Thorny Acorns

This morning Ellie came running into the house from playing outside. She was crying about something inside of her shoe. She ran to me and plopped herself down at my feet, all the while, making huge attempts to get get her sandal off. I peeled her sandal off and a very small acorn rolled out. I dried her tears and rubbed the bottom of her foot and all was well.

God immediately brought me to 2 Corinthians 12:7 when Paul was given "a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me - to keep me from exalting myself!" Although Paul never said what the thorn was, Scripture says that he asked God 3 times to take it away from him (vs8). What was God's answer "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." (vs9) Paul says in vs 10 "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

What a powerful passage. God gave Paul a thorn to keep him humbled and close to him. Then He told Paul 'My grace is enough for you, when you're weak, my power is perfected.' Wow. I've heard many a godly people say that pride is the root of all sin. So we see here that God was doing the most loving thing for Paul - keeping him humbled so that he wouldn't be tempted to exalt himself.

How we run to God with the things we want him to take away. And so many times He tells us like He told Paul. My grace is enough for you __your name here__, for when you are weak, my power is perfected."

A oouple things to note: 1. We can go to God and ask Him to take it away. We need to be prepared that He might say 'No'.
2. Paul accepted his thorn "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses. This is our goal - to be well content with the weakness, recognizing that when we are weak, we are the strongest (vs 10).

So precious friends, our thorns, as horribly painful as they are, are keeping us running to Him, crying out to Him. Be encourgaed that if He doesn't remove them, He is using them to keep you humbled before Him. Proverbs 16:18 "Pride comes before the fall, a haughty spirit before destruction." So we can Praise Him for protecting us from falling and destruction! And we can know that we are actually the strongest when we are at our weakest!