Good Morning Friends,
“To 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. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take
it away from me. But 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. That 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.”(2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
Not all of my prayers are answered in the way
that I think they should be. Sometimes it is like God has turned a deaf ear to
my requests. Sometimes there seems to be an answer, but it’s not the one I
expected. Sometimes my prayers are answered in the way that I thought they should
be.
Paul had that same experience with prayer. You
can read the account of his ministry as it is recorded in the book of Acts and
you’ll see many amazing answers to prayer. There were times when God responded
with miraculous power to Paul’s requests, even to the point of raising someone
from the dead. But not all of Paul’s prayers were answered with miraculous
power. There were times when it seemed that even in Paul’s life God had turned
a deaf ear. It is one of those times that Paul is talking about in today’s
text.
It was a thorn in the flesh that Paul prayed
about. He wanted to get rid of it. It was bothering him. It was a torment that
hindered his effectiveness in spreading the Gospel. At least, that’s what Paul
thought. So, as a man of faith, Paul asked God to take it away. He’d seen
miracles in the lives of others and even in his own life and expected to see
one this time, too. But no miracle came. God didn’t do anything to take away or
even ease the problem that plagued Paul.
After several requests, Paul finally got an
answer, but it still wasn’t the one he expected, or wanted. Instead, God said
that He wasn’t going to remove Paul’s thorn -- Paul needed it. Although it
seemed a hindrance to Paul, God knew that it was actually a help to him. It
made him a more effective servant of God, not a less effective one.
Sometimes that’s why our prayers aren’t
answered the way we think they should be -- because God sees things differently
than we do. We don’t always ask for what is best for us -- so like any good
parent, God sometimes says “no.”
His, by Grace,
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment