A thorn in my side

Seeing Thorns as blessings…or in my case a painful hip!

I’m taking some liberties here…but choosing to draw a parallel from 2 Corinthians.

Bear with me…I hesitated to post this, but here goes.       

As you know, I’ve been complaining about a nagging hip problem that’s plagued me for several weeks.  Its occurred to me on several occasions that I’m learning to run with discomfort.  It’s also increased my awareness and dependence on God in my life.  Despite prayers asking for the pain to be removed and healing to occur, I may actually be stronger as the result of its persistence.   In other words, I understand that the pain can be quite severe in the late stages of an Ironman race.  I’m told that racers have to “dig deep” to continue on through the “dark times.” That they repeat mantras and recall “happy times” to distract them from the significant discomfort.   Having experienced running pain in my training I now have confidence that I can push through the pain verses experiencing pain for the first time in the race.  The other thing that comes to mind is based on my theme,  More Than A Race…this really isn’t about me!  Being “broken” teaches me dependence on God for His strength to carry me through or reach the financial goal for KCF.  Not by my strength or accomplishments – To Him be the glory.  That He is bigger than the pain and His grace is sufficient to overcome it.                 

     

Today’s excerpt from Prime Time With God a daily devotional I read.

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 Cor. 12:7-10).

Paul had a great calling on his life. The revelations and faith experiences that God gave him would have been too much for any man's humility. So God, in order to insure His investment in Paul's life, allowed this man a thorn in his flesh to help him maintain a humble, godly perspective.

Perhaps God has given you such a thorn designed to allow you to place greater trust and reliance upon Him.   Ask God to reveal to you the blessing of the thorn He has placed in your life.