Grace enough

My father-in-law was born in 1900 in south Russia. As a very young man, he was conscripted by the Russian army as an interpreter. (He knew 7 languages in his lifetime.) He saw atrocities he never told us about. But there is one he spoke of.
In 1967, he and Mom attended the World Conference of Mennonites in the Netherlands. During an intermission, he looked across the auditorium and caught the eye of a somewhat familiar-looking man. They kept glancing at each other, eyes meeting frequently enough that Dad finally got up and went over to the man to see how they might know each other. It turns out that he was a man that Dad had seen tortured in Russia. He had had wood splinters jammed under his fingernails, and these were then set on fire. He had had fingernails pulled out with pliers. And more. During the whole thing, he only smiled at his tormentors.
Now decades later, Dad looked at the man's deformed fingers and asked him how he had been able to tolerate it. The man answered, "I had a promise in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that I would never be tested beyond what I could endure, and that there would be a way of escape so that I could bear it. And during all that torture, I never felt a thing!  There was no pain!  God was faithful to His promise."
I have sometimes wondered, as probably many of you have, whether I would be able to stand true to my faith if I were persecuted. I feel the answer is that God will give grace for every situation. I have grace that I need today, and He will not fail me in the times of testing which, I believe, will certainly come in our nation.  Here's a quote from a Joyce Meyer devotional:  "God will always give you the grace (favor and power) that you need, but you can't store it up and put it in a bank.  Trust God for help one step at a time."

There's an old hymn called "He Giveth More Grace" and these are the lyrics:

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater.
He sendeth more strength when the labours increase.
To added afflictions, He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father's full giving is only begun.

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power has no boundary known unto men.
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth and giveth and giveth again.

We may all have heard grace defined as undeserved favour. It is that, certainly, but more. Vine's Expository Dictionary does define it as "that which bestows or occasions pleasure, delight, or causes favorable regard...lovingkindness, goodwill generally...in this respect there is stress on its freeness and universality, ...thus it is set in contrast with debt, ...with works, ...with law" but also it means "the power and equipment for ministry" as in, for instance, Ephesians 3:7:  "I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace give me through the working of His power".
But check out Romans 1:5 - There's grace for obedience.
Acts 20:32 - There's grace to build us up and give us an inheritance.
Romans 3:24 - His grace justifies us.
1 Corinthians 15:10 - It wasn't Paul, but God's grace doing the labour.
2 Corinthians 8:7 - Here Paul is referring to the grace of giving and generosity.
2 Corinthians 9:8 - Grace abounds to give us provision for every good work. Not just sufficient, but abundant also.
2 Corinthians 12:9 - Grace is related to His strength in us when we only have weakness.
2 Thessalonians 2:16 - We were given everlasting consolation and good hope by grace.
Titus 2:11-14 - Grace teaches us how to live.
Hebrews 13:9 - Grace strengthens our hearts.
And we can't leave out one of my all-time favourite verses, Hebrews 4:16 - "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Grace helps when we need help. 

Lean on His constant, over-the-top, more-than-enough supply of grace, my friends. He never fails us.