Daily Bread 2010 2 Corinthians 12
7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But 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. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
This is the classic “thorn in the flesh” passage, where Paul describes a struggle that God allowed in his life, which ended up teaching Paul about the depth and all-sufficiency of God’s grace. There have been many speculations about what that thorn was, but frankly I am okay with the fact that we don’t know what it was. This helps all of us to relate to the passage through our own “thorn in the flesh”.
The “flesh” is that part of us that is still subject to the whims of the world and the craving and desires of it. We will battle against our flesh all the days of our lives until Jesus takes us home. The flesh is that part of us that insists on doing it our way, and is not able to surrender over parts of our lives because we don’t trust God enough. Paul wasn’t happy about having a thorn in the flesh, in fact he pleaded with the Lord three times (and maybe more!) for Him to take it away. The purpose it says was to keep Paul from being conceded as a result of the extraordinary experiences He had with Jesus. Ie. Visions, revelations etc..
The key principle in this was that when Paul was weak in the flesh, it caused him to have to reach out and hold on to God’s grace. He got to the end of his rope of human striving to become right with God and had to reach out to God’s amazing grace. Paul realized full well what a “wretch” he was (cf Romans 7), but concluded that in that realization was the key to surrendering “self improvement” and “self promotion” and become reliant on Christ alone.
Do you have a thorn in the flesh? Is there something that you keep confessing over and over and feel ashamed because it has beaten you down so many times? Does it sometimes make you doubt if you are a real believer? Does it make you question the sincerity of your faith commitment? Trust me, we all experience this, even we pastors! In fact, I think my greatest strength as a pastor comes when I acknowledgement my thorn in the flesh and turn to Christ for help. Each of my weaknesses help me to turn to Christ and say I can’t do this on my own.
How about you? Are you willing to say to God and Jesus, take this thorn from me, and I will rely on your all sufficient grace alone? I pray you can do that and see the release of the burden you carry and experience the peace of Christ which passes all understanding.
You can do that in a simple prayer…
“Lord I have tried many times to conquer this thorn in my flesh. I can’t do it anymore. I give up. I turn to you for the grace which is sufficient for me in Christ. Release your grace in my life so by your strength and power I can serve you with a renewed heart and spirit. Send your Holy Spirit to release me from the bondage of the flesh, so I can walk anew in that same Holy Spirit to live a life that glorifies and reflects your all sufficient grace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
This is the classic “thorn in the flesh” passage, where Paul describes a struggle that God allowed in his life, which ended up teaching Paul about the depth and all-sufficiency of God’s grace. There have been many speculations about what that thorn was, but frankly I am okay with the fact that we don’t know what it was. This helps all of us to relate to the passage through our own “thorn in the flesh”.
The “flesh” is that part of us that is still subject to the whims of the world and the craving and desires of it. We will battle against our flesh all the days of our lives until Jesus takes us home. The flesh is that part of us that insists on doing it our way, and is not able to surrender over parts of our lives because we don’t trust God enough. Paul wasn’t happy about having a thorn in the flesh, in fact he pleaded with the Lord three times (and maybe more!) for Him to take it away. The purpose it says was to keep Paul from being conceded as a result of the extraordinary experiences He had with Jesus. Ie. Visions, revelations etc..
The key principle in this was that when Paul was weak in the flesh, it caused him to have to reach out and hold on to God’s grace. He got to the end of his rope of human striving to become right with God and had to reach out to God’s amazing grace. Paul realized full well what a “wretch” he was (cf Romans 7), but concluded that in that realization was the key to surrendering “self improvement” and “self promotion” and become reliant on Christ alone.
Do you have a thorn in the flesh? Is there something that you keep confessing over and over and feel ashamed because it has beaten you down so many times? Does it sometimes make you doubt if you are a real believer? Does it make you question the sincerity of your faith commitment? Trust me, we all experience this, even we pastors! In fact, I think my greatest strength as a pastor comes when I acknowledgement my thorn in the flesh and turn to Christ for help. Each of my weaknesses help me to turn to Christ and say I can’t do this on my own.
How about you? Are you willing to say to God and Jesus, take this thorn from me, and I will rely on your all sufficient grace alone? I pray you can do that and see the release of the burden you carry and experience the peace of Christ which passes all understanding.
You can do that in a simple prayer…
“Lord I have tried many times to conquer this thorn in my flesh. I can’t do it anymore. I give up. I turn to you for the grace which is sufficient for me in Christ. Release your grace in my life so by your strength and power I can serve you with a renewed heart and spirit. Send your Holy Spirit to release me from the bondage of the flesh, so I can walk anew in that same Holy Spirit to live a life that glorifies and reflects your all sufficient grace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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