That Thorn In Your Side

My prayer for a while was “Lord make me a mighty person in you, use me mightily oh Lord that I may one day hear you say well done thou good and faithful servant”. As I prayed this prayer I didn’t realize what it meant to be a mighty man in God. I didn’t realize that to become mighty in God I had to accept my weaknesses and let God use me in my weaknesses. There I was waiting for God to remove everything in me that was weak, all my faults, my flaws, and my troubles. I was waiting for God to say “Ok you want to be mighty? Then I must first remove this flaw, this weakness, this problem, and that trouble.” As I waited I grew impatient and anxious and I began crying out to the Lord even louder saying “God, remove anything in me that does not please you that I may serve you with a holy heart and mind.” I was so desperate for God to make me a new creature that I kept saying “God, give me a new heart like you gave Paul.” It is not until I started writing this message that I realized what God had really given Paul.

Yes, God transformed Paul on the road to Damascus and started using him mightily; however in II Corinthians we see that He didn’t remove all of Paul’s flaws and weaknesses (II Cor. 12:7). Paul had a flaw, a weakness of some sort that according to him “buffeted” him. In other words whatever the thorn was disturbed him, pounded him, battered him, pushed him around, and bullied him; much like my own weaknesses were doing to. Paul besought God three times for his thorn to be removed (II Cor. 12:8). He probably cried out to God the same way I did saying “God, remove this thorn that I may serve you with a holy heart and mind.” Three times, he cried out to God.

If Paul was anything like me, he probably went from being repentant saying;

“God, I’m sorry that I was such a horrible sinner before you found me. I’m sorry that I persecuted Christians for your names sake. But Lord, you have cleansed me and all that is behind me now. Remove this thorn then that I may do even more work for you. Remove this limitation that I may win even more souls for you.”

Hearing a no, he probably became a bit frustrated and decided to change tactics saying;

“Lord, you are all I live for. You are my everything, I live to honor you, and to worship you. I will do anything you ask because you are my all. Please Father, remove this thorn that I may be able to do all the work you ask me to do. Remove this thorn that I may be able to work for you more effectively.”

After hearing another no he probably became angry and frustrated screaming;

“Lord, why won’t you heed my cry? Why won’t you remove this annoying thorn that I may become a better servant for you? It is because of your work that I want this thorn removed. It is because I want to do more for you that I ask you to remove this thorn. Why won’t you answer my cries? You promised that anything we asked in your name would be given to us, why won’t you grant me this request? You came to heal the sick and to deliver the tormented, why won’t you deliver me from this messenger of Satan?”

But still the Lord maintained His answer. All three times the Lord gently and lovingly said NO.

Many of us have besought the Lord numerous times for own thorns to be removed. We’ve cried;

“Lord, heal this disease that I may be able to serve you more.”

“Lord, provide for me that I may be able to do you work more efficiently.”

“Lord, make me braver, make me stronger, make me better that I may truly do your work.”

“Lord, give me a special skill, a talent, a gift that I may be able to draw people unto you.”

I sympathize, I know how it feels to cry out to the Lord and think He’s not listening. I’ve been there and it’s not a nice place to be. You ask yourself why God’s not answering your prayer. What you ask for isn’t bad after all? Did He not promise that anything we ask in His name would be given to us (Mt. 21:22, Jn. 14:14, 15:7, 16:24)? Why then would He ignore our cries, surely He must be ignoring them because He’s not a man that He should lie (Nu. 23:19). All these scriptures we hide in our hearts and hold them against God, forgetting that He has our best interests at heart. Forgetting that He does not think like we think and that His way of thinking is much higher than our way of thinking (Is. 55:8). Forgetting that He knows all and He knows what lurks ahead therefore His thoughts towards us are thoughts of good and not evil (Je. 29:11-13).

Instead we focus on the thorns in our sides that torment us. We look at these thorns as limitations of what we could be doing for the Lord. We blame these thorns for stopping us or hindering us from doing more for the Lord. Like Paul, we cry out to the Lord saying please remove these thorns that we may do more for you. We so absorb ourselves in our cries to the Lord, in our begging, and pleading that we tune out His voice. We ignore His answer saying “no, it’s just the devil trying to bring me down”; “it’s just my imagination because I’m weary”. We pursue God more fervently than ever thinking if we beseech Him enough times He’ll change His mind and thus His answer. But, as many times as we cry out to the Lord He continues to lovingly and gently say NO.

The bad news is God is not going to change his mind. God didn’t change his mind for Paul, all three times He said no until Paul finally understood why God had said no. Now, here’s the good news “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelation…” (II Cor. 12:7). There it is the reason behind God’s no; what He’s been trying to tell us all along.

Lest any of us should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the work God has used us for. Lest any of us should grow wings and become proud of ourselves. Lest any of us should begin to think we have done the work and not the Lord. Lest any of us should draw attention to ourselves and not to the Lord. Lest any of us should take credit for His work. Lest any of us should begin to think we can do this on our own. Lest we do away with God completely and begin to rely on ourselves. For these reasons and more He has given us thorns in our sides. For these reasons and more He will leave those thorns right where they belong, in our sides.

That through our weakness His strength may be made perfect (I Cor. 1:27, II Cor. 12:9-10, 13:4, He. 11:33-34). Because when we are weak, He makes us strong (Ps. 116:6). The Bible says God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. He has chosen the weak things, the lowly things of this world to confound the strength of this world (I Cor. 1:27). God is not interested in using strong people. If you are already strong without Him why do you need Him then? If you can already do His work without him, win souls without Him, live this life without Him what need then do you have of Him? ‘They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick’ (Mt. 9:12). Those who are already strong on their own don’t need the strength of God. It is those of us who are weak, those of us who are sick, those of us with thorns in our sides that need the strength of God.

How much of a miracle would it be for a strong man to do the work of God and succeed? How much of a miracle would it be for a rich man to build a church? Hardly a surprise at all; neither would it draw people to God. But for a poor man to build a church with his empty pockets? People would look and say “surely that is God because that man doesn’t even have enough money to feed himself, where then did he get the money to build this church?”

For a weak man to travel across the country with his disease preaching and teaching people about Jesus, baptizing and laying hands on people that they may receive the holy ghost? Surely that is God because this man does not even have the strength to get out of his bed every morning, how then could he have done all this?

Through the use of the weak things of this world, God ensures that the attention remains on Him and that the glory is His and His alone. We need to be reminded of our dependence on the Lord; we need to be reminded that without Him we can do nothing (Jn. 15:5). What better way to do that than to be reminded daily of our weakness? That thorn in our side is a reminder of His grace, of His strength, of His miracles, and of our mission. One author wrote that, “God would prefer we have an occasional limp than a perpetual strut.”

So that we do not lose sight of God’s plan for us, He has left these thorns in our sides. Instead of crying out to God for the thorns to be removed, we should take pleasure in our infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distress for Christ’s sake (II Cor. 12:10). We should, therefore, thank God for Him being able to use us in our imperfect conditions.