As a Christian, I have heard the phrase “thorn in the flesh” referred to in several ways.  The most obvious was about the Apostle Paul in verse 7 of chapter 12.  Here is one of those unanswered trivials…what was his “thorn”.  Here are a few opinions:
 It was a headache. It was epilepsy.  It was a recurrent malarial fever. It was all the adversaries of the Word. It was fleshly temptation.  It was a spiritual temptation. It was infirmities of the mind. It was lustful thoughts. It was acute, disfiguring ophthalmia. It was the false teachers.  It was blasphemous thoughts of the devil. It was Malta fever.  Or perhaps…It was a man on the Jerusalem council.
 

It would be a shame however if I were to focus all our attention on that curious statement.  It would totally miss what Paul is saying.  Who knows what his thorn was, what he meant was, that his weakness kept him humble and reliant upon God.  “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (vs. 10b)
 

What I received from this part of chapter 12 was what I saw written in red: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (vs. 9)  In my life, that has meant that in the times I am forced to do nothing on my own, but to rely completely on the Lord…He is then glorified.  I can’t number the times I have done things my way and thought I was pleasing Him.  Then I turn around and see how He has used something I consider a weakness, to use in me to bring about His mission.  There are also those times when I am weak in heart…when I call out to the Lord in frustration or emptiness.  Remembering His grace towards me and how it can be enough….that He can work in and through whatever I am in to do His will.  Often times I can look back and see how if I were not weak…I would have missed His blessing or His power. 
 

In a world where weakness is not appealing, our relationship with the Lord really does require us to be weak towards Him.  Humble, willing to be used, open, offering up the good and the bad and saying…please use me however to show Yourself to all around me.
 

Perhaps you are in a weak time.  Or you struggle with something in your life that you label as a weakness.  Offer that to the Lord.  You may be incredibly surprised what God can do when he has the controls and makes something beautiful out of it because you are willing to trust Him and let Him.  I’m sure speaking to myself here too!  May we all boast about our weaknesses so that others can see a glimpse of the awesome power of God in our lives!
 

Thank you God for your grace.  That it is sufficient, enough and all that I need in my time of weakness.  Thank you for my thorns.  Though they hurt or bother or confuse me, please remind me to offer them to You, so that You can show Your power.  Thank you God that You allow these thorns to keep me humble and to remind me who is in control.  Thank You that You love me enough to allow thorns and that You are with me amidst the discomfort.  And that in my weakness Your power is made perfect.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 8:55 pm and is filed under Daily Readings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.