“I could never go through something like that.”

“What if it happens to me?”

“How do you cope? I’d never be able to. I’m not strong enough.”

“I don’t know how you do it. I wouldn’t be able to keep going.”

The aftermath of a broken home is a painful place. In the months that followed our family’s tragedy, these comments were made to me by women in my church—most of them with fear in their eyes that betrayed the fear in their hearts.

They had seen what happened to me and were terrified it would happen to them. And if it did, they didn’t think they could make it.

They looked at me like I was some kind of super-woman.

But I wasn’t.

I’m not.

I’m just an ordinary woman who has faith in an all-sufficient God Who gives the grace I need day by day.

So this is what I told them, what I still tell those who ask me how I make it through the hard days:

“You never have to be afraid that God won’t give you enough grace for whatever trial you face. He doesn’t give the grace you need until you need it. But when that day comes, when the storm is raging and the trials are bearing down on you, that’s when He gives the grace you need.”

God has never given me grace to fight cancer.

He’s never given me the grace to bury a spouse. 

Or the grace to endure a house fire, a tornado, or a car accident.

Why? He doesn’t give me grace for these things because I haven’t needed it.

But He has given me grace to move my children from one country to another, grace while searching for a job and new home, grace to work long hours, grace during lean times, and grace to keep smiling when my heart was breaking.

God gave me grace upon grace upon grace. He never failed to give the grace I needed the moment in which I needed it.

In Deuteronomy 29:5, we are told in the forty years that the Israelites were in the wilderness, their clothes and shoes never became old. Imagine that—not having to buy clothes for forty years! They also never had to worry about planting, harvesting, or preparing food in all that time. God fed them manna from heaven daily.

However, once the Israelites reached Canaan, their clothes lost the super-powers. Their food supply from heaven stopped.

Why? Why didn’t God keep providing miraculous food and clothes that never wore out?

Because they were in the Promised Land, and they didn’t need these miracles of grace any longer.

And so it is with us. God doesn’t give us grace for things that will never happen to us. He gives what we need, when we need it.

To you who are going through a trial, a storm, a heartbreak today:

God will give you the grace to bear, the provisions you need, the strength to go on.

And to you who are worried about the future:

Rest easy. God’s got all your days in His hands.

And when the storms start to blow in, His grace will begin to rain down.

There will always be enough grace.

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (II Corinthians 12:9)

 

 

For ordering information on my devotional book, Tales from Toddlers, click HERE.

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