The apostle Paul was a pretty self-sufficient guy. He was a real “Type A" person, driven and passionate, a brilliant thinker and a gifted leader. To put it mildly, he was a guy who got things done. It is not a stretch to imagine a guy wired like Paul being tempted to do God’s work on his own – depending on his skills, knowledge, and resources – instead of leaning on God.
Enter his “thorn in the flesh.” We really cannot be dogmatic about what this thorn was (although there are no shortage of opinions about the possibilities). Whatever it was, it really was a problem for Paul. It hindered him from doing the very work God had called him to do. So, he did what we would do – he asked God to remove it – to fix him, to get him past this personal struggle once and for all, so that he could more effectively serve God and others. A reasonable request, don’t you think? God said no – three different times!
Why? Because God knew that this thorn in Paul’s flesh would continually prompt him to come back to God again and again and again for strength and for grace. Paul knew that he could not be the person he needed to be (loving, kind, patient…) or do the work he needed to do (lead, care, teach…) without God’s strength and grace making up for his weakness. And if his weakness opened the door for God’s grace and strength to be displayed to others in and through him, he was happy to have weaknesses – even willing to boast about them.
What personal weaknesses are you dealing with over and over again that you wish God would just take away once and for all? Step back and think: how might God want to use this in your life to pull you towards greater dependence on him?
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