Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

The Hebrew word for reins here is kilyah which by definition literally is the kidney veins and figuratively is the seat of emotions and affections. The kidney veins carry the blood to the  kidneys for removed of impurities. Think about that for a moment.

Try, as in trying the blood, is bachan in the Hebrews which means to examine, to scrutinize. So let us examine these verse from God’s point of view. Since God knows all things from the beginning to the end, He already has knowledge of the blood test.

When the doctor sends you to the lab for a blood draw to test your kidney function, do you know the results of the test before they come back? No, you don’t, but why did the doctor order the blood draw in the first place? Because you were symptomatic.

God knows you better than you know yourself. Now let us look at the placement of these verses in scripture. What Word did it follow?

Jeremiah 17:7-8 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

There is your nominal standard for your blood test. Now you can see how you measure up.

2 Corinthians 12:9 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.

Paul suffered and prayed for relief. This was Christ’s answer. Think about this, that as we spoke about John 1:16 indicating that we have all received the fullness of Christ, is that not sufficient grace? We have all we need and yet we ask for what we want. I understand Paul’s plight, we all suffer the indignity of living in a body that will fail in life’s course. That which is incorruptible abides in us in the form of Jesus Christ.

Relying on sufficient grace is tricky because this grace does so much for us, in us, that we tend to think it will do all things for us. Can and will are two very different issues. Paul’s suffering glorified God even though for a time it did not appear that way. I have seen sufficient grace in a cancer patient dying from the disease while ministering to fellow sufferers not to give up hope. His hope wasn’t in the doctors nor the chemo but rather the promises of God. The real power of sufficient grace isn’t in those moments when everything is right in the world. It is when everything around you screams give up.

Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

Sufficient grace kept Job from surrendering to his wife’s taunts. She used the word integrity to slander Job but it might have been his integrity that held sufficient grace firmly within his soul so as not to give in while everything around him was lost.