II Corinthians 12: 7-10

II Corinthians 12: 7-10 says, 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.

This has always been another fascinating scripture in the Bible. I've never really understood it. How can Christ's power be made perfect in my weakness? Recently, I had a revelation. I have a "thorn" in my flesh that I had believed the Lord would take away. It's a weakness that has drawn me into sin my entire adult life. I hate it and I have to fight with it daily, so I have agonized over it for years. I've done everything I know to do and I've prayed every prayer I know to pray, but still, it remains. Finally, God spoke to me that I He may never release me from this grinding temptation by taking away my desire, because it keeps me desperate for Him. It keeps me humble and he reminded me of this scripture. It actually made me feel alot better! For some reason, I felt condemned that I had been unable to conquer this daily battle within myself. The fact that the battle raged within me became something that condemned me. I thought I was no good to God as long as the desire still raged within me. I thought I had to have it completely conquered. I thought I had to hide my issue. It almost consumed me and I had grown hopeless that I could ever change. Not that I have continued in sin, but I thought that even having the desire was my sin. Anyway, it had drug me down. Since God reminded me of that scripture and told me it was my "thorn" to keep me humble, I have a completely different outlook!

Any thoughts to share? Thanks, Dian

hi, the greatest need in todays church is humility... if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves...no sense praying until you realize that ego is our enemy... look at all the knit picking on this wonderful site and smell the stentch of pride and arogance we display with our i am correct attitudes... we need to realize how dependant we are on Jesus... without Him we are worms,arrogant worms with our fist clenched toward God telling Him how we can run the church better than He canand our lives also...Jesus let us stay with the cross...let us never leave the source of holiness and peace with God... the FINISHED work of Jesus.jimp

Spitfire wrote:

This has always been another fascinating scripture in the Bible. I've never really understood it. How can Christ's power be made perfect in my weakness? Recently, I had a revelation. I have a "thorn" in my flesh that I had believed the Lord would take away. It's a weakness that has drawn me into sin my entire adult life.

That which you seem to be talking about would be more of an unlawful affection of your flesh which you still have, which weakens your stance to temptation.

This is not a thorn, but a flesh thing, not a thron in the flesh thing.

God spoke to me that I He may never release me from this grinding temptation by taking away my desire, because it keeps me desperate for Him. It keeps me humble and he reminded me of this scripture.

This “[color=990000]vanity[/color]” (temporalness) along with the “bondage of corruption” from the following verse is because of Him (God) who has subjected it in hope of the adoption.

That is, the redemption of our bodies which is the glorious liberty of the children of God.

This HOPE helps in our salvation (see Romans 8:24)