With everything going on in my life, I need the peace that comes with faith in God. God has told me the answer is to trust Him. The verse He has been giving me is: And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:9). The word power in that verse comes from the Greek word dunamis, and one meaning for dunamis is power for performing miracles. Another meaning for dunamis is inherent power which a person or thing exerts and puts forth. The word rest in that verse means to tent upon or abide with. So Paul was saying He would rather have the inborn (inherited / inherent) power of Christ abiding with him, than to have his infirmities healed. God was telling Paul, the grace purchased by Jesus Christ is adequate for the purpose. The power is inherited by the new birth – being reborn into the body of Christ. Paul said the “that the power of Christ my rest upon me.” The power of Christ both tents upon (covers) and abides with (dwells within in same tent). We dwell in the power and the power dwells in us (the earthly form being our tent). Can we trust God that His grace is adequate for the purposes (plans, needs, desires, etc.)?

We believe what our physical body tells us when it tells us we have pain and weakness in an area of our body. Can we trust God that His grace is adequate strength for our weaknesses? We dwell as much in the power of God as we do the physical body made from dirt. But we believe the dirt more than we believe that the grace of God is adequate. No matter what the dirt is telling us we can trust God. This is true also in the body of Christ – the Church. When we see a co-worker in Christ with a weakness in the dirt, do we believe the dirt or do we trust God that His grace is sufficient for our co-worker. If we do not trust for our brothers and sisters in Christ, can we really trust for our self? God, through our inheritance in Christ, has put the power in the tent (the body made of dirt); but we also dwell in a larger tent, the Christ (and Jesus did allow Himself to become made of dirt for us). Trust in the grace of God.

In our bodies of dirt, we have all sinned and fallen short of the grace of God. We did physical acts of sin that turned us away from God. In our physical thought process we feel a need to do physical acts to mend our relationship with God. But God has said, “My grace is sufficient for you.” The acts of One body made of dirt, named Jesus, purchased God’s grace for us all. We fell short of the grace (we didn’t have enough works to pay for our sins), so Jesus (the Son of God / a spiritual being) came as a man made of dirt and purchased grace for us. Can we trust that God’s grace is sufficient – that the price paid at the cross was enough? Do we feel that our observances of statutes and traditions are sufficient? Do we see a co-worker in Christ trust that God’s grace is sufficient, and make condemning statements towards them because they do not trust in statutes and traditions? Even adhering to the commandment to love one another is not sufficient, because we have already fallen short of God’s grace. We love one another because we trust that God’s grace is sufficient for us all.

And they overcame him (the accuser) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death (Revelation 12:11). In the verse from 2 Corinthians quoted above, Paul was testifying of the goodness of God in his own life. Paul used the words “me” and “I” and told of something God said to him. God told Paul that His grace was enough. Paul then wrote the words of his testimony for us to read. Paul even added his own comment about what God said. We need to share our testimonies. The verse in Revelation states that they over came by the word of their testimony. They shared the goodness of God in their own life, and they trusted God even unto their own death. They did not love the dirt more than God even if meant their death. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down (Revelation 12:10). God spoke of “strength” and Paul spoke of the “Power of His Christ” in 2 Corinthians 12:9. The “they” being spoken of in Revelation 12:11 is the Church – us. We need to testify of the goodness of God in our own lives.

If I trust God for my co-workers in Christ and for myself, the burden is no longer on me for my co-workers or for me. The peace of Christ can rest upon me even in my weakness and the sins of others or my own sins and infirmities no longer rule over me. The peace of God can rest upon me even when I have failed and fallen short of the grace, because we all have fallen short of the grace of God and God’s (gift of) grace is sufficient for us all. It takes more than my faith in God, because faith without works is dead. It takes trust in God to activate my faith. Out of the trust activated faith I can have His strength in my weakness (even the ability to forgive – practice grace). Out of the trust activated faith I can love the one another. Then my actions (works) come out of the trust activated faith I inherited when I was reborn into the Christ (the dwelling in the finished work of the cross). With everything going on in my life, I have the peace that comes with trust activated faith in God.

© 2011, Tim D. Coulter Sr.