God's Grace Abounds

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:” (2Co 9:8 AV)

What a statement!  The word ‘abound’ means to exceed a fixed number of measure.  This means the God of all things is able to give grace above what we could possibly measure.  This makes sense.  A God who is without bounds would have grace that has no measure.  The directness is what speaks to my heart.  Although Paul may have been speaking to a church, individuals enjoy the promise.  The evidence of the unmeasurable grace of God is the ability to abound to every good work because we have all sufficiency in all things.  Putting this together, this means if we feel we cannot live as the LORD would have us to, it is because we have not availed ourselves of the grace that is freely given.  For grace to be grace, it must be unconditional.  This suggests all grace abounds at the pleasure of God and not because of something we did to deserve it.  This also suggests grace is given to those in need of it.  Otherwise, grace would not be given.

We are gearing up for the holidays.  Our church is trying something new this year.  We are going to build a float to ride in the annual Christmas parade.  Last year, my wife and I went to see what was expected and whether our little church could pull it off.  We stood at the end of our street with thousands of other people.  There were probably at least sixty to seventy floats with another fifty or so groups.  The parade took two hours.   It was rather long.  The tradition is for those marching in the parade to throw candy at the kids as they pass by.  One can imagine how much candy there was.  For about 100-125 different groups to be throwing candy, there wasn’t a spit on the ground that was barren of the sweets.  Sucker, sweet tarts, and tootsie rolls were everywhere.  If a child went home with empty pockets, it wasn’t for the lack of candy.

This verse is one that is important to remember when we doubt our ability to live in faith and obedience.  God promises He will give grace sufficient to our needs.  Not only will He give it, but it will abound.  What a promise!