Several years back, my husband and I were headed down to the beach with thirty teenagers. Chris was the youth pastor at our church in Tennessee, and that meant planning trips and other activities for a bunch of students. We were extremely excited about getting to Panama City Beach, Florida, because of the camp we were attending. Not just the camp, but the speakers, too – in particular, Josh McDowell.

Now, I had heard his name a myriad of times, but I had never actually read one of his books. Decades ago, McDowell was searching for meaning in life. He had tried “religion” but was not satisfied. He then set out to prove Christianity false. In pursuit of this goal, he came to the following conclusions:

• Jesus Christ was who He said He was.
• There is historic evidence for the reliability of Scripture.
• The Resurrection of Christ took place.

How amazing is that?

The first time McDowell got up to speak to thousands of teenagers and youth leaders that week, he pulled a student up on stage and asked him a question. Though it appeared to be a simple one, but that could not have been further the truth. Here was the question and answer scenario that we witnessed:

“How do you know the Bible is true?” McDowell asked.
“Uh, well, because it is?” the student replied.
“How do you know the Bible is true?” repeated McDowell.
“Because God wrote it,” came the student’s second reply.
“How do you know the Bible is true?” was McDowell’s final attempt.
Silence.

The poor guy was stumped. Everything he grew up learning in church didn’t prove useful in answering this question. And I’m guessing it wasn’t really his fault. I mean, the answers he gave were not wrong; they just did not carry any weight for this specific question.

At this point, every person in the room was dying to the correct answer to McDowell’s question. He proceeded to tell us numerous reasons why we can be absolutely certain the Bible is true. To this day, his words have provided more stability and clarity for my faith in Christ than anything else I have ever heard. I’d like to share with you what I learned from him. McDowell taught us that the Bible is quite unique in its continuity. He explained that the Bible was:

• written over a 1,500-year span
• written over forty generations
• written by more than forty authors from every walk of life
(kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesman, scholars)
• written in different places
(wilderness, dungeon, hillside, palace, prison, island, while traveling)
• written in different times
(war, peace)
• written during different moods
(joy, pain, sorrow, despair)
• written on three continents
(Asia, Africa, Europe)
• written in three languages
(Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek)
• written to address various subject matters, including controversial topics

Despite all of these differences, the Bible’s authors spoke in harmony and with continuity from Genesis to Revelation that there is one unfolding story – God’s redemption of man.

McDowell also shared that his research proved there are more copies of the Bible than any other work. The Bible has been translated and paraphrased more than any other book; however, it is still consistent with the original documents written on perishable material. As if that information wasn’t convincing enough, I decided to read his book A Ready Defense. That book successfully eliminated any lingering concern that I had on the reliability of the Bible. And while I don’t understand every single part of God’s inspired word, I don’t expect to understand it completely. God speaks very clearly to Isaiah on that matter:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9

That particular verse has brought more freedom to me than most others. I may be called ignorant for not knowing an answer to every question with regard to my faith, and I’m fine with that. My God sees it differently. And His opinion is, quite frankly, the one that matters most to me.

Chasing A Rabbit?

You may be wondering why I led you down this path. I want you to see that the Bible is a reliable source of information. You may be at a place in life much like where I was some years ago. You may believe in God and read His Word and share about His love with others. I did all that, too. But, you may not be completely aware of the foundation upon which your faith is built. My hope is that you will have a beginning knowledge to help jump-start you on a journey toward knowing not only what you believe, but also why you believe it.

My job at this point is to answer the question that the chapter title asks. Is His grace sufficient?

I believe it is. And I’ll tell you why.

If you haven’t endured infidelity in your marriage, I’m in awe of you. Maintaining your marriage vows in this day and age is nothing short of a miracle, in my opinion. I’m a firm believer that you get out of something what you put into it. I find it almost amusing when I hear that someone has “fallen out of love” with his or her spouse. That statement is ridiculous to me.

There are different seasons in marriage. Some are amazing and wonderful and fun, and others are hard and uncomfortable and sad. That is just life. We must accept it. And we must pour more of ourselves into the seasons that are difficult. That’s where the rubber meets the road.

Have you heard of someone who has started to experience romantic feelings for someone other than his or her spouse? Maybe things aren’t quite up to par at home and someone else comes along and says the right things. What started out innocent turns into more. This person no longer pours into his or her marriage because of the obvious distraction that has entered his or her life. I guess you would “fall out of love” in this case.

Society feeds us dangerous ideas in these situations, such as: “If it doesn’t work out for you anymore, get a divorce.” Now before you assume that I’m implying that all marriages should stay together, think again. I’m simply talking about people who quit investing in their own marriages because newer, fresher models come along. While it may be invigorating for a time, what is going to happen when yet another model comes along in a few years? And then another, and another. It’s like I tell my friends: there will always be someone more attractive than me who will come into my husband’s life one way or another, and vice versa. But our commitment is there to each other through thick and thin.

