“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.” (II Corinthians 12:7-10)

Thoughts… Do you ever wonder why God allows you to struggle with certain things? Perhaps there is a physical limitation from which you have asked God time and again to heal you, but to no avail. Maybe there is a limitation in your ability to learn or speak or a lack of confidence in interacting with others that holds you back, and you have desperately sought for God to give you victory over it, but he has not. Perhaps there has been a struggle with a particular sin over the years, and you have agonized in prayer that God would remove it, but your prayers seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

The Apostle Paul had something like that going on in his life, too. He called it a “thorn in my flesh”. He felt it was a direct assault from Satan. And he prayed intensely that God would deliver him from whatever it was. There has been conjecture as to what the thorn in the flesh actually was. Many think it was a physical malady. Tradition tells us that Paul had plenty of physical limitations. Some think it the “thorn” was a person who was opposing Paul and his work. Then there are a few who surmise that it was a temptation to which Paul was particularly susceptible. Who knows for sure, but what we do know is that it was really bugging Paul—to the point that he felt frustrated enough to get really serious before God about it.

One of the things I appreciate about Paul is his ability to gain an eternal perspective on things. He was able to re-theologize the negative circumstances in his life to where he could see the mighty hand of God aligning things for his benefit. Such was the case here. If God saw fit to leave this pesky thorn in Paul’s side, then God must have a purpose. The purpose here, he finally figured out, was to keep him from conceit, since throughout his ministry he had been given so many unusual experiences in the supernatural dimension that it would have been easy to steer into the ditch of pride. Paul needed a little humility, and God gave him a thorn to keep him weak, and therefore humble, in a particular area.

But it wasn’t just humility for humility’s sake that Paul needed, God wanted Paul to come into a much more important understanding of how the Kingdom of God works. God wanted Paul to have a firsthand experience of grace. Paul was the Apostle of grace, so through this experience where all Paul could do to survive was depend on God’s unmerited favor, he learned to embrace grace. Paul learned one of the most important lessons a Christian can ever learn: That through grace, our weaknesses are parlayed into God’s supernatural strength, which enables us to achieve kingdom success that result in all the credit going to God.

That’s why Paul could be grateful for his weakness. That’s why he could tolerate his thorn. That’s why he could turn his disadvantage into an advantage. Satan afflicted him with a thorn, but God overcame it to bring good for Paul and glory for himself.

Charles Spurgeon wrote, “Soar back through all your own experiences. Think of how the Lord has led you in the wilderness and has fed and clothed you every day. How God has borne with your ill manners, and put up with all your murmurings and all your longings after the ‘sensual pleasures of Egypt!’ Think of how the Lord’s grace has been sufficient for you in all your troubles.”

God’s grace is sufficient—always, It was suffiecent for Paul. And because God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and because he loves you just as much as he did Paul, God’s grace will be sufficient for you! Start looking at your thorn from a different perspective. It might hurt a little—maybe even a lot, thorns tend to do that—but God is going to use your present struggle to achieve an eternal glory that will far outweigh any discomfort you feel in the present.

In that sense, glory in your weakness, for when you are weak, God is strong.

Prayer… Lord, thank you that in my weakness, I receive your strength! Thorns may pierce me, but they drive me to you, to a deeper experience of your grace than I would have known without them. In my weakness, your sufficient grace is revealed, and I am strengthened to overcome. You give victory when it seems that defeat will define my life in such a way that all the credit goes to you. Therefore I will boast all the more that in my many weaknesses, I am strong in your strength.

One More Thing… “To all who find their days declining, to all upon whom age is creeping with its infirmities, to all whose strength seems steadily to ebb….God seems to take our last things, and as it were, pack them up for our journey. These are tokens that you are approaching land. They are signs that the troubles of the sea are almost over.” —Henry Ward Beecher

“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” (II Corinthians 11:30)

Thoughts… II Corinthians is a unique letter in that Paul spends much of his time defending his apostolic ministry to the church at Corinth. Apparently, other so-called “apostles” had wormed their way into the church and were not only leading the believers away from their pure and sincere devotion to Christ (10:3), they were gaining credibility for their own authority by putting Paul’s credibility and authority down. And it was working.

So Paul, being a spiritual father to these believers, had to take drastic action and remind them of his “street cred” — how he had earned his stripes as an apostle. While the false apostles were bragging about their superior spirituality and awe-inspiring ministry gifts, Paul began to list his own ministry accomplishments — things that most ministers would never brag about:

• I’ve been in prison more times
• I’ve been beaten more times
• I’ve face death on several occasions
• I’ve received 39 lashes five times
• I’ve been pummeled with rods three times
• I was stoned once
• I was shipwrecked three times
• I spend a day and a night drifting at sea
• I’ve face life-threatening floods
• I’ve faced robbers
• I endured sleepless nights
• I’ve gone without food and water
• I have experience hypothermic conditions
• And if all that weren’t enough, I have had to worry about you being deceived by these “super apostles”.

