Bullets for the Battle

When I Am Weak … Hallelujah!

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. II Corinthians 12:7-10

I still remember with startling clarity the first time the blessed Spirit made II Corinthians 12:7 real to me! The verse instantly put a new, stunning hope into my heart! Ponder Paul’s words of truth: “To keep me from being conceited (or too elated or getting the big head or giving in to self pride or putting myself on a high horse or thinking I was really somebody or acting superior or being overrated, etc.) because of these wondrous revelations the Lord has given me, He gave me a thorn in the flesh … .” Let’s save discussing what this thorn might have been for another time. The primary issue to consider is that 1) God Himself gave the thorn, 2) He didn’t want Paul to be too elated over revelations of truth, 3) rather, He wanted Paul to be elated most about Who the truth came from, 4) He desired that Paul recognize his desperate weakness so that he would seek, learn and appreciate God’s power, 5) He was determined that Paul learn the deeper dimensions of grace (God’s initiatives on our behalf) so he could become more and more like the Lord of glory—Jesus! (I Cor. 2:8).

Wow! We all need “this kind” of thorn! How well I remember those early years after my conversion! I was so joyous. Everything was going right for me and I had Jesus too! I was on top of the world. In fact, when I began to realize how good things were for me, I was so joyous I “kept rejoicing myself right out of fellowship with God.” I would suddenly realize I was leaving Him out of my life. I was more motivated by what I was given than by the One Who was giving it!! I was putting too much confidence in my revelations and my situation and my possibilities. This caused me to decrease my expectations and joy in Christ alone! Hasn’t it happened to you? Our answer to this severe error is to regain our thorn(s) and the lessons the Master is giving us.

Thorns are necessary! I had to learn it was Christ alone and not Christ plus … anything … that was the secret to abundant life! My efforts, my knowledge, my giftedness, my situation, my accomplishments, my position, my recognition, etc. were all pale seconds to the superior options of my Savior and my Lord! To think any other way only exposed my weak and fragmented thinking about the foundational truth of life, “… it is in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead lives in bodily form … and this fullness has been given to you ...” (Col. 2:2-4, 9-10). What utter weakness and foolishness and madness it is to displace Christ by seeking more excitement and fuller meaning in something else. Everything else is either secondary, irrelevant or a lie compared to experiencing the continuous presence and magnificence of the Lord Jesus!

Note how Eugene Peterson translates our verse in The Message, “Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations” (12:7).

Freedom from my thorn(s) could be the worst possible thing for me. I would miss grasping the greatness of true humility before the Savior (12:7). I would be blind to how to use my human weaknesses as my path to His grace initiatives in my daily life (12:9a). How else would I be alert enough to “Take up your cross daily” (Luke 9:23). I would not gain the impact strength that enables me to overcome (12:9b). I would not experience the joy that floods my soul in knowing that someone like Him everlastingly loves someone like me! (12:10). I would be denied the spiritually intoxicating wonder of supernaturally turning all my agonies and despairs into non-issues. In finding grace to replace my thorns my heart is flooded with confidence, wellbeing and delight. Truly tasting our Lord’s sufficiency and perfection creates an inner praise that passes understanding! There are no words to describe it!

Above all, I would not have learned that, in His great compassion for me, His “no” for my will is always my possible “yes” for His will (12:8). Our thorns are our gains! They bring the pains we cannot ignore so that certain weaknesses will be no more. Our “flesh effort” will wane and His “Spirit energy” will reign as we face and endure the realities of life (12:10). These pressing, inescapable “downers” that beat on us turn our “flesh trying” (human strength) into “grace trying” (Spirit yielding). To say “I’m trying” reeks too much of a flesh perversion and is doomed to mediocrity and probable failure. To say “I’m yielding” puts the emphasis where it belongs, “I’m trying to understand how the Lord is working in my life to increase my yielding to Him in this issue.” My paraphrase of this great passage goes like this, “When I discover how weak and void of power I really am, it propels me to faith-act (believe) His strength is already in me and will be released by my yielding to that truth.”

Let me summarize it all this way! Discovering my weaknesses can always open the door to Christ’s strength! What joy! Blessed is the Disciple who is learning how that works. To experience the exhilarating reality of it will put Paul’s incredible words in your own mouth, “For Christ's sake, I delight in my weaknesses …” (12:10). What a fantastic echo of dear David’s words in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

To delight in what the Father has designed is to discover the highest desires of your heart so that you can develop into a Disciple in whom He can delight! The greatest people who ever lived are those that brought the most delight to the Father. He in turn gave them the greatest delights of living. As our Lord declared, “I do always the things that please (delight) the Father” (John 8:29).

Perhaps this little poem, discovered and given to me by my faithful secretary of twenty plus years, will motivate you, as it did me, to praise our Creator-Redeemer-Perfecter for our thorns.

Unlocking Our Weaknesses

by J. Danson Smith

The text of this poem appears variously titled “Endurance” or “God-Given Thorns” or quoted untitled.

Strange gift indeed! - a thorn to prick,
To pierce into the very quick.
To cause perpetual sense of pain;
Strange gift! And yet, t’was given for gain.

Unwelcome, yet it came to stay;
Nor could it e'en be prayed away.
It came to fill its God-planned place,
A life-enriching means of grace.

And he who bore it day by day,
Found Christ his power, his strength, his stay.
In weakness glorified, since thereby
The power of Christ might on him lie.

Oh much-tried saint, with fainting heart,
The thorn with its perpetual smart,
With all its wearing ceaseless pain
Can be thy means of priceless gain.

God's grace-thorns, ah, what forms they take!
What piercing, smarting pain they make!
And yet, each one in love is sent,
And always just for blessing meant.

And so, whate're thy thorn may be,
From God accept it willingly,
But reckon Christ, His life, the power
To keep, in thy most trying hour.

And sure thy life will richer grow,
He grace sufficient will bestow.
And in Heaven's morn thy joy twill be
That, by His thorn, He strengthened thee.