2 Corinthians 12:7-10 – Made Perfect In Weakness

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 2 August 2026
Underlined words in Scripture quotes indicate words that are in common with the Greek text of the sermon passage. Otherwise, underlining indicates words to emphasize when reading this transcript out loud. Omitting greyed-out text should reduce read-aloud time to about 40 minutes.

Introduction

• Read my translation of the passage, starting at 2 Corinthians 12:6
  “...if I happened to want to brag about myself, I would not be silly, because it’s the truth that I would be speaking, but I am restraining myself lest someone might start reckoning to me more than what he sees me to be or what he hears from me. Also, in order that I might not be lifted too high with the abundance of these revelations, a shaft for my flesh was given to me – a messenger of Satan – in order that it might beat me down, so that I might not be lifted too high. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times, that it might stand down from me. However, He has said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is perfected through weakness.” So instead, I will most-gladly brag about myself in my weaknesses so that the power of the Anointed One may camp out on me. Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in forced circumstances, in persecutions, in restrictions for the sake of the Anointed One, for whenever I am weak, it is then that I am strong.”

v.7 A Satanic “Thorn” to Keep from Self-exaltation

• In the previous passage, we studied the visions and revelations which God shared with Paul, and we have to admit, God gave Paul some pretty special treatment!

• But special spiritual experiences and positions of influence over people have a nasty habit of going to a man’s head. I attended part of a church conference some years ago, where a man who called himself an apostle was the main speaker. I was initially willing to extend the bene­fit of the doubt that perhaps this man called himself and apostle in the way that I sometimes use the term to denote the ministry of planting new church congregations. But soon it became evident that this man called himself an apostle to mean that he was at the top of a pyramid of authority and honor in his denomination. The thing that illustrated this most dramatically to me was after he had talked for a while and mentioned that he was getting thirsty. A man immedi­ately hurried up to the platform, removed a fantastically-ornate crystal goblet of water from the lectern (which the speaker could have picked up for himself), then knelt down as he lifted the goblet above his head for the speaker to take a sip, then polished the lip of the cup with a rag, placed it back in the lectern and sat down. This performance was repeated several times throughout the speech, and it made me feel almost physically ill to watch it.

• In the Greek Old Testament at 2 Chronicles 32, this same word for “exalted above measure/ conceited/lifted too high” is used to describe King Hezekiah after God delivered him from the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem. After the mighty Assyrian army fled back to Nineveh, other kings from the surrounding city-states (including Babylon) tried to cozy-up to Hezekiah by sending him gifts. 2 Chronicles 32:23 says, “And many brought gifts to the Lord to Jerusa­lem, and presents to [H]Ezekias king of Juda; and he was exalted in the eyes of all the na­tions after these things.” Now note what God does in the very next verse, 2 Chronicles 32:24 “In those days [H]Ezekias [became] sick even to death... [H]Ezekias did not recompense the Lord according to the return which He made him, but his heart was lifted up¹: and wrath came upon him, and upon Juda[h] and Jerusalem.” And what was the result? 2 Chronicles 32:26 “And [H]Ezekias humbled himself after the exaltation² of his heart, he and the dwellers in Jerusalem; and the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them...” (Brenton)

• Something similar happened later, when the King of Babylon became too arrogant, and God hum­bled him by removing his sanity so that he lived like a wild animal for seven years until God had humbled him. Then he praised God as the Prophet Daniel recorded in Daniel 4:37 “Now therefore I Nabuchodonosor praise and greatly exalt and glorify the King of heaven; for all His works are true, and His paths are judgment: and all that walk in pride He is able to abase.” (Brenton)

• It appears that God did something similar to Paul, to keep him from getting too full-of-him­self after having giving him so many special visions and revelations. This point is driven home by the repetition of the phrase “...lest I should be exalted above measure/conceited... so that I might not be exalted above measure/conceited.” (If you’re reading an NIV, you won’t see that repetition³.)

