Wednesday, March 11, 2015
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Often when I speak at a church, there is like a question and answer time at the end of my talk. There was this one time when the questions ranged from things about our ministry, to questions about how to reach lost people, to my family; it was a little bit of everything. Well, one man in the back asked an amusing question. He said, "Where do you get all this energy?" Well, I have been accused of being the Energizer Bunny.
But the ironic thing is that when I came into that church that night I was totally depleted from a very heavy weekend of ministry. I was actually wishing I could just go to my room and sleep. I didn't want to be there. In fact, I even told the pastor, "The meeting isn't going to be very long. I'm just too exhausted." It went for two hours. Physically I think I must just have deep reservoirs of adrenaline.
Now, adrenaline is our friend at times when we just don't have what it takes physically to meet the demands of the moment. It's that amazing substance that you don't have when you don't need it but that surges into your system at just the moment you do need it. And you're able to do things that, if I'd asked you earlier, you'd say, "No, I could never do that."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Grace to Match Your Need."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 9:8. "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need you will abound in every good work." Well, there it is - grace; the spiritual adrenaline of God.
People have been known to do amazing things when they are in the middle of an emergency, physically speaking. I mean, they've been able to lift incredible weight, even fight off someone who was much stronger than they were, because the adrenaline rush empowered them in a way that they were never empowered before.
The God who invented adrenaline to give us resources to match our moment also invented grace to accomplish that same miracle. Grace could be defined as God's intervening power and love when you're running on empty. And God gives us this phenomenal comprehensive insurance policy. He says He'll give it to us "in all things, at all times, having all you need."
There will never be a situation where you will not have emotional and spiritual resources to match it. In fact, to more than match it. The word "abound" there is the same word used to describe the baskets full of leftovers after the feeding of the 5,000. It literally means having more than enough. In a situation that looks like you have nowhere near enough, Jesus will turn that into more than enough by releasing His grace adrenaline through your system. You might be nodding your head, because you're thinking of times it happened, right?
I touched that grace in a very powerful way in a single day. In the morning I talked with Greg. He and his wife were on the eve of the arrival of their first child, when the baby died in the womb. They had to go through the process of delivering a baby that was no longer alive. You can only imagine the pain in their hearts. I asked Greg, "How are you doing?" He said, "Well, so many people are praying. We can feel those prayers. We're hurting. But it's amazing, we're making it." There's only one explanation for that - strong grace.
That night I stood by the casket of a good friend who had died unexpectedly. As I talked with his wife and children, I was amazed at their poise and their strength. They'd lost a man they loved so much; a man I know they depended on a lot. But they were okay. And they told me about this strength that began to take over inside them; a strength that was more than they'd ever experienced before.
That's because they never needed it before. But when they needed it, it was there. It was God's spiritual adrenaline - strong grace. And that grace is there for you in the seemingly unbearable burden you may be facing right now. If you know Jesus, there may be some things in your life that are or will be almost unbearable. But because of His grace adrenaline there really is no such thing as unbearable.
His grace is always greater than your burden.