Embrace the Thorn

If we're not careful our temporary failures or weaknesses can become bigger than our victories in Christ. The enemy tends to take our weaknesses and hardships and magnify those to the point we forget who we are in Christ Jesus. We forget the power we have access to in the Holy Spirit. We forget that we are God's child, and a chosen one to be His ambassador here.---Believe it or not, the Apostle Paul had his own struggles. Gratefully, the Scriptures leave exactly what it was up to the imagination. It allows the saint in times of struggle to imagine that perhaps Paul and them shared the same weakness. Paul said, "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."---Ever felt that way? Notice that Paul doesn't blame God for the thorn, but he does acknowledge that God allowed it. In fact, he goes on to say that he pleaded with God three times to take it away...and He didn't. Instead, Jesus said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."---What is your weakness? What is the thing you battle nearly every day? What is the thing you have or would ask to remove from your life so that you could be the person God wants you to be? Ah, you know what I'm talking about. We all do.---Depending on where you are spiritually, some time or another you've probably asked God to remove whatever it is. Jesus told Paul to accept the weakness, and to embrace Jesus for His grace would be sufficient to get him through whatever. In fact, you will learn that it's not about you. Christ's power is made complete in our weakness. Paul then chose to boast about his weaknesses (yes, he said plural), so that Christ's power may rest on him. Theologians have long wondered what Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was. We all wonder. We all want to justify our "weaknesses." Paul cleans it up with this: "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." ---Embrace your thorn today. Acknowledge it. Depend on Christ to see you through as you limp through it; whether it be a weakness, insult, hardship, persecution, or difficulty. Don't let Satan knock you down and out with this thorn. Instead, choose to lean on the grace and sufficiency of Christ to get you through. Get up! You're not the only one going through "stuff". We all are. May the power of Christ rest on you throughout your days. [see 2Cor.12:7-10]