“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.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV
Paul was dealing with a problem but we are never told what it was. It could have been an illness, a burden or a situation that was difficult for him, he doesn’t tell us in scripture, but what he does tell us is that it was something that either made him weak or made him feel weak. He asked for this problem, which he called a thorn in his side, to be removed 3 times, but God did not remove it.
Paul had gone from being a zealot Jew who loved to persecute Christians to promoting Jesus as the Savior. He had believed prior to his conversion that Jesus was not the Messiah and therefore all those following Jesus were committing heresy calling Jesus the Son of God. Paul came from an elevated background, he was smart and he had a great deal of influence while he was in charge of persecuting Christians. When he was made blind on the road to Damascus, Paul was humbled and he left that powerful position to promote Jesus as the Messiah. During his time as a follower of Christ, Paul had visions and would “talk” with Jesus regularly.
With his background and what God was using Paul to accomplish, after his conversion, it is possible that Paul could have had the opportunity to become boastful in how he was being used to further the Kingdom of God. Sometimes God lets us continue to deal with a situation, experience an illness or struggle with a challenge to help us understand that we are not the One is charge. That we are special to Him but that we are not accomplishing the things we are doing by our own power.
The challenge for us as humans comes in we acknowledge that we aren’t able to do everything and that we don’t know the bigger plan for our lives or everything that is happening around us. Accepting God’s grace enables us to remain humble and remember that God is in charge. While accepting God’s grace we should also keep in mind that even though we are weak, God is strong and can always help us.
I believe our prayers are answered with one of 3 responses from God…yes, no and not now. We find it hard to accept the ‘no’ and ‘not now’ answers. In this case, God’s answer to Paul was ‘no’ when Paul asked for the thorn to be removed. God was using this challenge Paul was having to keep him humble. Paul had a choice then, he could resent God for allowing him to face this challenge or he could learn from the situation and accept God’s grace which would allow him to move through the challenge.
It is difficult for us as humans to admit when we are weak and it can be really hard for us to accept help from others during that time. Paul not only realizes that he needs to lean on Christ for strength but he then begins welcoming weakness. He knows that as it becomes evident to others that he is weak but he is able to face his challenges as they happen, then others can begin to see that it is by God’s strength that Paul is moving through those challenges, not his own.
This is a hard lesson for most of us to learn…acknowledging weakness and accepting grace. Have you accepted God’s grace lately?