The Thorn in the Flesh

STORY CONTEXT - Paul heard of this AMAZING thing - Guy being caught up into heaven.

2 Corinthians 12:5–6 NIV

I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say,

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 NIV

or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given 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, 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. 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.

So Paul is saying, ‘I have this bad thing happening to me - but God told me His grace is good enough for me’.

So Paul’s faced with these two questions - and we can learn a great deal from Paul’s answers to them.

Who do you want to get more from?

Paul is faced with a choice - who he wants to receive from. It’s not obvious.

Conceit means ‘excessive pride in oneself’. KINDS OF THINGS PAUL HAS SEEN - People would brag about him.

Paul has two people offering him things - people and God.

People offer praise, recognition, power.

God offers Paul His grace and an opportunity to see His power get perfected even more.

So paul asks himself - who do I want to receive from ?

Sidebar - This story talks about Paul’s expectations from God.

expectation and trust go hand in hand

Funny story in the bible - disciples in a boat, they forgot bread. Jesus tells a parable about bread. They think it’s a dig against them for not bringing bread.

This is after the feeding of the 5,000. If that was me, I’d be sitting there patiently waiting for Jesus to just pull a loaf out of nowhere.

The bible has a phrase for people who try to act on expectation without trust - it’s called being ‘double minded’.

James 1:6–8 NIV

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

So if your expectation level from God isn’t that high - I would take a look at your trust level.

Don’t be like the disciples, who saw Jesus feed 10-20,000 on one kids lunch, and then whine about not having enough bread.

So anyways -

Paul here trusted God - so he expected great things

And it’s important to note - Paul didn’t choose the easy way. It’s easy to turn all the focus on yourself, and surround yourself with people who pat you on the back.

The easy way leads to temporary niceness - the hard way leads to eternal benefit

Matthew 7:13–14 NIV

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

I’m nervous if I see a person who’s life is defined by comfort, prosperity, and lots of great stuff on this side of eternity. Not that any of that stuff is bad! But when that’s our goal - we missed something.

If there isn’t a struggle, there isn’t change and challenge - there isn’t growth.

Aiming for eternity takes work. It’s not always going to be comfortable.

Paul is struggling - but God said it’ll be good. so to Paul, it’s good. End of discussion.

He doesn’t even need to see the result, he knows that battle’s already fought and won.

That is trust, when God can say, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be fine’. And you go ‘Great!’.

Paul is SO confident that things are going to be good that he’s going to BRAG about his weakness.

When paul gets insulted, he goes, ‘Great! Now i’m going to see MORE of God’s power’. When he’s in hardships. When he’s persecuted.

Paul’s circumstances didn’t give him a different view on God -

God gave Paul a different view on his circumstances

Paul saw struggles in life. And this was bad enough for paul to plead multiple times with God to take it away.

But then God tells paul - you’ll see my power made perfect in your weakness. And for Paul, that’s a whole other ballgame.

Spiritually,

Life was trying to take pennies from Paul, but he was sitting on a billion dollars

I DON’T LIKE YOU - SO what, God does.

I WANT TO TAKE STUFF AWAY FROM YOU - So What, God wants to give.

I HAVE THE POWER TO MAKE IT DIFFICULT - And God has the power to bring life from the dead.

Paul realized how much wealth he had in seeing God move in his own weaknesses - and suddenly, whatever the world tried to take away just didn’t matter anymore.

That leads into the second question Paul needed to ask himself:

Who do you want to see more of?

This one’s not as easy to understand from the text, but you have to understand here.

God doesn’t actually say he’s going to enrich Paul. He doesn’t say Paul’s going to come out with more recognition, wealth, honor, power, you name it. God doesn’t even tell Paul he’s going to take away his torment.

He just says, ‘Paul, receiving my grace is good enough for you’.

And Paul trusted that completely. Paul wanted to see more for himself - and God said, the grace you have from me is enough already.

BUT.

But then he says, ‘My power will be made perfect’.

This phrase means ‘fully or entirely accomplished’.

So what God says to Paul is, if you want to see more of what I can do - you need to be weak.

So Paul is faced with a choice -

Do I want to take the path that shows more of me, or the path that shows more of God?

Paul’s HAPPY to boast about the amazing things that are happening with other people.

But he REFUSES to boast about himself. He refuses to let the narrative be, ‘hey look how cool and how great Paul is!’

Actually, that’s not true. Paul does boast - about his weaknesses.

Don’t get me wrong, he recognizes that he has great things about himself. He says, even if i would boast - it wouldn’t be foolish of him, it would be truth.

But I still won’t do it.

Paul is adamant -

He wants absolutely none of the glory. It’s all for God

Paul won’t let anyone look at him and commend him here.

And here’s a scary truth -

You can’t pursue your own glory and God’s at the same time

Paul KNOWS - more of God means less of paul.

Because God didn’t just want to save paul from conceit - He also wanted to see His own power working more deeply in Paul’s life.

God knew that the more paul looked at paul, the less paul look at God.

And that’s where Paul found his delight: because he KNEW that

In his weakness, He’d see more of God

and that’s Paul ever wanted. Was more of God.

I wonder how many times we miss seeing God because we would rather have our strength and God’s absence than our weakness and God’s presence.

If you’re not sure where you fall on this whole idea of God, This is a wonderful message for you

In your weakest times, God can do amazing things

Romans 8:11 NIV

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

No matter what you face, what you could possibly be going through - Jesus conquered death itself. And if Jesus can do it, the Spirit through you can do it too.

That’s why we offer ourselves completely to God - and why we let Him do His work. Because we know that He can take even our weakness, our hardships, our difficulties, and turn it into eternal life.

I invite you to trust Him today.

PRAY.