• God hates pride, so He fights against it in our lives:

  • Proverbs 3:34 “Surely He [the LORD] scorns the scornful, But gives grace to the humble.” (NKJV)

  • Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.” (NKJV)

  • James 4:6 “...God ‘organizes Himself against arrogant men, but it is to lowly ones that He gives grace.’” (NAW)

  • 1 Peter 5:5 “...God arrays Himself against proud men, but to humble men He gives grace.” (NAW)

  • It is embarrassing and painful to suffer under God’s discipline which He metes out to beat down our pride, but we should consider it a mercy from God that He intervenes to confront pride in our lives, because otherwise God would hate us!

• Now, exactly what God did to Paul to keep him from getting conceited is not recorded, so, as a result, much speculation has arisen about his “thorn in the flesh.”

  • Some Bible scholars point to Paul’s statement in Galatians 6:11 that when he wrote in his “own handwriting” it was with “large letters,” suggesting that Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was poor eyesight⁴.

  • Galatians 4:13-14 seems to point in a different direction when Paul wrote after his first missionary journey into the Galatian province of Asia Minor, “You know that because of physical infirmity⁵ I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel/[messenger] of God, even as Christ Jesus.” (NKJV)

    • In Galatians 4, Paul uses the same Greek words for “in the flesh” and “infirmity” that he uses in 2 Corinthians 12 to describe his “weakness” and his thorn “in the flesh.”

    • Acts chapters 13-14 indicate that it was opposition from Jewish leaders in Psidian Antioch that resulted in Paul traveling into the heart of Galatia to share the gospel at Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, where he continued to have to flee from persecution at every step, and it was during that time that Paul was stoned to death and then resusci­tated, so some Bible scholars have suggested that long-term injuries sustained from that stoning were Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.”

    • (It is noteworthy that Paul used the same word to describe what his “thorn in the flesh” did here in 2 Corinthians 12:7 (that is, to “buffet/torment/harass” him) also in 1 Corinthians 4:11 where he described the “beating” he received when he was persecuted by unbelieving Jews⁶.

    • Good Bible scholars have suggested all kinds of other possibilities for the “thorn”: epilepsy⁷, migraine headaches⁸, a chronic sickness⁹, temptation to sin¹⁰, Jewish adversaries¹¹, and a host of other conjectures.

    • I might add that, although the “thorn” and “messenger” are singular, Paul uses the plural form of “weaknesses” in v.9, so, like most of us, he struggled with more than one form of weakness.

• Paul calls it a “thorn in/for the flesh” in v.7.

  • This Greek word for “thorn” doesn’t occur anywhere else in the New Testament, although it does occur a couple of places in the Greek Old Testament to describe conflicts with pagan foreigners (Num. 33:55 & Ezek. 28:24).

  • It does not seem to indicate a literal thorn, but rather is metaphorical language to describe a painful condition Paul experienced, and this condition affected him physically, thus it was “a thorn in/for the flesh.”

  • Maybe you’ve had the experience while gardening or woodworking of getting a thorn or a splinter in your finger that embedded too deep to be able to get it out with tweezers, so you had to live with it for a few days until it could work its way close enough to the surface of the skin to pull it out. You figure out how to get along with it in normal life, but occasionally that finger brushes the wrong way against something and the pain stabs you again. That’s what I think of when I think of Paul’s thorn, although the Greek word here may actually mean something bigger and life-threatening like a “shaft” or “stake.”

• Paul also calls it a “messenger of Satan” in v.7.

  • The Greek word for “messenger” is the same word in Greek for “angel,” but nowhere else in the Bible does this phrase “messenger of Satan” or “angel of Satan” occur.

  • However, we do know that a couple of chapters earlier in 2 Corinthians 11:14, Paul mentioned that “...Satan transforms himself into an angel/messenger of light…”

  • and we know from Jesus’ teaching that Satan works together with other “unclean spirits” to try to get us to believe “lies” (John 8:44, Matt. 12:43, cf. Rev. 12:9) and to distort our thinking, which is why Paul exhorted the church back in 2 Corinthians 2:11 about forgiving sinners freely “in order that we may not be gotten-the-best-of by Satan (for we are not ignorant of his thoughts),” and he sets the example in 2 Corinthians 10:5 of “taking captive every thought into the obedience of Christ.” (NAW)

  • We also know from Jesus’ teaching in Luke 13:16 that causing physical afflictions is something that Satan does and uses to put people in spiritual bondage. Concerning a woman who had a “spirit of infirmity/weakness” (incidentally the same word Paul uses for his weakness) which prevented her from being able to stand up straight, Jesus said, “... Satan has bound [this woman]... for eighteen years...” (NKJV)

  • We also know this from the book of Job. Job 2:6-7 “And the LORD said to Satan, ‘Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.’ So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.” (NKJV) So Satan is able to cause sickness/weakness/pain, but only with God’s permission.

