God is not still speaking. He speaks through the completed Word of God. However, He did speak through the apostles, and the Apostle Paul said that God told Him, which means He did, in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “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 was going through some kind of difficulty or suffering, and rather than take it away, this is what God told him. The word “sufficient” is the Greek, arkei, meaning, it’s enough. Even though you have trouble, you’ll have enough grace. God does not promise to take that all away, which is one current contemporary lie, that God guarantees comfort, success, satisfaction, prosperity, and perfect health in this lifetime. God (and Satan) knows that you wouldn’t need Him for anything. God’s message is one of suffering and grace. God wants us humble and uses suffering to humble us. God uses suffering to help us be close to Him. He uses suffering to reveal His character through us. One of the greatest testimonies Christians have ever had in history is when they’re persecuted. Then the persecution of the saints, the blood of the martyrs becomes a seed of the Lord’s church. God raises His grace in your life for you to be able to endure. We can’t know God’s grace, we see according to Paul, without the revelatory instrument of difficulty and suffering. It’s easy to be a Christian when times are good, but difficulty shows off God.