Thorn in the Flesh

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 CORINTHIANS 12:9

Any time a storm arises, our first instinct is to ask God to take it away. Take away the hurt. Take away the betrayal. Take away the cancer. Take away the infidelity. Take away the gossip. Take away the unkind words. Take away the mistake that caused this storm in the first place.

Jesus asked the same thing of God the night before He was crucified: “… please take this cup of suffering away from me” (Luke 22:42 NLT). Please, God, take it away! But Jesus’ prayer didn’t end there, and neither should ours. Jesus continued: “… Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” God had a plan for the storm that Jesus found Himself in. God can use our storms too.

The Apostle Paul wrote that he asked God THREE TIMES to take away the “thorn in the flesh” that was causing him so much suffering. But there was so much of God’s power flowing through Paul that God refused to remove his weakness. God was essentially saying to him, “If I remove that weakness, people will begin to think of you as God, and you might get to the place where you believe it yourself.”

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:7–10).

Any time we think we are strong enough, smart enough, wealthy enough, connected enough—any time we think we are “enough” without God—we are saying that we don’t need Him in our lives. Yet, He uses our weaknesses, our failures, our faults, our storms to show Himself strong. Just look at the lives of some of the greatest preachers in history. George Whitfield, whose ministry led to the development of the Methodist Church, preached with asthma. Smith Wigglesworth, a great healing evangelist, suffered from kidney stones. Charles Spurgeon, prince of all preachers, died with gout before he turned sixty. Jonathan Edwards was so near-sighted that when he read his great sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” ink from the page rubbed off on his face and turned his nose black. None of these ministers of the Gospel had their thorns removed, but they didn’t let that stop them. They trusted God to be the strength in their weakness, grace where they needed it most, the rose among thorns.

PRAY THIS PRAYER:

God, You are the strength in my weakness. Your grace is sufficient for all my needs. Show me, Lord, what You want to teach me in this storm. Not my will, but Yours be done. In Jesus’ name; Amen.