  • Paul also understands that God’s will is what stands behind even Satan’s “torments/harassments”:

    • He calls his “thorn in the flesh” “a messenger of Satan,” but then he turns around and says that it was “given... in order to keep me becoming conceited.”

    • So, who “gave” that “thorn in the flesh” to Paul? Only God would have goal of “keeping [Paul] from being lifted up too high” in pride!

    • Paul recognizes that God used what Satan intended to be a tool to distort his thinking and turn him against God, to draw him instead into closer trust in Christ.¹²

• Are you seeing the picture of how Satan tries to use weakness, sickness, and pain in our lives to distract us from God,

  • to get us to form twisted thoughts about God not loving us,

  • twisted thoughts of self-pity as we get absorbed in our miserable conditions – whatever they are – and envy the health and happiness of others,

  • twisted thoughts of self-harm as he deceives us into thinking that it would be better to kill ourselves to escape the pain than to let the pain chisel down our abominable pride and improve our relationship with.

  • What a pack of lies Satan offers us, when all the while God’s desire is to save us through our infirmities so that we don’t try to act like little gods in opposition to Him for eternity (like Satan wants us to do).

  • That’s why James 4:10 says, “Let yourselves be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” (NAW)

• Although we recognize that there are powerful spiritual entities at work behind the scenes in our physical maladies, Christians are not fatalists. We do not simply accept sickness and pain as something which cannot be changed or challenged.

v.8 Request To Get Rid of the Thorn

• Paul provides an example to us in verse 8 of not passively acquiescing to infirmity. Instead he asks God to make this “messenger of Satan... go away from” him. And he asks God not once but three times.

• When you become sick or injured, it is right and good to seek God’s glory by asking God to heal you.

  • This is, in fact what you are commanded to do in James 5:13-16 “Is anyone among y'all suffering? Let him keep praying! ... Is anyone among y'all sick/weak? [again, the same word Paul used to describe his weakness] Let him call¹³ to himself the elders of the church, and let them pray over him after anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the vow-prayer of faith will restore the one who is ailing, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he happens to have committed sins, it will be forgiven him. Therefore, keep confessing your sins to one another, and keep praying on behalf of one another, so that y'all might be healed...” (NAW)

  • In John 9:1-3 Jesus tells His disciples that a man was born blind simply so that Jesus could heal him and be recognized as the Messiah. “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.’” (NKJV)

• This principle of the rightness of seeking God’s glory through asking Him to heal or remove evil can even be demonstrated from the Bible stories when God did NOT bring healing or remove evil.

  • In 2 Samuel 12, David’s adultery with Bathsheba (and murder of Bathsheba’s husband to cover it up) was exposed by the prophet Nathan, and God declared through the prophet that the child he fathered with Bathsheba would get sick and die. Did David say, “Oh well, I guess we deserved it; I’ll go make the funeral preparations...” NO! David spent a week fasting and praying, petitioning God to have mercy on his family and let the child live! God did not honor that request, but because David was a man of God, he did not fatalistically sit back and watch the child die without at least trying to see if God would heal him.

  • In a similar way, Jesus Himself, when faced with the horrific prospect of being falsely convicted of a capital crime, tortured to death, and made the object of God’s wrath, asked God if there might be another way to save us without having to endure such evil. “...My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass by me...” (Matt. 26:39, NAW) Not once but three times He prayed this. There was no better way, but still Jesus asked.

• So don’t give in to the hopelessness and injustice and brokenness without a fight! Ask God for healing, justice, and deliverance, and ask Him more than once! It may be that your situation is one He set up to bring glory to Himself through a miraculous intervention like He did for that blind man Jesus healed. You never know until you’ve tried asking.

