Broader than the scope of my transgressions, (sing it!)

Greater far than all my sin and shame

O magnify the precious name of Jesus,

PRAISE HIS NAME!” (Lillenas & Goss)

  

I am thankful tonight for God’s grace which is still is sufficient even for me.