Is Jesus Enough?

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.     —2 Corinthians 12:9

This past week, I heard two statements that got into my head upsetting my spirit. Difficult questions stalked me for days. Is there hope? One person, alienated from friends, family, children, and a productive life in general, asked the question, “Is there hope?” Is hope something that drives you with a passion to get through anything or is hope a carrot dangled in the face of the desperate?

A second person, after years of leading the life of the prodigal son, ruining his life, body, and prospects for a future, hopes that God will show him a way to a new life and independence. Is there hope for him? Is there hope for you and me?

We all face trials and challenges; some never seem to go away. When will my children grow up and become responsible adults? Will this depression and anxiety ever leave me? Will I survive the cancer that seeks to destroy my body? I need a job. Does anyone care? Is there hope amid these questions? Is Jesus enough?

The missionary and evangelist, Paul, asked the Lord three times to remove a thorn in the flesh. This fleshly thorn may have been some physical challenge, disease, or emotional scar. Scripture does not tell us, but Paul prayed to God for deliverance. Our Lord’s response was not what we would expect. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God responded by saying, “No. I am not going to remove this burden, but I am enough for you.”

Paul, who gave up everything to travel the world proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ received the message and lived it. He responded, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

To Paul, Jesus was enough. He gave up everything for the sake of gaining Christ. He goes on to write, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).

According to Paul and Christians down through the ages, Jesus is enough. Jesus gives grace and strength to cope with the trials of this present life. His grace is sufficient. Jesus, as the firstborn again from the dead, also promises to give us life with Him for all eternity. We live in hope for this life into the next. Jesus is enough, we can trust Him.

We can’t compare our life to others’. To some, hope is rewarded in this life with miraculous deliverance. To others, God says, “Trust me in this. I am the same yesterday, today and forever. I will be with you now and forever.” We may never receive the same job, health, family, or peace that the person next door has, but Jesus is enough. Enough for this life and enough for all eternity.