“Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.” (2 Corinthians 12:8 NKJV)
“And He (Jesus) said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV)
“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities (weakness), in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10 NKJV)
Ready to keep going? Let’s get right to it.
“Religious Tradition” interpretation of verses 8 – 10: “I begged God to heal me and He said no. He gave me this to teach me humility and to enable me to rely on His grace to live with it. Since having this issue is obviously God’s will I will learn to make the best of it and rely on Christ’s power to move forward.”
We tend to build our theology on what we don’t have, and what we don’t experience. Since sickness and disease run rampant in this fallen world, and so many have begged God for healing without experiencing the desired result, we have interpreted passages like this one to fit our circumstances.
Here is what I believe we are being taught: “I cried out to Jesus 3 times to get this demon out of my life. His response was, “‘I have already given you the power (grace) to kick him out of your life. Use the grace that I have supplied and watch my strength become fully active in your life.’ Based on Jesus’ response I did this and experienced the delivering power of Christ fully in my situation.”
Many times the reason it appears that we don’t receive answers to our prayers is because we are asking God to do what He has already done. Paul already had the empowerment (grace) needed to cast this demon out. From this experience Paul learned how to enforce Satan’s defeat in his life. This enabled him to write to the Ephesians a few years later and teach them how to be victorious in spiritual warfare. No where else in Paul’s writings do we read of him asking God to deal with the devil for him. Through this battle with his “thorn in the flesh” (messenger demon assigned to steal, kill, and destroy Paul and his ministry) Paul learned first hand the lesson of victorious spiritual warfare that he taught from that point forward.
Tomorrow we are going to zoom in on verse 10. What exactly were the things that Paul was suffering “for Christ’s sake?” What did he mean when he said, “For when I am weak, then I am strong?” For today, keep seeking the Spirit’s leading in processing…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 77: “Time to turn over the apple cart.” Part 12: It’s my thorn in the flesh. (I’ve got some tweezers you can borrow) continued