“But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”  2 Corinthians 12: 8-9

I didn’t anticipate it, but it’s been one of those weeks.  One of those weeks where I let the devil get the better of me. Where I listen to those lies I’ve tried to shut out for so long…where I take on new lies that I know don’t belong.  Yeah, one of those.

I’ve been emotional, burdened, hurting, and duped.  I’ve felt every tear acutely, heard every word whispered, and watched with personal defeat every plan fall through.  It’s been a painful week.

I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning.  In fact, after I got the kids fed and off to school and my husband found himself in the shower, I quite literally crawled back into bed, pulled the covers over my head and began to pray.  I prayed for friends and loved ones, young girls that I know and love that are struggling and hurting, college kids who are swamped with school work, church needs, family needs, families that I don’t know but that I know are in pain, the lost, the found, and everyone in between…and then I dozed off.

I was content to let the day go by as I laid in my bed and pretended that I didn’t exist, or that the world didn’t exist, that there wasn’t tragedy all around me, and that I didn’t feel overwhelmed and afraid. And God let me, for two more hours.

I woke up with the feeling that I had to start the day.  I had to spend time with Jesus.  I had to get my thoughts in order so that I could be of some earthly good.  I had to get up and do what I’ve been called to do – be Jesus. (And let’s face it, Jesus with morning breath and bed head, isn’t necessarily the Jesus people need to meet!)

Intentionally putting my feet on the ground, I got out of bed.  I stumbled to the kitchen, poured myself a cup of ambition and tried to come alive…(not really, I just suddenly heard Dolly Parton in my head). But, I did go to the kitchen, my resting place at the counter, pulled my Bible and devotional over to me, and listened for a word from God.

That’s when the verse above, coated my overworked mind. His grace is sufficient.  “I know that,” I thought.  But then I heard a voice say, “It IS sufficient.”  Not it might be sufficient, or it could be sufficient, or it should be sufficient, but it IS sufficient.  Nothing changes that. I can tell myself all day that it isn’t, or it doesn’t feel like it is, or that I wish that it were, but God’s Word says that it is.  It IS.  My feelings, emotions, perceptions can’t change what IS.  God’s grace IS sufficient.

His grace overrides my fear, my anxiety, my heartache, my doubts, my pain, my sorrow.  His grace is my sufficiency.  Being a wordsmith I looked up the word:

SUFFICIENT : enough to meet the needs of a situation or a proposed end.

I cannot explain the peace that washed over me when I saw that word, enough.  There is so much peace in that word.  That word satisfies and quenches.  It reminds me that there is nothing more to be gained from any other source or outlet; His grace IS enough.

Since I seemed to be on a word kick, and with each revelation I was absorbing more and more peace I tried again…the word that every Christian clings to – grace. And one definition spoke out to me:

GRACE: unmerited divine assistance

Isn’t that lovely?  Divine assistance. It isn’t natural assistance, or common assistance, but divine assistance.  It is the kind of assistance that I was craving, praying for, crying out for…and it was mine.  Divinely.

Then I pieced it all together and found the answer to what I need most in every concern I’ve voiced.

“God’s divine assistance will take care of every circumstance or situation.”

So, my formerly lazy self left all those fears and doubts and discouragements and needs on the counter.  I left them there on that counter that is stained with tears and imprinted with my scrawled prayers and the chair that is formed to meet me every morning, and I walked away, confident and enlightened.

And two hours later, when satan got in my head and tried to tear me down again through the careless words of others…I remembered and relied on that promise.  His divine assistance IS taking care of everything.  Whether I acknowledge it or not. Yes, it IS!