A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (December 20, 2018)
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Our scripture for today deals with the Apostle Paul’s three pleas to God to remove a thorn in his flesh. God’s response was basically no and God said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
Do you know how many books and words have been written about Paul’s thorn in the flesh? It has been many and they all seem to center in on debating what this thorn in the flesh was since the scripture does not clearly define it.
This is a great example of where our intellect and religious traditions can sometimes skip right over or miss the truth God wants to reveal to us. Some people theorize that the thorn is an eye problem that was probably the result of that bright light that blinded Paul on the road to Damascus. The problem with that theory is that Paul said himself he was being buffeted by a messenger from Satan (2 Cor. 12:7). That blinding light came from God, not from Satan.
There are all kinds of other theories but maybe, just maybe, we were left in the dark on purpose. Maybe God knew that we all have thorns in the flesh and he left Paul’s thorn undefined because He wanted us to fill in the blank with our own thorn.
Let’s use a young man as an example to better understand how this thorn thing works. Let’s say this young man started looking at girly books and porn when he was very young. When he grows up and gets married he still has this habit that he succumbs to. Let’s also say that this young married man gets saved at about 25 years old and his whole life changes, except for the pornography. The enemy tells him that he really did not get saved (which is a lie) because if he did he would not still have this problem. The young man pleads with God to remove this desire from him but God never does.
Does this mean that God doesn’t love this young man or the young man does not have enough faith? Absolutely not!!! Here is where God’s response to Paul comes into play. There are some things that we have to deal with ourselves. God said, “My grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect in weakness.” There is a natural side and a spiritual side to most deliverances.
You can’t expect to be delivered from alcohol and hang out drinking in a bar every night. You can’t expect God to deliver you from pornography if you watch porn every night on cable. You have to stop going to bars and get rid of the cable channels that carry porn. God is not going to blow up your television set or fire bomb your bar. It does not work like that!!! God has given you the power to deal with this.
Let’s break this scripture down a little bit more:
And he said unto me, My grace (charis – gift, favor, graciousness) is sufficient for thee: for my strength (dunamis – my miraculous power) is made perfect (complete) in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
What is God saying here? What He is saying is that He has saved us and endued us with power. Now, there are some things we are going to have to handle ourselves. We are going to have to take authority over certain demonic spirits and strongholds. God has done all the heavy lifting. It’s time for us to grow up and kick butt and quit waiting on God to come to our rescue. He has already done that!!!
