2 Corinthians 12:1-10
His grace is what you need
We think we will impress people with our strengths, but we connect with people through our vulnerabilities. Most of us want other people to see our strength and are nervous about anyone discovering our weaknesses. We do not advertise our limitations. However, Paul was not afraid of being vulnerable about his frailties.
Paul had some amazing spiritual experiences. He had ‘visions and revelations from the Lord’ (v.1). He had been ‘caught up to the third heaven’ (v.2). He had ‘heard inexpressible things, things that human beings are not permitted to tell’ (v.4). He had ‘surpassingly great revelations’ (v.7).
Yet Paul did not boast about these things. The false teachers in Corinth boasted about their spiritual experiences, but Paul did not. Rather, he told stories against himself. He boasted about his weaknesses (vv.5,9).
He told the Corinthians how God gave him ‘a thorn in [his] flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment [him]’ (v.7b). He made this confession in very general terms. Dr Paula Gooder, who wrote her PhD thesis on these verses, says that there are at least thirty-six theories about what the thorn in Paul’s flesh could be. The fact that we do not know what it is enables us all to identify with Paul.
I remember our good friend, the evangelist J. John, saying that he had not just one, but three thorns in the flesh! I don’t think he told us what they all were but it was encouraging for the rest of us to know that, like all of us, he had his struggles.
Whatever Paul’s thorn was, three times he pleaded with the Lord to take it away. But God said to him, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’ (v.9). Were it not for the thorn in his flesh, Paul might have become conceited because of the ‘surpassingly great revelations’ (v.7).
As it was, Paul knew he was totally dependent on the Lord. When things are going well, I am tempted to be proud and self-reliant. When I am struggling and know my weaknesses, I become utterly dependent on the Lord. Christ’s power rests on us (v.9). His power is made perfect in our weakness.
Paul has written something absolutely remarkable. He says, ‘It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size – abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become’ (vv.7–10, MSG).
Lord, help me, like Paul, to delight in my weaknesses because your power is made perfect in weaknes
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