Grace is enough: What is enough?

We sing a song at church called "Your grace is enough" written by Chris Tomlin and Matt Maher. I enjoy singing this song a great deal but I don't feel the congregation does. Usually when I lead out with this song there are very few voices singing along. So I have to ask my self; what's the problem? One answer may be that the song is not catchy enough, but that can't be true it is ranked very highly with ccli with many thousands of people singing this across the world. Another answer is that it may be too difficult to sing, but that can't be true because it has less interval spacing than happy birthday. So what is it about this song that leaves many mouths in neutral? Maybe it is our self concept of grace. I will explore this today as well as looking at our ability to understand what enough is.

Lets take a look at the founding scripture of this song in the message:

2 Corinthians 12:9 (The Message)

The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson


7-10Because 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.

A self concept is a composite view of feelings, beliefs or attitude that someone has about their identity, worth, capabilities and limitations. (http://www.birf.info/home/bi-tools/qlinks_s.html) With these attitudes we shape the information coming in to fit our personal concepts. It is like the expression "trying to put a square peg into a round hole" we often try to change the incoming information to match our receptors or the way we can perceive the information. Like paul we initially try to fit God into our small little hole of perception only to find out that it is impossible. Paul thought it was not a gift from God to have the injury he did, but God had answered him three times that His grace is enough. It was at that point when Christ's strength really came into more power in Paul's life. I could press on more in this but I want to simply state that I want more of Christ's strength in me, I want more of His strength in our church. The strength to hold us together in unity while we are moving in our new church project.

The second part of God's statement to Paul is a huge problem with our culture. The second part I'm referring to is the "it's all you need" part. My daughter today was upset because we got the other kids new boots but we did not get her any. Her boots we're perfectly fine and she loved them, but it wasn't until something new and shinny come into the house that she wanted to get rid of her trusted boots. From very young to very old we are enamored with items that are new. We can be often given over to jealousy and unrighteous buying habits because of our desire to have new things. I look at our new building we are getting and I can't help but wonder what attitude we are bringing into the place. Are we just excited because it is something new or do we really see it as something we really need. When we see that it is God's grace that is providing for us we are set up for victory. When we align ourselves with the fact that God is providing our need then we can separate our cultural desire for something new.


You can read Matt's bible study on this song at www.worshiptogether.com