  • We have seen a couple of miraculous healings in our church; I’m sure these miraculous healings would not have happened if the church members involved had not asked for prayer and if the elders had not prayed for healing.

  • However, most of the times someone has asked for prayer in our church, there has not been a miraculous healing; things have taken a different course. That is what Paul talks about next in verse 9.

v.9 God’s Message about Grace Leads Paul To Boast in Weakness

• The Perfect tense of the verb “He has said” makes it unclear whether this was a reply from God after Paul asked Him to remove the “thorn” or whether Paul remembered some previous communication from God which he applied to himself to answer his own question after he had committed the matter to prayer.

  • Since there is no other place in the Bible which records this quote from God, I will in­terpret the perfect tense of “God has said” along with the present tense of “is sufficient” to mean that God is not merely saying that His grace was enough to deal with the prob­lem Paul was praying about, but that God’s grace continues to hold force, and that His word continues to hold force in any and every problem Paul (or you) will ever face.

  • You don’t need God to say it again. He has put His answer down for you in black and white right here. All you have to do is remember it: God’s “grace continues to be sufficient for you.”

  • In Paul’s case, it was enough that God gave grace to Paul; no more miraculous healing or vision or revelation would be necessary for Paul to trust Jesus and carry out his mission of making disciples of all the nations. Paul could rest content that he had received as much grace as he had, and he could stop asking for a supernatural healing on top of everything else, now that he had asked God three times and God had not seen fit to do things as Paul had asked.

• Once again, Paul sets the example for us in what to do if we have asked God repeatedly for relief from a problem and God hasn’t responded with a miracle. We need to trust that God’s grace toward us is sufficient to sustain us THROUGH that problem.

• Remember what Paul has already said about God’s grace earlier in this letter:

  • It comes along with “peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 1:2, NAW),

  • It is the opposite of “fleshly wisdom” (2 Cor. 1:12, NAW),

  • It is the character of “God, Who always parades us with the Anointed One, and Who reveals the aroma of the knowledge of Him through us in every place” (2 Cor. 2:14, NAW),

  • It was demonstrated by Jesus: “though He was rich [with heavenly glory], He became poor [taking on flesh and dying on the cross] for your sakes, in order that y'all might become rich by means of that man's poverty” (2 Cor. 8:9, NAW),

  • This grace has been “distributed among the churches” (2 Cor. 8:1, NAW),

  • It is “much” and “multiplying” (2 Cor. 4:15, NAW),

  • “and God is able to make all grace abound among y'all, in order that in everything, always, having all sufficiency, y'all may abound in every good work, (2 Cor. 9:8, NAW)

  • That grace “is enough” for you too.

• The reason why it is sufficient is stated in the middle of verse 9: “...for/because My strength is made perfect in/through weakness…”

  • God’s power becomes all that it should be when it is not ignored and covered-up by human power, but rather when human weakness is evident and there can be no other explanation for there being strength in us than that God is graciously providing strength to us.

  • 2 Corinthians 13:4 “For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.” (NKJV)

  • Hebrews 11:32-34 “And what might I yet say? For the time will be totally insufficient for me to narrate concerning ... those who through faith wrestled down kingdoms, worked for justice, obtained promises, shut lion's mouths, stifled the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were empowered after weakness, were made into mighty men during war, [and] routed foreign army-camps.” (NAW)

  • “Every believer must learn that human weakness and divine grace go hand in hand together.” ~P. E. Hughes, 1962 AD

  • But, conversely, when we try to get the world to pay attention to our human strengths – our intellectual prowess, our ability to move other people’s emotions with our words, our physical beauty and muscular strength, our material wealth – it obscures the power of God in us, resulting in a kind of spiritual immaturity – the opposite of being “perfected.”

• So Paul chose to boast in his “weaknesses/infirmities so that the power of Christ may dwell/ rest/camp out on me.”

