Sunday 04:28:13

2 Corinthians 12:1-4 Paul is boasting in his ministry because the church in Corinth was listening to false teachers. So Paul has spent the majority of 2 Cor defending his message and ministry. Paul is talking about himself. He had a vision or was taken up to the highest level of heaven and saw visions and heard things that he could not tell. It must have been magnificent. 2 Corinthians 12:5-6 Paul says, he will not boast about it, but will boast in his weakness. We often cover our weaknesses and put our strengths out front. 2 Corinthians 12:7 We don’t know what Paul’s thorn was. Lust, enemies of the gospel, headache, ear ache, blindness – all conjecture. Maybe it’s better that we don’t know. Paul's thorn was given to him to keep him from being conceited. If Paul needed something to keep him from pride, don’t we all? It caused him real suffering. The term means harass, buffet, was used about a blow to the face. It was brought by a messenger of Satan. We struggle with this. The thorn was given to Paul for his good – to prevent him from pride. But it was brought to him by Satan. Like Job, Satan was allowed to test him, but God established the limits. Satan intended it for harm, but God intended it for good. 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 Paul pleaded with God to take it away. Paul did not want this, but God allowed it to stay in his life. But Paul was to rely on God's sufficient grace. Satan intended it for harm, but God intended it for good. What is the good for Paul here? He learned to rest on God’s grace. He felt his need for God and relied on Him. God's power is made perfect in our weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:10 Have you had a thorn in your flesh? Has there been something in your life that you have pleaded with God over and over again to heal, or fix, or remove? The lesson from Paul is that God may leave the thorn, but he will supply the grace to carry you. In the end, I think the moral of the story is we need God. We don’t feel like it. There is a part of us that rebels against that. We don’t want to need God. But we all do. When we have a thorn in our flesh, it reveals the truth to us: We need God. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. – Acts 17:24-25 God is not the fairy that we pull out of our back pocket to sprinkle fairy dust on our problems. He is not there only for our times of trouble. In Colossians, Paul writes, he is the creator and sustainer of all things – apart from him, nothing would exist. What does exist would crumble. We need God.