Quite a resume, isn’t it. There is probably not a church in America today that would hire Paul to be their pastor. Boasting about spending more time in jail than the other pastoral candidates probably wouldn’t win you many points with a pulpit committee.

Yet Paul finds his sufferings for the cause of Christ to be the basis for boasting. And I think he has pretty firm ground to stand on before the Lord. One day when we stand before Christ, it will be our scars, not our stars, that will cause the Master to swell with pride. It will be the sacrifice of blood, sweat and tears more than the outward successes that we’re so enamored with that will carry credibility with the Lord.

Perhaps that’s how we ought to evaluate spiritual authority and ministry success—by how much suffering for Christ has been endured.

Let me suggest that beginning today, you start evaluating your Christian experience from that perspective. Assess your own walk with God in terms of what it is costing rather than what you are gaining. Evaluate the ministries you engage in or are enamored with by how God has strengthened them in their weaknesses rather than how much they’ve accomplished through their own charisma, charm, wealth and power.

I am not suggesting that we should go out of our way to suffer. What I am saying is that every once in a while, the life of faith probably ought to get us into some of the same kind of hot water Paul often found himself in.

Prayer… Lord, what I love so dearly about you are the scars in your hands and feet from the nails that pierced them, and the wounds on your back and your brow that your bore on the cross for me. Without your scars, you would not be my Savior. So why would I not evaluate my own life that way…by my scars and not my stars? Why do I look at the glamour and the glitz of a ministry to determine its value rather than the scars from the sacrifice that it made? Help me to change my perspective. Help me to see things as you see them. Help me to celebrate what you celebrate. Help me to embrace what you embrace. If I boast, Lord, may I boast in the things that show how your strength is revealed in my weakness!

One More Thing… “They gave our Master a crown of thorns. Why do we hope for a crown of roses?” —Martin Luther

“Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (II Corinthians 11:14)

Thoughts… C.S. Lewis said that we need to be careful about giving the devil too much credit. But I think we’d have to agree with Paul that he is a brilliant master of disguise. Most of us make the childish assumption that he will come at us wearing a red suit with a pointy tail holding a pitchfork, so to speak. We wrongly assume his attack will be a frontal one, where pure evil will be unleashed upon us in unmistakable ways.

How easy our job of resisting him would be if that were the case. The spiritual war we are in would be over in a heartbeat if it were that easy to identity our enemy and expose his strategy.

But that is not the case. He is the craftiest creature in all the universe—that’s why he was so easily able to deceive Adam and Eve. He is called the deceiver, afterall, for good reason. He is a liar, and the father of lies, Jesus said, and he’s pretty good at that too.

It might surprise you to know that the devil attends church with you every Sunday. He might even be sitting in the pew next to you. Sometimes, he shares the pulpit with the speaker. Karl Barth pointed out, “The devil may also make use of morality.” Perhaps upon further review, you’ve heard a few of those well-intended sermons.

It also might be a shock to you to know that Satan has a better grasp of the Bible than you do. Shaekespeare said, “The devil can cite scripture for his purpose.” If he used God’s Word to tempt Jesus, what makes you think he won’t use it to tempt you.

The devil even uses righteousness for his evil plans. Rather than using only pure evil, Satan does much damage by twisting good just enough to cause it to miss the mark by an inch in our lives. Jonathan Edwards taught, “The devil can counterfeit all the saving operations and graces of the Spirit of God.” Perhaps his greatest victory in our lives is getting us to accept the good instead of the best.

Satan is smart, very smart indeed. While getting us to focus on what is “really evil”, he lulls us into the acceptance of what is only “kind of evil”. C.S. Lewis wrote, “The devil loves ‘curing’ a small fault by giving you a great one.” Paul shares this very concern the Corinthian Christians, “I’m afraid that exactly as the Snake seduced Eve with his smooth patter, you are being lured away from the simple purity of your love for Christ.” (II Corinthians 11:3) We need to be careful that nothing distracts us from what should be a pure and simple devotion to Jesus Christ—because Satan is really good at that.

Don’t underestimate the enemy. Don’t give him too much credit, but don’t make the mistake of thinking he is a rookie at this evil stuff. He’s pretty good.

But he’s not as good as the Holy Spirit who resides in you, giving you the gift of discernment, the will to resist and the power to overcome the enemy on all fronts. Take courage, because greater is he that is within you than he that is within the world.

So go give the devil a black eye today—he deserves it!

