Thank Your Thorn

Author

Wes Schaeffer
June 22, 2019

From today’s reading…

Therefore, that I might not become too elated,

a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan,

to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.

Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me,

but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you,

for power is made perfect in weakness.'”

God knows that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, which is why He gives us thorns and obstacles. They are blessings in disguise.

“Wes, have you lost your mind? How is ‘a thorn in the flesh’ and beatings from ‘an angel of Satan’ a blessing?”

Let’s consider winning the lottery as an example.

Most assume winning millions of dollars would solve all of their issues and bring unimaginable, unlimited joy to their lives.

Then we read about Jack Whittaker who won $315 million in 2002.

Any and all typical “thorns” were removed from his life when he won so much money. But he said,

I wish that we had torn the ticket up.”

Lottery winners do not have their thorns removed, they’re simply given larger, more visible, more difficult thorns with which to deal.

They literally suffer from trading in the devil that they knew for the devil they didn’t know.

So celebrate the devil in your life and the grace God has given you to confront it because only through practiced, focused resistance do you grow stronger, and growing strong in the Lord is the only way to…

Stay the course. Keep the faith. Endure.