Jesus Is Enough

The past few months, I have been slowly making my way through Nancy Guthrie’s book, Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow.  Nancy and her husband have experienced much sorrow and grief in this life as they have watched two of their children die in the first year of their lives.  In this book, she shares questions she has wrestled with since their deaths and the comfort and hope Jesus offers to us in the midst of our grief.  As I have read though her book, I have often nodded whole-heartedly as I have found what she says to be true in my own life.  I am so grateful for how she has beautifully articulated how Jesus comforts brokenhearted people and offers us life and hope.

Below is an excerpt from her book:

When Jesus says that his grace is sufficient, he’s not talking only about the grace that extends pardon for what we’ve done in the past.  He’s talking about grace that is a present power.  This grace Jesus gives us is the power to go on when we think we can’t make it one more day.  It is the power to believe when doubts and questions are crowding into our conscious thoughts.  Grace gives us what we need to take hold of God’s Word and rest in it amid the voices around us and inside us that tell us God cannot be trusted.

We like to think that the way God can get the most glory is by doing the miracle we’ve put on order.  We’d much rather have Jesus display his power in our lives in the form of healing and wholeness, success and accomplishment, rather than dependence and weakness.  We want escape from weakness, not power in weakness.

I suppose this presents a real test for us.  It forces us to ask ourselves, Do I want to experience and receive more of the grace of Jesus so I can put it on display in my life?  Or do I just want him to give me what I ask for, what I think I need, so I won’t have to hurt so much anymore?  Can I find satisfaction when God does not fix the difficulties in my life but instead gives me the grace to endure them without complaining, without being resentful, without turning my back on him?  Can I move from desperately seeking relief to diligently seeking to glorify God as I treasure him more than my own health or comfort?

Do you think it’s possible to find pleasure in the place of your deepest pain?  It seems incomprehensible, even ridiculous, doesn’t it?  That’s because we don’t really think the grace Jesus has promised us is all that good.  We don’t think it will be enough – not enough to fill our emptiness, not enough to meet our needs.

The truth is, we’re often more interested in getting what God’s got, not getting more of God.  We’ve put in our order for a miracle of healing or relief, and the miracle of his presence seems to us like the consolation prize.

The grace God provides is enough to generate joy in the midst of your great sorrow.  It’s enough to enable you to endure the loneliness and the reminders of loss everywhere you turn.  It’s enough to keep you believing that God is good and that he loves you.

“My grace is enough for you today and for everything you will face in the days to come.  It will be enough – I will be enough – for whatever I allow in your life.”