Prayer… Lord, you have overcome the evil one, and so shall I. I shall overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of my testimony. Give me strength this day to resist him and wisdom to see where he is operating in my life. At the end of this day, may his kingdom be diminished and yours extended because of my faithfulness.

One More Thing… “Like a good chess player, Satan is always trying to maneuver you into a position where you can save your castle only by losing your bishop.” —C.S. Lewis

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” (II Corinthians 10:4)

Thoughts… What is your biggest battle right now? What are the little skirmishes that are preventing your peace of mind? What is the wrestling match that you never seem to gain a complete victory?

Whatever you are facing in your life, remember that the real enemy is neither flesh and blood nor difficult circumstances. Your real enemy is not a troublesome spouse or a rebellious child or an overbearing boss. It is not a crippling disease or a shaky economy or an uncooperative job market. Rather, you are facing an unseen spiritual enemy that masks as real human beings and challenging circumstances.

So Paul says if you are going to fight—and fight you must or you will be taking it on the proverbial chin early and often—then you’d better learn to employ the spiritual weapons at that God has put at your disposal. Those weapons are powerful, Paul says, because they pack a divine punch that will destroy the demonic strongholds that are behind the challenging relationships and difficult circumstances you are facing.

What are those weapons? First and foremost is the weapon of prayer. It is through prayer that we access the power of God to overcome all the attacks of the enemy. Samuel Chadwick preached, “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”

Second is the Word of God—Divine truth to annihilate the deception that Satan uses as his chief weapon.  When Jesus was facing the onslaught of the enemy in the wilderness, an onslaught, by the way, that was made up primary of twisted Scripture, he used the Word of Truth, correctly handling it to set the devil back on his heels.  One thing the devil doesn’t fear in the Christian’s arsenal, however, is a dusty Bible.

Third is the authority of the name of Jesus — all the demons of hell tremble at that name.

Fourth is the righteousness of Christ that we wear as a breastplate — righteousness by which we live a holy and pure life of integrity that keeps us from being vulnerable to an enemy looking for any chink in our armor.

We were made to win. God has given us every weapon that we need to live the victorious Christian life. These are our WMD’s. Now we’ve got to make sure we use them.

Prayer… Lord, in you I am completely victorious. You are my shield and my strength. Through you I will overcome. You have provided every weapon to destroy the enemy’s efforts to destroy me. By your Spirit, through your Word, and by the blood of Jesus, I am more than a conqueror. Thank you for guaranteeing and securing my victory.

One More Thing… “Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign in sabotage.” —C.S. Lewis

“Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (II Corinthians 9:7-8)

Thoughts… Paul has been teaching the Corinthian Christians for two whole chapters now about the ministry of giving, and he gives some pretty clear guideline in these two verses as to how you can become the kind of giver in which God gets takes great delight.

First, you are to give with authenticity. No one should tell you how to give or how much to give—not even the preacher. “You are to decide” about giving, Paul says. You need to dig way down deep and come to grips about the ministry of giving, until it is a core value that drives your personal stewardship.

Second, you are to give out of heartfelt desire. Give because you really love God and want to demonstrate your love with a tangible expression of your devotion to him. Don’t do it because it will make you feel better, ease your guilt or make you look good. Don’t do it just because you feel pressured to do it, like the boy who misquoted the verse, “Each should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not repulsively or under convulsions.” Paul teaches you are to give because it’s what you want to do. Do it from a decided heart. If your gift doesn’t send the message of genuine desire, it won’t count.

Third, you are to give with delight. Why? “For God loves a cheerful giver.” A truly authentic and heartfelt giver will enjoy giving the gift. They don’t think of giving as a loss or a requirement or a burden, rather they think of the joy it brings and the love it communicates to the recipient. That’s what we’re told in Hebrews 12:2 about Jesus, our example of joyful generosity, “For the joy set before him, endured” the cross—the ultimate act of giving.

Fourth, you are to give expectantly. Paul teaches that when you give in a way that is pleasing to the Lord—authentically, from the heart, and joyfully, you can expect that God will make sure you always have plenty to give away: “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.”

What a privilege it is to give back to God. When we get giving right, God makes sure we ourselves will abound in every good work.

Prayer… Lord, you are the Giver of all givers. You gave your best, you gave your all, you gave yourself. From the depth of my heart, I thank you. It is now my honor and joy to give back to you. May the sacrifice of my offerings be acceptable worship pleasing to you.

One More Thing… “Since much wealth too often proves a snare and an encumbrance in the Christian’s race, let him lighten the weight by ‘dispersing abroad and giving to the poor’, whereby he will both soften the pilgrimage of his fellow travelers, and speed his own way the faster.” —Augustus Toplady

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (II Corinthians 8:9)

Thoughts… Money is a touchy subject in most churches. Pastors have to tread lightly in this area these days or face being compared to a money-grubbing televangelist, of which there seems to be an endless supply. Congregations get nervous about money too, sometimes feeling as if they are there only as a financial means to help the pastor achieve his ministry ends.

