THE GIFT: A STAKE


Related image I am finishing up 2 Corinthians and my focus today is on 12:7-10.  The Holy Spirit brought several thoughts to my mind and heart plus the commentarial thoughts of David Guzik from my online Bible program, E-sword which is free to download.  How pertinent and apropos Paul's testimony about his thorn.  I had never personalized that I may have a "thorn".  Thorn is that "which frustrates and causes trouble in the lives of the afflicted"...David Guzik.  In Paul's case, it was certainly of a greater magnitude than any piddling thorn I have experienced. 

 Here is Paul's retelling: "To 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.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But He said to me, "MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, 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.  That 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."   Thorn in Greek translated is not a thumbtack, but a tent stake.  Note his words:  "There was given me a thorn"...did Paul think of the thorn as a gift?  He did not say that the thorn was inflicted  on him.  He also identified the thorn as a messenger of satan. He felt as if satan was 'tormenting" him.  The word torment in this case is buffet...to rap with the fist...beating him black and blue?  Our New Testament Job?  Thank you, Lord that I have not known Paul's thorns!
When Paul was given the thorn, HE PRAYED.  Praying is always an appropriate response to a concern of whatever size that is going on in the life and heart of a Christ follower.  Paul must have anxiously waited for a response and we are not given any time frame except, he did ask of the Lord two more times.  One senses that Paul was ready to be relieved of the thorn so he was intentional to request.  He did get a reply to his request in prayer..."MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, my power is made perfect in weakness."  We are not privy to Paul's feelings or his immediate thinking, but we do see, in print, his response to God's gift to him..."Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."  

Spurgeon who was considered a "prince among preachers" commented, "My grace is sufficient for you.  It is easy to believe in grace for the past and the future, but to rest in it for the immediate necessity is true faith.  Believer, it is now  that grace is sufficient even at this moment, it is enough for thee."  

I remind you as I remind myself when my prayer request returns back with a different response than what I anticipated, we are in the best of company:   Paul and the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane as they pled and beseeched the Lord in their agony of their suffering.  Paul nor the Lord Jesus bowed up in anger, bitterness, or moved into rebellion as their response.  They chose to submit, humbling themselves under God's mighty hand. They were willing to trust God for His will, purpose, and providence to take precedent over their circumstances.  Both had to be willing to trust that God's sufficiency of grace was greater than their insufficiency.  This truth is the same for you and me...until I am willing to recognize my total insufficiency of self, only then am I willing to trust in His sufficiency...He is enough...He is ALL!   Forever learning!  In process...sometimes bewildered and overwhelmed.  #IHAVETHREESONS

  

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