7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
From lemons to lemon drops
We can’t be entirely sure what the thorn in the flesh was that Paul spoke of, but it was a physical affliction of some kind. In any case, we are still able to apply the lessons Paul learned to our own afflictions, physical or otherwise.
In our lives, we receive many of our blessings through transformation, rather than substitution. When Paul prayed three times for the removal of his affliction, he was saying “God, give me health instead of sickness, deliverance instead of pain and weakness.” But many times, instead of removing what burdens us, God gives us grace so that the affliction works for us and not against us.
That reminds me of my favorite verse of scripture: Romans 8:28. My paraphrase of it goes like this: God causes everything to work out for those that love Him and are seeking to live according to His purpose for them.
I have endured a great many trials in my life, and through every one of them, God has been faithful to help me embrace this verse which assures me that He is with me through ALL things, not merely some or most of them.
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