His grace is not sufficient if we are obstinate...!

When God assured Paul , "My grace is sufficient for you", we need to clearly define the terms of God's promise. For example, it cannot mean that a believer will always remain in God's perfect will so as to receive that kind of assurance, no matter what he does. Let's remember that the promise was given for a very specific request from Paul and God saw it fit not to answer Paul in the way he wanted. God was declaring that the answer lies in accepting your condition and learning to live with it since I initiated it, in the first place. Surely that phrase cannot be taken to mean you will never end up in distress because God's grace will always keep you from harm or difficulty. My grace is sufficient for you is a promise that God gives us at times when He is working out something very specific in our lives. This is not a general promise for all time and for any season. There are many occasions in our lives that because of our foolhardiness, we end up not receiving the grace of God. Instead mercy pulls us out and we also have a scar to show our wounds. My grace is sufficient for you has to be qualified with a unspoken condition - 'if you are already abiding in me and have yielded yourself fully to me.'
 Another promise about temptation has to be seen in similar light...

It is the other way around!

In Eph 5 verse 18, we have this portion where we are exhorted to be filled with the Spirit and then Paul writes about what it implies. We are to sing and make melody and be thankful. Now this singing etc, is the evidence not only of being filled with the Spirit but also being rich in His Word as mentioned in Col 3:16.

First of all, I want you to observe that the 'filling' mentioned here is not the same Greek word for 'being filled with the Holy Spirit' and empowered as mentioned in the book of Acts repeatedly. So this filling is more of a rich experience in the Spirit rather than being empowered to heal or deliver or any such. It is more of being full in proportion rather than filled to perform.

Secondly, the usual flow of thought when we read that portion in Eph is that the singing happens because we are filled from above. My contention is that since it is mentioned in Col too, the singing is not the evidence of being filled. We have to see it the other way round. When we sing and rejoice and have a thankful heart, we are actually moving towards a fuller experience in the Spirit. We are allowing Him to fill our lives. And so it is with the Word of God as well. When we use the psalms etc, and begin to admonish one another, we are allowing the Word to richly dwell within us. This is not a intellectual knowledge of the Word of God but rather, a rich active movement of the Word of God in us.