THE THORN IN MY SIDE IS ON MY SIDE
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. [8]For this thing I besought the LORD thrice, that it might depart from me. [9]And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:7–9
Paul went from being overwhelmed by his problem, to accepting it, to embracing it. And that is the same journey that each one of us needs to take.
When I was 22 years old, I had a problem. I had been in church for two years. I loved my church, and I loved my pastor. I don’t even remember exactly what the situation was, but somebody made me really mad. I don’t remember if it was a hypocrite or gossip or something, but somebody made me so mad that I had made up my mind that I was going to leave the church and go to a church about 30 miles up the road.
There was only one small problem. I had not prayed about it, and that was not what the Lord wanted me to do.
So, He put a stop to it.
The transmission in my 1986 GMC Jimmy broke. I was so broke I couldn’t pay attention, and I didn’t have the money to fix it. I scraped and borrowed and prayed, and finally I fixed it. The next Sunday rolled around. I proudly got in my truck and headed to the church down the road. As I rolled out of the city limits, I looked behind me and saw billowing black smoke and flames. I was so mad that I literally fell to my knees and punched the dirt.
And to tell you the truth, I did not feel full of the Holy Ghost. I did not feel blessed and highly favored. I did not feel like a man of God. I did not feel called, and I did not feel chosen. But in that brief moment of frustration, if the Lord had seen fit to split the eastern sky, I’d have been gone, mud and all.
Because this is not about what we feel.
This is not about what kind of day we are having. This is about the eternity of our souls. And if we will stop for a moment and look around at the world around us, you and I are doing pretty good. I can say with certainty today that it is well with my soul.
Your feelings are not your reality. I don’t always feel victorious, but I am. I don’t always feel loved, but I am. I don’t always feel like an ambassador of Christ, but I am. It is well with your soul whether you feel totally enlightened in your walk with God or so confused that you don’t know what’s up and what’s down. It is well whether you are excited about what God is doing in your life or bored to tears. It is well whether you feel mightily used of God or feel like you are wasting everybody’s time.
You might not even feel saved.
But you’ll forgive me if I don’t really care how you feel today. I’m talking about the eternity of your soul.
The great Apostle Paul tells us about a “thorn in the flesh” that was “given” to him. Notice that word. It was a gift. It wasn’t inflicted upon him; it was given to him. It wasn’t sent to destroy him. It wasn’t sent to annihilate him. It was only sent to buffet him. Eventually, Paul saw it as a gift.
Of course, not at first.
At first, Paul asked the Lord to take it away. At first, he was overwhelmed by it. He couldn’t handle it. But then he learned to accept it. In the end, he embraced it as a precious gift from God: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities.”
Paul learned to embrace his problem.
We need to learn that too, because sometimes a problem is the best thing that can ever happen to you.
It was a problem that taught the Israelites that their miraculous God could part the Red Sea. It was a problem that showed the disciples that the Lord could calm the sea. It was the problem of a lion and a bear that taught David how to slay a giant. It was the problem of persecution that put Joseph in a position to save all of Israel and Egypt too.
A problem can show you how lost you are. A problem can show you how real and faithful God is. A problem can teach you what you need to know about this life. A problem can let you know who your friends are. A problem can bring out an anointing that you didn’t know you had. A problem can make you strong.
It ain’t never fun, but sometimes a problem can be the best thing in the world for you.
And Paul had a problem.
We are not exactly sure what Paul’s problem was. Maybe it was his temper. Maybe it was his health. Maybe it was his poverty. We don’t know. But he called it a “thorn in the flesh.”
A thorn in the flesh is not a small problem. It is an ongoing struggle that you have tried to solve and failed. You’ve tried to ignore it. You’ve tried to hide it. And still it haunts you every day. Paul’s thorn was bad enough that in three separate seasons he begged the Lord to do something about it. He was at the end of his rope, crying out for God to deliver him.
Paul was right to turn to the Lord when he was overwhelmed with life, because we serve a God who can do absolutely anything. When you have reached the end of your rope, you have not reached the end of your God.
This is the Lord who spoke a word and the whole universe came into being. This is the Lord who spoke a word and calmed the storm, who spoke the word and devils fled in fear, who spoke the word and the dead were raised. Above all, this is the God who made our redemption possible.
We serve a God who can do absolutely anything.
There is no sickness that He cannot heal. There is no bill that He cannot pay. There is no mountain that He cannot move. There is no backslider that He cannot stir. If you need deliverance, if you need a miracle, you have come to the right place because we serve a God who can do absolutely anything.
But sometimes you come looking for deliverance, and the answer is a very simple and unexplained no.
Maybe I’m the only one who has experienced it. You come to church and it just doesn’t pop. They can sing whatever songs they want to sing, and it doesn’t happen. The preacher can hit the high note, and you don’t feel anything. You leave more frustrated than when you came in.
Sometimes we come to the Lord who can do anything, and He does nothing about the thing we desperately want Him to change.
Sometimes the Lord who can do anything says, “No. You are better off in your problem, and to top it off, I’m not going to tell you why.”
