It’s by God’s grace we are given the amazing gift of salvation. Sometimes we connect his grace only with salvation. However, His grace is much deeper than salvation only. God’s grace can sustain us through any storm in life.

This is one of my favorite passages of scripture. Paul wrote this letter to the people of Corinth. He wrote this letter to address the false teachers that were questioning his authority.

He broke his message into two sections.

Paul boasts about his vision of paradise. v1-6

In order to defened himself Paul had to boast about himself. Paul was a great man of integrity. A very humbled man. That truly defined what it is like to deny yourself and take up your cross. Boasting for him went against all his beliefs. It was the last thing he wanted to do. However, in this scenario he didn’t have a choice. So what did he do? He boasted about his weakness instead. He boasted humbly. As he didn’t want the spotlight on him. This is why he said I know a man in Christ in verse 12 (2 Corinthians 12:2).

Imagine you had a vison of heaven. You would most likely be running to everyone you know to tell them about it. In this day of time there are many people that claimed they went to heaven and came back. One thing to question are they really telling the truth or just looking to put the spotlight on them. Paul was the complete opposite. He always wanted the spotlight on Christ and he did that by not boasting about his vision of heaven until it was needed as a defense against the false teachers in Corinth.

Paul’s painful experience v 7-10

Paul had a thorn in his flesh. Many people have done a lot of studies about what Paul could have meant by the thorn? The bible does not tell us. SO every study done are just speculations on what it could have been. Since he said his flesh some beieve it ha something to do with his body. It could have been an earache, headache, eye trouble etc. Other’s believe that his thorn could have been a reference to the fallen nature of the world and maybe it was a temptation. Your guess is as good as mine. We do know that it was a trial in his life.

Paul responded to this trial in three ways

• He prayed - when a time of difficulty comes we should turn to God in prayer. How should we pray? We can pray like Paul did asking God to take away his thorn. To take away his suffering. Or we can pray for help through that thorn. In that sense we are praying for God’s will to be done not ours. When we pray for God’s will to be done the main thing should seek from God is discernment(James 1:5).
• He acknowledged that the thorn was allowed by God - Paul says in verse 7 that the thorn in his flesh was given to him by God. So Paul accepted that this was in God’s will for him. So when you have a trial in life think about it like Paul’s thorn. What does God wants you to learn from this thorn? In Paul’s situation it was to keep him from becoming proud. It was also preventive to keep him from sinnning.

• He focused on the spiritual gain - What was the spirtual blessings.

  • The thorn forced Paul to keep turning to prayer. Which, brought him closer to God. Key thing to remember is that God’s want us on our knees (2 Chronicles 7:14)
  • It kept Paul humble.
  • It allowed God to use him.
  • It taught Paul that God’s grace is sufficient. We are not only saved by God’s grace but we are also sustained by Gods grace. It’s by God’s sustaining grace that we get through any trial in life. How do we allow God’s sustaining grace to work in our lifes? We need to be weak. It’s when we are weak. God’s strength is made perfect. Remember this always. It is okay to be weak. Right now our nation feel weaks. There is not much we can do to stop the coronavirus. It is all in God’s control and that is when His true glory and grace can shine.

Your brother in Christ,
Craig

Lord we thank you for this amazing scripture. Help us to be like Paul and remember that you are with us through any trial in life. Help us to be humble and turn to you. Help us to acknowledge that it is your will we want done in our lifes and not us. You want to use us and we can make that happen by believing in Christ and always turning to you in prayer. In the mighty powerful name of Jesus.

Amen!