What do you do when circumstances don’t offer the thing you so badly want — the ability to be in control?
Do you say, “I can handle this.” “I got this.” “I can do this.”
We all tend to like to be in control. We try to control our health, our finances, our relationships, and our destinies. Sooner or later, however, we’re reminded that we cannot control all of life.
We cannot escape the vulnerability of living, suffering, and dying in a finite, fragile and fallen world — a world where bad things happen — even to people we consider to be good.
We may think that we are strong, but…
“God does not allow us to stay with the idea that we are strong. O, we may have that idea. But the Lord is going to disabuse us of it one way or another and it will be good for us and give glory to Him when he does so.” (J. I. Packer).
One man’s example
Facing this reality in his own life, the apostle Paul turned to God for help. But he didn’t receive the kind of help he initially asked for and thought he needed.
After three seasons of intense prayer, he received God’s answer in a totally unexpected way. He got something far greater than he anticipated.
Follow his story
“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. 8 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.” (II Corinthians 12:7-10)
- Whatever this thorn of affliction was (and the uncertainty allows for broader application), it raised the issue of “control” for Paul.
- It came with a feeling of powerlessness and vulnerability. He was uncertain about his ability to endure and persevere because of the thorn. He begged God to “take it away from me.”
- But God had a purpose for this thorn, this messenger of Satan. Paul’s weakness would keep his prideful independence in check and translate into the power of Christ RESTING on him.
Purposes of thorns of affliction
- Decreased human conceit, (cf. Romans 12:3; I Timothy 3:6).
- Increased dependence on God.
- Increased experience of God’s sustaining grace and power.
When the Lord answered Paul’s prayer, He said to him, “My grace is…” “My power is…” (present tense)– SUFFICIENT. Right now! Tap into what is available to you! God’s power is perfected in unremoved weakness. How? From a powerful position of trust and dependence on the living God! (Deuteronomy 8:3-5; Psalm 62:8;Proverbs 3:5-6).
This is the way it is from the beginning of our encounter with God! He put his treasure in jars of clay. Why? “to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (II Corinthians 4:7).
Our greater need – sufficient grace and perfecting power (verse 9a)
Please understand that this is not about passive resignation to accept what must be. This is active acceptance of God’s plan for giving strength and power. Reflect on this important distinction when faced with difficulty. What difference of perspective, attitude and emotion results when we exchange a passive resignation mind-set for active acceptance?
Paul recognized the outcome: “so that Christ’s power may rest on me,” or “pitch its tent on me.” And, in verse 10, he notches it up and offers an expanded list of afflictions: “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.”
What a change of perspective! Did his actual circumstances change? Apparently not. But the way he understood them changed and he received the answer he desired. “How can I possibly press on given this thorn of affliction?” he wondered and prayed. Answer: “See it as a thorn of grace—increased grace and increased power from Christ!”
The way we percieve things significantly affects our perseverance. We grow weary when we lose perspective in our trials.
Remember that God’s ways are not our ways, but His ways are best. We only really know this with yielded hearts.
The beneficial purpose behind the thorn of affliction is not only that it brings the power of Christ on life, but that it purges the very dangerous and corrupting power of conceit. The apostle says that knowing this truth helps him to be content and even delight in the affliction that makes him feel so vulnerable.
Through the hardships and afflictions of life, we come to know by experience the perfecting of His power and the sufficiency of His grace–His sustaining grace. The thorns of affliction become thorns of grace.
A messenger of Satan?
Although Paul placed this experience in the context of God’s sovereign control, he also acknowledged with equal clarity that this thorn — this personal, painful disability — was a messenger of Satan.
Dr. J. I. Packer explores
“In what sense was Paul’s thorn a messenger of Satan? It sparked thoughts of resentment at God, pity for himself, and despair about the future of his ministry—the sort of thoughts that Satan specializes in stirring up within us all. Anything that prompts such thinking thereby becomes a messenger of Satan to our souls.”
“Why did Paul pray specifically to the Lord Jesus about his thorn? Because Jesus was the healer, who had wrought many miraculous cures in the days of his flesh and some through Paul during Paul’s years of missionary ministry (see – Acts 14:3, 8-10, 19:11). Now Paul needed Christ’s healing power for himself, so in three solemn seasons of prayer he sought it.”
“Why was healing withheld? Not for lack of pure-hearted prayer on Paul’s part, nor for lack of sovereign power on Christ’s part, but because the Savior had something better in view for his servant. God always reserves the right to answer our requests in a better way than we make them.”
What better thing did his Savior have in view?
“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” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Alternatives
- Resentment at God, pity for self, despair about the future (Satan’s instruments of defeat)
- A sufficient grace from your Savior to perfect His power in your weakness
Question: What will it be? Satan’s goal? Or God’s goal?
A bold acceptance
Like the apostle Paul, we need bold acceptance based in two confessions
- I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest on me.
- For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Don’t let Satan succeed it turning you toward resentment, self-pity and despair. Finally, use the resources God has given to you (see – Galatians 5:16-17). (Engage the spiritual disciplines).
Reflection
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (II Corinthians 4:7-9).
Steve Cornell
Wisdomforlife 