Church means so much more to me now than it used to. When I was younger, it was a time to see my friends. During the summer, several people from the youth group would go play minature golf or go to a movie afterwards. It was jumping off place, an obligation. Zoom forward about 20 years. I was a shell of a man, completely empty inside. I can remember it was a struggle to make it through each day and I would tell myself, "If you can just make it to Sunday" or "Just one more day until Bible study". I gained so much strength from Bible study at that time in my life. It was what kept me going.
This past Sunday reminded me of that time in my life. We had a family 'meltdown' trying to get everyone dressed and out the door. I can remember thinking "If we can just make it to Church, everything will be so much better". Well, we made it, and as I expected, by the time we left, everything was ok.
During the sermon, Steve Flatt made a brief reference to II Corinthians 12:7 where the Apostle Paul asks God to remove his "thorn in the flesh". As I've been taught all of my life, he provides a list of possible physical ailments that Paul possibly had. The one that I've heard most often is that Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was poor eyesight. I've never understood that if Paul was dealing with a physical ailment, why God would say "My Grace is sufficient for you" in that passage.
I believe that we all have weaknesses. I know that I do. There are things that satan can put in my path that he knows I'll trip on everytime. Do you have a weakness that you struggle with? Do you feel like you will never get rid of the power of that particular temptation in your life? I believe that Paul had something that he struggled with Romans 7:14-25 seems to make that pretty clear. We don't know what Paul struggled with, but I can certainly identify with the feeling of "what a wretched man I am" whenever I stumble.
So, now let's go back to II Corinthians 12, and consider Paul's weakness to be his "thorn in the flesh". Does the passage make more sense? God says "My Grace is sufficient for you" and "My strength is made perfect in weakness". To me, these thoughts are so much more powerful than thinking that Paul was asking God to give him 20/20 vision.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Must have been something about yesterday. It was difficult for me too.
That was a great sermon. I'm really enjoying Steve Flatt.
I think it is significant that God decided that the thorn in the flesh would not be specifically explained.
I've heard people say (quite dogmatically) that it was Paul's eyesight... but the bible doesn't actually say anything of that sort in that passage.
Two things that we do know for certain...
(1) it was "a messenger from satan."
(2) God allowed it to keep Paul humble and dependent
It's significant to me to know God's grace is sufficient for me... through whatever it is that I may be experiencing. Also, it's important to remember that my brother or sister in Christ... don't need to be judged, they need to be loved as they may be experiencing a thorn in their flesh that God won't remove.
Many years ago, not long after my conversion, I was radically changed and actually very overbearing. If I had met a person professing to be a Christian and I saw them smoking... I would have pronounced them lost. Well, it didn't take long for me to start understanding all of my own weakness, failures, problems, inconsistencies... and firsthand learning what Paul meant when he wrote Romans 7. I now know and painfully understand what it's like to be a fellow struggler against sin, the world, and the devil...
I'm thankful that failure is not final for the Christian and I'm thankful that God's grace is sufficient.
Post a Comment