2 Corinthians 12:9

2 Corinthians 12:9

I. After the fervours of the first love are abated, and after the sweet freshness has passed from the actings and strivings of the new-born soul, there often comes a coldness and a pause. The young soul, new to the ways of grace, does not understand, is bewildered, discouraged, in danger of falling into a practical unbelief. But the Lord says, "My grace is sufficient for thee." Your gospel is not any past experience nor any grand deliverance once for all. It is a present potency which will control all other powers, a present wisdom which will make a path of safety through all perplexities, a present love which will enfold and shelter you even if you stand amid a thousand griefs and fears.

II. A little farther on we meet with one whose beginning has long gone by. You had a calm and blissful time then; but now there has come a chilling and weakening change in your present mood it may seem almost a desolating change. The quickest and best way of recovery is the way of the text. The Lord is saying to you also, "My grace is sufficient for thee." Take hold of that, and you are safe. Keep fast hold of that, acting in everything like one who believes it true, and ere long the health and joy of other days will come back, and the roots of your faith will grip the soil again.

III. The softening shadow of the text will come over the soul that is in trouble. Let every sufferer, whether by the body, or the mind, or the circumstances, hear for himself and gauge all his trouble while he hears; then let him apply the sure word of promise to its lengths, and breadths, and depths, and heights; then let him carry it home to the aged, the sick, the feeble, and to all whom it may concern, as the word of a God who cannot lie, as the assurance of a Saviour who cannot but pity and help, as the title to a legacy of which they are all made heirs, if they will only claim and inherit, as a shelter for every path, an assuagement for every sorrow, a sweet soul-secret for life and for death to every trusting soul, however troubled: "My grace is sufficient for thee."

A. Raleigh, Quiet Resting Places , p. 201

References: 2 Corinthians 12:9 . J. Vaughan, Sermons, 6th series, p. 13, Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1287; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 309; G. Calthrop, Pulpit Recollections, p. 162; A. Reed, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 489; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 337; Preacher's Monthly, vol. iii., p. 350; Obbard, Plain Sermons, p. 164; A. Macleod, Days of Heaven upon Earth, p. 78; S. Macnaughton, Real Religion and Real Life, p. 108.