So if His grace is sufficient, what does that mean to you?

Before I attempt to give you an answer, let me share with you the passage to which I am referring:

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

I’m far from a theologian, but this does not sound like fun to me at all! A thorn in the flesh that won’t go away? Ouch. A messenger of Satan? Get out of town.

In order to help me understand this passage more so that I could then relate it to others, I decided to embark upon a little research journey. My first stop was a more recent paraphrase of the Bible that has proven to help people like me understand God’s Word better.

Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that and then he told me, “My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.” Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size – abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. The Message

Reading that version of the Bible helped me understand the passage so much more. Even so, there was still a part where I really needed more clarity: “My grace is sufficient for you.” I know what each word in the phrase means individually, but all together they were causing confusion. I had yet to find the words I needed to impart this Biblical truth to others. So I did what any normal person would do when he or she wants to get to the bottom of something she doesn’t understand.

I looked it up.

Good old Webster defines grace as unmerited, divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification. Here is how I reworded the phrase to help me better grasp what God was trying to say to me: My unmerited, divine assistance given to you is enough.

My final effort to gain more insight into this passage of Scripture led me to a commentary entitled The Daily Bible Study Series by William Barclay. I knew that here I would read something that would resonate within me. This happened as I read the following:

Paul prayed that it (thorn) might be taken from him, but God answered that prayer as he answers so many prayers – he did not take the things away but gave Paul strength to bear it. That is how God works. He does not spare us things, but makes us able to conquer them.

I often feel uncomfortable when people approach me with accolades that I feel I don’t deserve. Many are in awe that I could have remained in my marriage to a man who hurt me so deeply. Others find it encouraging that I was willing to risk my heart, yet again, in order to make my marriage work. It’s as if people think I was a pillar of strength from the beginning. I wasn’t. And while I am secure in my new life and relationship with Chris, it took some time to get to this place. A particular story comes to mind when I remember the road I’ve traveled.

Take This Cup, Please

It was January 2003. It had been eleven months since Chris’ confession to me. Our marriage was healing, one day at a time, and we, as a family, were on the mend. But there was still one thing looming over us.

A baby.

By this time the baby was six months old. We had not seen him or even sent a dime to his mother. We were waiting on DNA tests to prove what deep inside both Chris and I knew was true.

Chris and I were talking on that cold January afternoon, and our conversation inevitably went to his new son and ex-mistress. He had gotten to a place where he was talking about the baby a little more and discussing our future with him. Times like these sent me over the edge emotionally. It was still so fresh to me, and because of that, I usually ended up in tears. This particular day, I not only began to cry, but I also left the house and went for a walk…in freezing temperatures and Oklahoma wind. Not a good combination. As I walked around my block, tears streamed down my face and I began to bargain with God.

“Please don’t let Chris be the father!” I begged.
“My grace is sufficient for you,” God gently replied to my heart.
“I can’t handle this pain! I don’t want to walk this road!” I demanded as if I had some sort of authority.
“It’s not about you, Cindy,” came God’s spiritual sandpaper.
“I just can’t do this. It’s too hard. It hurts too bad,” I said with a defeated spirit.
“MY grace is sufficient for you. MY power is going to be made perfect in YOUR weakness,” came God’s final reply to me on that dreary afternoon.

I walked back into our warm home, fell to my knees, and wept uncontrollably in my husband’s arms. Moved to tears, he held me and just allowed me to grieve over what I didn’t deserve to lose. Chris listened intently as I told him about the conversation I had with God on my walk. After a few hours of digesting the encounter I experienced with my Heavenly Father, I realized what He was saying to me. Applying 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, here is what God clearly spoke to my heart:

Cindy,
I know things are going really great for you and Chris now. It’s been a long time coming. I am so happy for you. But, I also need to let you know that in order for your husband to continue on this path and walk in freedom, I must give him a reminder. This reminder will be in the form of a child. I had to do it this way. This baby is hard for you to take right now, I realize. I know that you are in pain. But if you’ll trust me, I will bless you beyond measure for staying on this path. And I promise that one day you’ll see this baby as the blessing I created him to be. -God

Have you ever hurt so badly that you would be willing to do anything to take away the pain? Have you begged God to help ease the pain to where it was simply bearable? If you have, you are certainly not alone. Not only can I identify with you, but so can innumerable others. Sometimes life just isn’t fair.

If you haven’t found His grace to be sufficient yet, you will. Why can I say that so confidently? Because I know that God’s Word is true, and He tells us that his grace is sufficient. You see, there are over sixty-six chapters written by over forty authors on three continents over a 1,500-year span and so on and so on…all for the sole purpose of leading mankind to their Creator.

No matter what storm you are weathering in your life at this time, rest assured God is ready and waiting for you to utilize the unmerited, divine assistance that He has made available to you. Trust Him to work the thorn in your side for your good. I promise you won’t be sorry.