His grace is sufficient

And He said to me,"My grace is sufficient for you,for My strength is made perfect in weakness."Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities,that the power of Christ may rest upon me.Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities,in reproaches,in needs,in persecutions,in distresses,for Christ's sake.For when I am weak, then I am strong.- 2Corinthians12:9-10

Paul was harassed by a "messenger" from Satan and Paul asked God to deliver him from this messenger three times.The answer from God was He grace was sufficient for him. I personally believe Paul later just cast the evil spirit away from this messenger and she was muted from that moment forth. 

Many a times we cry out to God to deliver us out of our predicaments and yet at the same time we are trusting our effort to solve the problem. We probably would have tried all that we know and exhausted possibly every resource that we had. Yet those self effect usually didn't amount to anything good. Instead it usually casued us to be more fearful of the future and to be stressed  unnecessarily and eventually burnt out. That's what happen when we look to our own strength to solve our worrisome situation.

When we look to God and simply trust Him, the result will be timely and very good for it is of the Lord. The bible tells us the children of Israel had fresh manna every morning during their wondering years in the wilderness. God supplied the manna each and every single day without fail. His grace was sufficient during the forty years of wondering. And when they wanted meat, God rained quail on the land so that they just needed to reach out and had quail meat! 

When the children of Israel wanted water to drink, God caused water to flow of of a rock. They were not under the law for the law was not given yet. They were living under the grace of God! Every need during the wondering years was met. During the day Good appeared as a pillar of cloud to cool the land and during the night Good appeared as a pillar of fire to warm the land as it would be very cold in the night. 

We are to look to God for providence. Jesus has accomplished whatever that is required to redeem us from this world. All that we need in this world have been provided by God. We just trust and rest in His finished work at the cross. His grace will always be sufficient. When we see Him in His grace, He sees us in our faith. Rest at Jesus' feet and receive from Him for He loves to supply to us. Whatever the need may be, go to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith. Men may fail us but Jesus will never fail. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hallelujah.  

Why is it so hard for Christians to believe God?

Then they told him, and said: "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. - Numbers 13:27-28

When the spies came back from Canaan, only Caleb and Joshua believed God and told the children of Israel they were more than able to take the land for God was with them. The other ten gave them a very negative report that there were giants in the land and that they were like grasshoppers compared with them. The other ten simple just didn't believe God was good and as a result of their unbelief they would not enter the promised land.

The twelve spies obviously spied out the same promised land which the God has given to them. Yet only Caleb and Joshua believed God and gave the children of Israel a good report. Why the disparity of views?

I believe Caleb and Joshua had a very good opinion of God and they put their trust in God and that God will bring them into the promised land in spite of the giants in the land. They simply believed the word that God has spoken to them. They put their trust in God!

The other ten spies looked at their own "weakness" instead on looking unto God who had delivered them from Eqypt. They focused on their small-ness instead of the largeness of God. They put their trust in their own "dis"-abilities instead of God infinite ability. They simply look to themselves for help instead of resting in the love of God for them.

What happened then is a lesson for us to learn. We are not to look at ourselves for our own providence for there is nothing good coming out of one's own strength. We are not to focus on our challenges and problems but look to the Lord who is more than willing to deliver us out of our predications. He is a loving God who never fails. His timing is always perfect. Our every battle belongs to the Lord!

The moment we look to our own strength to overcome the negative circumstances, it will never produce good result. And it will cause us to be stressed out and burnt out and fall into self-condemnation. Also, somethings we become proud and forget the presence of the Lord. Sometimes we even forget our own identity in Christ! 

Therefore, we are to look to Jesus for our every need. Look at His grace towards us. Focus on His love for us and personalize that love so much that it becomes very real in our lives. Cultivate the presence of the Lord constantly. Commune with Him regularly for He loves to commune with us. Listen to His word. Read His word. It is easy to believe God when we are full of Jesus in our lives. Keep building on that faith and we shall find believing in God becomes second nature.