Living With Thorns (Part 2)
There is no such thing as a thorn-free life. As I pointed out yesterday, even if your life is a bed of roses now, there are thorns coming your way.
In his letter to the followers of Jesus in the Greek city of Corinth, Paul gives the reason for his thorn: Paul says God gave him the thorn to keep him humble. It is important to understand that Paul is not saying God pulled out his divine bow, took aim, and drilled him with a thorn.
In my previous post, I explained this using an example from my own life. Whatever the source of our thorns, the fact is, God uses those thorns to keep us humble and to keep us dependent on Him.
Romans 8:28 tells us God works everything in our lives together to make us better people and more faithful disciples. Paul understood this. That doesn’t mean Paul’s thorn didn’t hurt.
That brings us to the second thing about the thorns in our lives that we can learn from Paul’s experience -
Thorns hurt!
I realize that comes as no surprise to anyone, no new revelation. But it needs to be said. I don’t like pain. I’m sure you don’t either. But pain, if we let it, can transform our lives, and bring us closer to, and more aware of, God’s presence and grace.
The pain from Paul’s thorn led him to cry out three times to God, pleading with the Lord to remove it. But the answer from the Lord to Paul was - “My grace is all you need. My power in you is made complete through your weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)
Paul responded to God’s answer by telling the Corinthian disciples that he rejoiced in his thorns knowing that God’s power rested on him as he endured the pain.
That’s not the kind of thing I want to hear. I doubt you do either. But I can tell you, based on personal experience that pain has gotten my attention. Pain has given me reason to pause and reflect on my priorities in life.
Unlike Paul, I can’t think of any thorns that haven’t eventually been removed from my life. Mostly! However, I can think of several that have caused ongoing pain. And let me add, that the worst kind of ongoing pain is the pain of heart and soul.
But it was because of the ongoing, persistent pain from my thorns that I couldn’t just get back to “business as usual.” And thank God, because many of those thorns led me to make some changes that would have never been made if my thorn was removed too quickly. But God loved me enough to allow the thorn and to leave it until I became a better man.
I know it’s not easy to hear, but enduring the pain of your thorn, while crying out to God to help make you a better disciple of Jesus could be the best thing that ever happened to you.
Psalm 56:8 tells us God puts all our tears in a bottle. God sees and knows just how much you are suffering. Trust Him to work through your pain to make you a better person.
In Christ,
Dan