If it happened to the great Apostle Paul, don’t be surprised if it happens to you.
Paul prayed, and the Lord answered, “My grace is sufficient unto thee.”
In other words, “Paul, it ain’t gonna kill you.”
Paul is at his wit’s end, crying out for help, and the Lord’s answer is essentially, “You’ll be all right.” Or, like my dad used to say, “Suck it up, cupcake!”
You think you’re about to die, but you’re going to be all right.
And it can be frustrating when the God who can do anything won’t do it for you. It can make you think you’re backslid. It can make you think something has gone terribly wrong. Maybe God didn’t hear you. Maybe God doesn’t care. Some people even become bitter over it.
“How long can I go on in this pain, day in and day out? Pain I didn’t cause and pain that I don’t have the power to fix? If I am a child of God and He can do anything, why would He leave me in this problem that is beyond my ability to resolve?”
Maybe it’s your temper. Maybe it’s your boss. Maybe it’s your debt. Maybe it’s depression. Maybe it’s old age. Maybe it’s your weight. Maybe it’s diabetes. Maybe it’s a child who just won’t stop getting into trouble.
Rest assured that we all have a thorn in the flesh. Every one of us has a thorn in the flesh.
And if you think you don’t, then your thorn in the flesh is that you don’t pay attention.
But if you have sought the Lord for deliverance and deliverance has not come, it just may be that the Lord is trying to whisper in your ear the same thing that He whispered into Paul’s ear: “My grace is sufficient unto thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
The Lord knows you better than you know yourself. He knows what you can handle. He knows when to say, “Peace, be still.” And He knows your problem.
It may even be that He has allowed that problem especially for you, as a gift, for a special reason.
The thorn in your side is on your side.
You may not see it, but one way or another that thorn may be serving a purpose that you cannot live without. It may be that the thorn is teaching you something. It may be that you were headed down the wrong road and that thorn stopped you in your tracks. It may be that the thorn has molded you into the person you are today.
It may even be that the thorn has saved your eternal soul.
There are many good reasons that the Lord might see fit to allow us to suffer for a season. Trouble teaches us lessons that we cannot learn any other way. Trouble puts us in a position to understand things that nobody else would understand. Trouble brings glory to God. Trouble gets our attention. Trouble connects us with people whom we never would have known in any other way.
For Paul, one of the reasons was clear: “lest I should be exalted above measure.”
Paul was a holy and anointed man of God who played a tremendous role in the founding of the Christian church. That could easily have gone to his head. His accomplishments could easily have tempted people to worship him or to put far too much confidence in him. He was a great man, but he was still just a man. His trials and troubles made sure that both he and everybody else remembered that.
But perhaps the greatest purpose of the trials that the saints of God face is found in another phrase from Paul: “that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Too many people are busy trying to run away from their trials, trying desperately to be delivered from their thorn in the flesh, while at the same time praying for the power of Christ to rest upon them. We may never realize that it was the thorn in the flesh that brought the power of Christ.
That realization caused Paul to stop praying for deliverance, to accept his thorn, and finally to embrace it.
It wasn’t pleasant. It wasn’t comfortable. But it was that thorn that brought the power of Christ to rest upon him.
When Paul finally realized this, something changed in him. We no longer see a man overwhelmed by his problems. He was no longer overwhelmed; he was anointed. He was no longer afraid; he was anointed. There was a purpose in his life more important than feeling good and being at ease.
When he stood before Festus, he was not afraid. He said, “I appeal unto Caesar.” When he was shipwrecked on the island of Melita, while other men were trying to figure out what to do, Paul started gathering sticks.
His attitude became the attitude he describes in 2 Corinthians 4: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.”
Paul’s circumstances had not necessarily changed.
Paul had changed.
The thorn was still a thorn. The weakness was still weakness. The trouble was still trouble. But Paul finally understood that there was something more important than his comfort. There was a purpose behind his problem.
And there is a purpose more important than your comfort too.
The operation of the church is more important. Your witness to your neighbors is more important. The destiny of your soul is more important than how you feel today.
Peter wrote that although we may be “in heaviness through manifold temptations,” the trial of our faith is “much more precious than of gold that perisheth.” Gold is purified by fire. Faith is proven through trials. And ultimately, Peter reminds us what is waiting on the other side: “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”
Maybe you have prayed three times like Paul.
Maybe you have prayed three hundred times.
Maybe you have asked God to remove something from your life, and it is still there. Maybe you have wondered why the God who can do absolutely anything has not done this one thing for you.
Perhaps the answer is not that God has forgotten you.
Perhaps the answer is not that your prayer failed.
Perhaps there is something that thorn is doing in you that comfort never could.
Paul was overwhelmed by his thorn. Then he accepted his thorn. Finally, he embraced his thorn, because he discovered that his weakness was the very place where the strength of Christ rested upon him.
So if the thorn will not leave, hold on to the grace that will not leave either.
His grace is sufficient.
His strength is made perfect in weakness.
And the very thing that seems to be against you may, in the hands
And the very thing that seems to be against you may, in the hands of God, be working for you.
The thorn in your side may be on your side.