“My grace is sufficient
for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9 NIV).
Do you have a thorn in your life that keeps
bothering you? It could be an illness, fibromyalgia, arthritis, any condition
that hurts and won’t go away. Jesus spoke the above words to Paul because he
had a “thorn” and what he called “a messenger of Satan to torment him” (2 Cor.
12:7) He had prayed three times that God would take it away, but the Lord
responded with the fact that His grace was sufficient for him. You see
sometimes God says no, and we are to rest in the fact that just having His
grace is enough. We need to be thankful that Jesus came and gave His life as a
sacrifice for our sins. Heaven is enough. What ever else we have is a bonus.
Sometimes the thorn we have actually makes us closer to God. It can make us
more sympathetic to those who suffer from a “thorn”. It helps us not become conceited and proud. It
can make us totally humble.
I have had fibromyalgia for over 37 years.
Sometimes it is just a dull ache and sometimes it can be excruciating. Believe
me when I say that I too prayed that God would take it away from me, but it has
not happened. Instead, I have learned through each time of terrible
debilitating pain to trust God to give me the strength to make it through it.
He never failed me. Eventually, it would ease up and go back to that dull ache,
which I have learned to live with. Because of my thorn, I have grown closer to
my God. I am more sympathetic to those who hurt. Nobody can understand unless
they have been through it. God is my strength when I am weak, just as He
promised Paul.
Maybe you are sitting there and nodding
that the thorn is there and that you are having problems dealing with it.
Please pray to God that He will help you accept it and that He will give you
the strength that only He can give to overcome despair. Please reach out to
others who have the same problem and tell them that you care and understand.
Also, tell them that you
are praying for them. Sometimes if you take the focus off of yourself, you will
feel so much better. It always is good to reach out to others.
Dear Lord,
Please let your grace be
sufficient for me. Help me to go through life knowing that life wasn’t meant to
be easy, and that I am to rely on your strength to support me when my strength
is gone. I know that life is full of “thorns”. Help me to trust you in any
situation that comes my way.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
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