  • He already said in the previous chapter – 2 Corinthians 11:30 “Since it is necessary to brag about myself, it will be about the issues of my weakness ...” (NAW)

  • And earlier in 1 Corinthians 2:3 “...I came to y'all in weakness and in fear and in much trembling... in order that your faith might not exist in the wisdom of men, but rather in the power of God.” (NAW)

• Note, however, that Paul is not advocating being weak due to laziness and inaction:

  • This is the man who said in 1 Corinthians 9:24-26 “...run in order that you might receive [the prize hands-]down! Now every contender exercises strong control over all things… we… do so in order to win a laurel that is... imperishable! As for me, therefore, this is how I'm running: as not uncertainly. This is how I'm boxing: as not beating air…” (NAW)

  • Paul “worked hard” in a very disciplined way to bend his skills and energies to the task God had given him, but when he ran into a weakness that he couldn’t overcome (or a problem that he couldn’t solve), Paul didn’t say, “I can handle it; I’ll just push-through and show the world the greatness of my human potential!” Instead he prayed to God and trusted that God would either miraculously heal that weakness or God would provide supernatural strength to continue doing what God had called him to do despite that weakness.

  • Either way, Paul fully expected to praise God for the outcome, and that’s what we should do too. We should end up saying with Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:57 “...thanks be to God, the Giver of the victory to us through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (NAW)

• Why should you look to God for strength? Because He is powerful!

• 1 Corinthians 1:25 “because the stupidity of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger¹⁴ than men.” (NAW)

• Ephesians 1:19-21 “y'all know... what the hyperbolic greatness of His power into us believers is, according to the energy of the might of His strength, which He worked in the Anointed One when He raised out of the dead and seated Him in His right hand in the heavens above every ruler and authority and power...” (NAW)

• God certainly has the wisdom and power to overcome any problem!

• Furthermore, you should look to God to strengthen you because He promises He will do so:

  • Isaiah 41:13 “I am Yahweh your God, strengthening¹⁵ your right hand; saying to you, ‘Fear not, I myself help you.’” (NAW)

  • ... “giving power¹⁶ to the faint and to the ones who have no strength He will increase might.” (Isaiah 40:29, NAW)

  • Colossians 1:11 “...be strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy...” (NKJV, cf. Eph. 3:16, 1 Tim. 4:17)

  • Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (NKJV)

• So Paul says in v. 10 that he is actually “delighted” when he encounters a situation where he is limited by weakness from doing God’s will, because each challenge provides a context for God to demonstrate His power. That’s what it says in 2 Chronicles 16:9, too: “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong¹⁷ on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” (NKJV)

• So, when you encounter a dismaying lack of funds or feel too weak to go on, or are mentally overwhelmed, or confronted with opposition from others, that is the time to be “pleased” with your weakness and to ask God to show His power through you!

• Verse 10 contains a litany of what those weaknesses were in Paul’s life which provided opportunities for God to show Himself strong¹⁸:

v.10 Embrace Weakness for Christ’s Sake

• ἀσθενείαις is literally a “lack of strength.”

  • But Paul says at the end of the verse, “Whenever I am weak, that’s when I am strong!”

• ὕβρεσιν is translated “insults/reproaches”

  • It is based on the Greek root from which we get the word “hubris” (which means pride that leads to a fall).

  • Paul was often opposed by religious leaders who, in their foolish pride thought he was wrong in what he taught about Jesus, so they mocked and insulted and falsely accused Paul.

  • In such situations, a minister might be tempted to rely on his keen intellect and skill in rhetoric to prove his critics wrong and to persuade everybody to agree with him, but Paul knew better. He did not have the power to change hearts or to regenerate and infuse faith into the spiritually dead. He had to preach the gospel to the best of his ability and then rely on God to save those whom God had appointed to eternal life (Acts 13:48).

• ἀνάγκαις/necessities/needs/distresses/hardships has to do with “forced circumstances.”

  • It would include circumstances of lack (such as not enough food or water) due to famine, drought, or war, and it would include circumstances where oppressors are forcing victims to do what they wouldn’t want to do, such as in times of persecution.

