Thursday, April 8, 2010

supplying or sustaining grace?...

GOD's sustaining grace removes my hurt. it relieves my hurt and helps me keep going when i'm in pain, when i want to give up.

paul, in corinthians, had a problem that was constant pain. three times he said, "LORD, take this pain out of my life" and GOD didn't do it. instead GOD said, 2 corinthians 12.9 (tev), MY grace is all you need, for MY power is strongest when you are weak.

GOD says, I'm going to give you grace. grace is what you need to keep on keeping on.

if paul prayed and didn't get an answer should i pray about my problem? of course. the bible tells us to pray about our problems. hebrews 4.16 (niv), let us approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive grace to help us in our time of need.

when you have a problem, a crisis, going through stress and tension and you pray for GOD's strength in your life, one of two things is going to happen. one, GOD may remove the pain. that's HIS supplying grace. but if HE doesn't, number two, HE may leave the pain in your life, in the situation, and HE gives you sustaining grace to handle it, to take you through the problem so you can learn something through the problem.

we'd never learn anything if all of our problems were instantly removed. we learn much more through pain than we do through pleasure. sometimes GOD has to leave the pain there. but whenever HE leaves the problem in our lives HE gives us the grace to see it through.

HE removes my guilt by saving grace, HE reshapes my life by strengthening grace, but HE relieves the hurt and helps me through the problem with HIS sustaining grace. HE's going to help you out.

when you get that down, nothing can devastate your life. no problem, no crisis, no hurt, no harm, no stress because you realize that GOD's grace is sufficient. i can handle it – not on my own – but i can handle it with GOD's grace.

just a thought from the front porch…

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