“Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn.” (2 Corinthians 12:7a)
What’s your thorn? I never really thought about it before. I think we all have one (or two or three?). The Apostle Paul had an especially “prickly” thorn.
Can you believe it? Such a man of God as him? You’d think he could pray it away. He actually tried, but God said, “Nope. It’s yours to keep, Paul.” Now that wasn’t very nice of God. (Or was it?)
And there are things in our lives that we are dealing with and continue to deal with day after day, week after week, year after year after year ~ and, quite frankly, it’s humbling (humiliating). And we’re wanting God to take it away. (Right?) And we’re demanding it (some of us). After all, whatever we ask in prayer shall be done! (Amen?) And we’re expecting God to take our thorn(s) away.
But He won’t.
The reason is: He doesn’t want to lose us. (Selah ~ pause to reflect)
And God knows He will (lose us) except for the thorn(s).
So pull it in closer. (Ouch.) And hold to it fast. (It just pricked me. Am I bleeding again?) Embrace your thorn(s) as hard as it is. (Mine hurts bad.)
And consider the following…
7 “prickly’s” about thorns:
1. They are (fiendishly) painful. (2 Corinthians 12:7b)
2. We would (wrongly) have them removed. (2 Corinthians 12:8a)
3. They are a protection against pride. (2 Corinthians 12:7b)
4. They could be a physical defect, disability, even a person. (2 Corinthians 12:10b)
5. They have a relationship to the depth of revelation we receive. (2 Corinthians 12:7a)
6. They are allowed by God’s discretion / direction. (2 Corinthians 12:7-8ab)
7. We should be thankful for them. (2 Corinthians 12:10ac)
(Picture above under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license: HERE.)
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