Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh

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Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 (NIV)

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Devotion:

            Paul here is giving us guidance for what to do when we have some illness or hardship that God sees fit to let us suffer under. Prior to this Paul had been boasting of visions he had seen in the Lord. While we do not know what the precise “thorn” it was that he was afflicted with we do know from the context that it was enough to cause him to plead with God to take it away from him.

            Paul ultimately heard the Lord’s answer to his petition, and it was a divine no to his request. Therefore, Paul suffered from this undisclosed problem for the rest of his life. Paul learned an important lesson from this tribulation. That is that God’s grace would sustain him and allow him to flourish despite the hardship Paul faced day by day. The secret of power in weakness in the flesh that he might declare God’s power even more powerfully.

            The end result was that God’s power was proclaimed even more powerfully through the very weakness that God had allowed Satan to afflict Paul with. God’s grace was even more able to show forth God’s power through this condition. Paul could even boast about his weakness to others so that the power of God could be manifest within him.

            I have seen God work in similar ways in our own day and time. Here I can boast of all my weaknesses that keep me close to Christ. I rejoice in my sufferings as I know that God’s great power are made manifest in my weakness. The laundry list of my ailments I will not present to you, but I am daily beset with some form of illness. In the end these illnesses are a platform on which I show that God’s power is able to make me a more effective communicator of his love for all humankind. I see God at work in my life each day despite Satan’s continual barrage of arrows seeking to bring me down. I hold the shield of faith to quench all the fiery arrows of the evil. One,

            Each Christian is given their own personal thorn in the side. The more you proclaim Christ the worse the problems will be. I have seen over and over again the assault that the enemy of our souls seeks to work against those who proclaim Jesus is Lord. So be encouraged friend God loves you and will make sure that your witness to him is not diminished by the resistance he has for your message. Let us pray for God’s help in bearing with our weaknesses.

Prayer:

            Holy Lord, we thank you for the power of Christ that lives within us. We ask that you would minister in our weakness and disability that we may show forth your power and strength in us each day. Help us be faithful servants of you. May we rejoice in our weakness and give praise to you as the helper we need to make it through our challenges. Glory to you O Lord, may we proclaim your word in a lost and dying world, Amen.

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