GOD’S FAVOUR IS SUFFICIENT

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9 (KJV)

We have been celebrating the wonderful theme of divine favour this month, understanding from Titus 2:11 that this is no ordinary blessing but the very hand of God Himself moving in our lives, for “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” We have established that this favour, this grace, is not a passive permission slip but an active power that, as Titus 2:12 instructs, “teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” It instructs us, it corrects us, and it empowers us for a life that brings glory to God. But today, I want to take you deeper, into a place where many of us often find ourselves, a place where our own strength fails, our own resources are exhausted, and our own understanding falls short. I want to talk to you about what happens when the favour of God meets our human weakness, and I want to declare to you from the Word of God that His grace is sufficient for thee.

The Apostle Paul gives us a breathtakingly personal testimony in 2 Corinthians 12:7-8, where he unveils a profound struggle in his own life. He speaks of “a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” For this thing, he declares, “I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.” Now, we must understand the context; this was a man who had been caught up into the third heaven, who had seen and heard unspeakable things, who had been used by God to perform miracles and establish churches. And because of the abundance of these revelations, to keep him from being exalted above measure, God in His sovereign wisdom permitted a thorn to remain in his life. This was not a punishment for sin, but a prescription against pride. It was the loving hand of a Father ensuring that His vessel would remain useful, humble, and utterly dependent. And Paul, like any of us would, pleaded with the Lord. He did not ask casually; he besought the Lord, he begged Him, not once but three times, that this thorn might depart from him. He sought deliverance, he sought relief, he sought a removal of the pain. And the answer that came back from heaven was not what he expected. It was not a healing, it was not a deliverance, it was a promise, found in our anchor scripture: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

I want you to grasp the weight of that divine response. God did not remove the thorn, but He provided something infinitely greater: the assurance of His all-sufficient, ever-present, empowering grace. The word “sufficient” here means enough, adequate, it meets the need completely. His grace is enough to carry you through the very thing you are praying to get out of. This reveals a profound dimension of God’s deliverance. We often pray only for deliverance from our trials, and God in His mercy often grants it. But there is a higher deliverance, a more profound manifestation of His power, and that is deliverance in the midst of our trials. It is the grace to endure, the strength to persevere, the favour to overcome even while the circumstance remains. It is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3:25 not being delivered from the fire, but being delivered in the fire, with a fourth man who was “like the Son of God” showing up in the flames. Your furnace may still be hot, but His sufficient grace ensures you will not be burned.

We see this pattern throughout Scripture. Look at Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 4:10. When God called him to go to Pharaoh, Moses immediately protested, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” He was focused on his own inability, his lifelong limitation. He was essentially saying, “Lord, you have seen my weakness, and even this divine encounter has not changed it.” And how did the Lord answer in Exodus 4:11-12? He did not instantly grant him oratory skills. Instead, He declared His own sovereignty: “Who hath made man’s mouth?… have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.” God’s power was not dependent on Moses’ eloquence; it was made perfect in Moses’ ineloquence. The same thing happened with the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:6-7, who cried out, “Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.” And the Lord told him, “Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.” God’s calling is not contingent upon your age, your ability, or your adequacy; it is contingent upon His sovereignty and His sufficient grace.

This is the heart of the gospel, beloved. The world’s system tells you to hide your weaknesses, to project strength, to pretend you have it all together. But the economy of the Kingdom of God operates on a completely different principle, for as 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 proclaims, “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.” He does this so that when the victory comes, when the breakthrough happens, when the miracle manifests, the only possible explanation is the supernatural, sufficient grace of God. Your weakness, your thorn, your area of struggle is not a barrier to God’s power; it is the very platform upon which He has chosen to display His glory. When you are weak in yourself, then you are truly strong in Him, for His power finds its perfect resting place in a heart that acknowledges its total need for Him.

Therefore, I charge you today, stop looking at your limitations. Stop focusing on your thorns. Stop disqualifying yourself because of your past, your temperament, your lack of education, or your perceived inadequacies. Do not say, “I am too young,” or “I am too old,” or “I am too broken.” The God who spoke to Moses and Jeremiah is speaking to you today. His word to you is, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” That thing you have been begging God to remove, that persistent struggle, that area of humiliation, may very well be the very thing God is using to keep you anchored in humility and dependence upon Him. It is in that very place of weakness that His strength is being perfected. It is in that very place of need that His sufficient favour is being manifested. So, instead of complaining about your weakness, start boasting in it, like Paul, that the power of Christ may rest upon you. For as he concluded in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “for when I am weak, then am I strong.” You are strong—not in yourself, but in the mighty, all-sufficient grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. His grace is enough. It is sufficient for all your needs, sufficient for all your trials, and sufficient to carry you all the way home.