I hope all of us are enjoying and benefitting from this new series of messages about getting real. As Christians, we are prone to hide behind high-sounding doctrines or flowery liturgy. There are even times we fail to get real about our struggles, the condition of our soul and life’s relentless challenges that constantly hit us. But although we’re mere earthen vessels, the Bible tells us that we can be more than conquerors through Christ. God does not want us to be overwhelmed by the struggles of our lives, neither does He want us to pretend we have the solution to all our problems. God wants us to get real. To get real is to be absolutely honest with ourselves concerning the complexities of living. Yes, we don’t always have the answers. Yes, we’re not always on top of every issue. What we do have is God’s grace, which is always sufficient for us.
Apostle Paul shows us what true honesty is in 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 (NIV) when he said, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
Apostle Paul was able to make this statement because in 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV), God assured him that “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, Apostle Paul got real and declared, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Church, it’s time to get real and boast in the sufficiency of God’s grace and the efficacy of God’s power in our life and ministry. As declared in one of the songs we frequently sing: “Christ is enough for me.”
- Senior Pastor Lawrence Khong