Periodically, I have a chance to watch religious services on television—which usually cures me from watching again for a long time—and it becomes apparent that some pastors have no fear of talking about money (or should I say, “asking” for it), and do so with eager passion, while their congregations seem not to mind one little bit. But in most churches, that is not the case. Everybody, pastor and parishioner alike, gets real twitchy when offering time comes, and the subject that Jesus talked about more than anything else is avoided like the plague.

The Bible never backs off from the subject of  money. William Allen has pointed out, “One verse in every six in the first three Gospels relates either directly or indirectly to money. Sixteen of our Lords forty-four parables deal with the use of misuse of money. A loving, joyful, liberal giving to the Lord’s work is an acid test of a spiritual heart, pleasing to God.”

The fact is, money is important in the life of the believer and in the ministry of the church. God’s blessings are predicated upon his people being wise and faithful stewards of their resources, and the effectiveness of the church cannot be separated from adequate resources that it takes to carry out ministry. Everywhere I travel in the world and anyone in ministry I speak with near and far all face the same challenge—the resource challenge. Money is important.

That’s why Paul devotes two whole chapters to it here in II Corinthians 8 and 9. Paul wasn’t afraid to address this issue and challenge his people to have the right attitude and response to giving. He knew it keyed both blessing to the giver and effectiveness for the ministry. And for that reason, Paul promoted eager, generous, fair, joyful and expectant giving among God’s people. And the basis for such an appeal was rooted in the eager, generous, fair, joyful and expectant giving of God in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

That’s what the verse I began with is describing. In his generous grace, Jesus gave up the riches of heaven and took on the impoverished life of living as a human being in order that through his sacrificial giving we who were helplessly and hopelessly poor could partake in his eternal riches.

God is a giver. He set the example. He established the pattern. He did first what he now calls us to do. He gave his all, his very best, and he did so with eagerness and joy. He did it purposely and passionately. He did it you and for me.

And now he calls you and me to do it as well.

Perhaps it’s time for us to re-examine our attitudes toward money and giving. May our faithful stewardship in giving enable our faith to pass the acid test of true and God-pleasing spirituality.

Prayer… Father, all that I have is yours. All that I possess is from you. Even my ability to make a living is a gift from you. Your are the true owner and giver of everything I have. So I re-dedicate myself to honoring you with the first-fruits of my wealth, such as it is. My giving is my worship, and as such, I pray that it will be acceptable and pleasing to you. Cause my stewardship to result in the growth of your kingdom, and may souls stand in eternity some day as a direct outcome of my faithfulness in giving.

One More Thing… “Give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving.”

“I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (II Corinthians 7:9-10)

Thoughts… Thank God for pain. If we didn’t have it, we’d be in a world of hurt!

Pain is a gift from God, a gift nobody wants, but a sweet gift nonetheless. Why, because as Paul says, it leads us to sorrow. And Godly sorrow leads to repentance, and true repentance leads us to life.

Years ago there used to be a corny TV program called “Hee Haw”. I hate to admit it, but it was a family favorite—which tells you a lot about my family of origin. One of the skits in this show was where a person would come into the doctor’s office and describe to the doctor a place on their body that was hurting. They would say, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” Then the doctor would whack them upside the head and say, “Well, don’t do that!”

Dumb skit, great point! That’s what God says, “Don’t do that!” God in his grace has allowed us to experience pain, and that pain is meant to bring us to God. It is meant to cause us to look within and see where we have made missteps. It is meant to cause us to look without and see where there needs to be a change in our circumstances. It is meant to lead us to evaluate life and see where we have gotten off track.

If you are going through a painful episode right now, I would suggest that you thank God for it. Famed Scottish theologian and hymn-writer George Matheson once prayed,

“My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorns. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorns. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross: but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory. Teach me the glory of my cross: teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow.”

By the way, Matheson went totally blind when he was twenty years old.

Pain is the gift nobody wants, but it is still a gift. So thank God for it, it may just turn out to be the best gift he has ever given you.

Prayer… Father, I have been guilty of rejecting the thorns in my life as contrary to your will for me. Sometimes I whine and complain about the discomfort they bring. Lord, help me to endure discipline as a soldier of the cross. Help me to embrace my enemies as gifts disguised. Use every discomfort, every blow, every disappointment, every difficult person as your divine chisel to make me into the image of your Son. There is no higher purpose for me than to be like Jesus. Do what it takes to conform me to his likeness.

One More Thing… “Persons manifestly go through more pain and self-denial to gratify a vicious passion than would have been necessary to the conquest of it.” —Bishop Joseph Butler