Daily Manna · Day 18 · January 18
Sufficient Grace
“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
A man is on his knees, asking for the third time for the same thing to be taken away. What comes back is a sentence: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
Watch what Paul does with that no. He does not just swallow it and move on. He boasts about it: "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." The whole passage turns into praise, and what he praises is a strength that does its finest work where it has the least to work with. "My strength is made perfect in weakness" means that God's power is shown at its fullest at the very point where a person runs out. Paul hears this as a claim about how God has chosen to show Himself, and he came to see that it was worth carrying the thorn in order to see that power at work.
Think about what kind of power this is. It does not need you to be good at things before it can work through you. It is not embarrassed by the part of your life you would rather leave out of your story. It has never been stretched to its limit, and it has never come close to failing. Three times a man asked, and God said no. That no did not put a fence around God's power. It was His power choosing the place where it would be seen.
Hold on to one small detail. God says His grace "is sufficient," in the present tense, which means it is enough today. "Sufficient" means enough to cover. It reaches all the way to the edge of your need, and it is there for you right now.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 18 is In His Image (Genesis 1:27).