The Three Pillars of Grace Pt 6

When someone makes a claim that there are a number of elements in some process or event, often, people are conditioned to look at the numeric values as a hierarchy of importance. Therefore, “one” becomes the most important, followed by a cascading of lesser important points. My claim of there being three pillars to grace could tend to allow these writings to fall into this trap. However, the builder inside of me has a more stable purpose in making this claim.

For a moment, picture a 3-legged stool. This is the sturdiest device to sit upon because the position of the legs allows for a natural balance on any surface. If you have ever sat on an uneven surface in a 4-legged chair, you can relate to the rocking effect which happens with one leg unable to reach equilibrium with the other three. In this example, three is what is necessary to create stability; no one is more vital than the other as they each act as “one” in the effort to support the whole. With this as a backdrop, allow me to begin to develop the three pillars of grace.

The First Pillar of Grace

This first pillar will be difficult for many of you to accept and will take some time to meditate and contemplate upon. This first pillar became the ultimate revelation which Paul discovered in his ministry to the Gentiles. The first pillar is that grace is sufficient for you.

Sufficient is in many ways a word which evokes gloom. A crust of bread or thimble of water is “sufficient” after all if you’re hungry and thirsty. Deprivation is attached to “sufficient” simply due to our desire for bigger and better…things; things someone told us we needed to be…anything but sufficient.

Look, I cut my “Christian” teeth on the prosperity message, so I know all about “God wants you to be prosperous,” which most think means be rich with loads of money, houses, cars, boats, and planes. No one preaches that God want you to be “sufficient.” Sufficient in not in the prosperous community vocabulary because to them it means quitting, no longer striving for the best God has for you. But God said, “My grace is sufficient for you…” How isn’t grace His best for me?

I stated a few posts back that grace has to do first with the spiritual realm and then the material realm. Religion forces people to look at the material realm first and what is happening within it in order to enter into the spiritual realm. Grace is spiritual and cascades into the material not the other way around.

So why do people have difficulty in accepting the sufficiency of grace? I’d like to say it’s because of their poverty mindset but this hearkens back to the prosperity message. Actually, it has to do with their thoughts of lack. Think of every situation where you haven’t felt able to handle the moment. How often was it because you felt you lacked something? Be serious. Money, education, skill, people, resources, health, on and on it goes. The thoughts of lack overwhelmed you and made you turn to the god of your creation for help.

You read that right. Your created god. The “Santa Claus” god, or “Alfred, the butler” god, or on rare occasions, the “Helen Keller” god. Lack makes us do strange things with our gods. We plead, cajole, crawl about like a whimpering baby, demand, command, concede and then ignore to go find some other substitute for the situation. We made lack an enemy that only a god can overcome, and we know just how to tell this god to do it.

With this lack-luster mindset we fail to recognize how all things are possible with God; the God who can do all things exceedingly, abundantly, above all you can think, do, or imagine; the same God who knows you’re sufficient in His grace because He is made strong in your weakness!

Oh yeah, there’s the rub, the condition to grace, right? You must be weak. That is a claim of lack, people! You lack strength, God doesn’t; grace served upon your admission. Seriously, do you truly think God doesn’t know what your strength is?

Take a moment to consider what I declared about what the bible says: All things are possible with God = sufficient grace; The God who can do exceedingly = sufficient grace; Abundantly = sufficient grace; Above all = sufficient grace; You can think, do, or imagine = sufficient grace.

Honestly, the only thing we lack is the revelation of how sufficient we are in His grace. Once this comes upon you, you will begin to understand the life Jesus lived is possible in your life too. Then, loaves and fishes takes on a whole new meaning.