  • Paul mentioned that he had experienced this in 2 Corinthians 6:4-5 “but rather, in everything, as servants of God, recommending ourselves in much perseverance, in stresses, in forced circumstances, in restrictions, in wounds, in imprisonments, in upheavals, in labors, in night-watches, in fastings… 10 as grieving yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all!” (NAW)

  • There was also such a condition of “distress/necessity” in Corinth when he wrote 1 Corinthians 7:26 which made it preferable not to get married at the time.

  • In such times of necessity, a smart consumer might be tempted to rely on human ingenuity to find everything they needed, but Paul modeled asking God first and then relying on God’s ability to provide needs and God’s strength to be content with whatever He provides.

• διωγμοῖς is the Greek word for “persecution”

  • In 2 Timothy 3:10-11, Paul wrote “...you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra – what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me.” (NKJV)

  • Acts 13:50 also mentions that episode: “But the Jews [in Psidian Antioch] stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.” (NKJV)

  • A legal or military expert might be tempted to rely upon political clout or even warfare in response to religious persecution. “How dare those pagan tyrants abuse their power like that! Let’s teach them a lesson! We’ll sue their pants off! We’ll beat the living daylights out of them!” And, although Paul occasionally used legal privileges and took security measures, his first recourse was to prayer, and if God did not enable him to evade persecution, God helped him to suffer the persecution and endure it cheerfully.

  • He wrote in Romans 8:35-37 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (NKJV)

• The last Greek word, στενοχωρίαις, literally has to do with a “narrowing down” of options or “restriction” of movement – also translated “distresses/difficulties/calamities.”

  • In addition to the “distress” in the list of Romans 8:35 which can’t “separate us from the love of Christ,” one of the few other places this word occurs in the New Testament is 2 Cor. 6:4 , where Paul says, “…in everything, as servants of God, we are recommending ourselves in much perseverance, in stresses, in forced circumstances, in restrictions…” (NAW)

  • It is used in the Greek Old Testament mostly to describe wartime sieges (Deut. 28:53, 55, 57; Isa. 8:22-23; 30:6). The idea of a siege brings to mind the time when Paul was trapped inside Damascus with the army waiting outside the city’s only exit gate to capture him.

  • It could also be describing the times Paul spent in prison in Philippi, Jerusalem, Caesarea, and Rome.

  • Once again, a good strategist might rely on his wits to maintain his independence and keep his options open, but Paul never became famous for tactical maneuvers. He prayed and relied on God’s strength to deliver him, and he suffered “gladly” through his time in prison, singing hymns, converting his guards to Christianity, and writing letters to the churches!

• A picture that comes to mind is the way that children act when they are proud of themselves for learning a skill – like doing a flip on the monkey bars. What do they say? “Hey watch me!” Right? “Hey, watch me do this!” And then they do it, and they come back to you and say, “Did you see me? Did you see me! Wasn’t that great?”

  • Paul turns that on its head. Instead of saying, “Watch me overcome this problem,” we should say, “Hey watch what’s going to happen! See this problem? Watch how God gets me through it, because He will, one way or another; you’ll see!”

  • “The self-sufficient must ever remain strangers to the power of that grace which is manifested only in conscious weakness.” ~Geoffrey Wilson, 1979 AD

  • The “thorn” or “messenger of Satan” that God has given you to humble you and call you to depend on Him may be a chronic illness, a devastating blow to your business, a betrayal by a friend, or loss of a loved one. This is your opportunity to say, “Hey, watch this! God is going to show Himself strong in my weakness!”

Conclusion:

I want to close with the lyrics of a song written by Twila Paris in 1990, called “This Thorn.”

Thank you for this thorn embedded in my flesh. I can feel the mystery – my spirit is made fresh.

You are sovereign still and forever wise. I can see the miracle opening my eyes –

To a proud heart so quick to judge – Laying down crosses and carrying grudges.

The veil has been torn, And I thank you for this thorn...

And if You chose to take it, I will praise You and thank You for the healing in your name,

But if it must remain, I thank You for Your rod – Evidence of Father-love for a child of God.

I join you in sorrow (So much less than You have borne)

And I thank you (Really I thank You, Lord); I thank You for this thorn.

2 Corinthians 12:7-12 – Comparison of Textual Traditions & Versions^A