Paul’s Thorn In the Flesh
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:13
The apostle Paul, by firsthand experience, knew what it meant to suffer. As he was telling the people of Corinth about some of his personal experiences with the risen Lord, he confessed that he had a serious potential problem: “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” (2 Corinthians 12:7).
We don’t know exactly what that “thorn in the flesh” was, but it must have been a physical ailment. It may have been some type of eye disease or epilepsy; or, as Sir William Ramsay thought most likely, malarial fever. However, we do know how he handled his problem and what his subsequent attitude toward it was:
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 12:8–10 NIV)
Certainly Paul did not like that thorn in the flesh. But when he knew that it was not possible to get rid of it, he stopped groaning and began glorifying. He knew it was God’s will and that the affliction was an opportunity for him to prove the power of Christ in his life.
Would you be able to live above your circumstances as Paul did? To withstand suffering as severe as his in our own power would be impossible. Yet with the apostle we can say, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13 NIV).
Our Father and our God, I, too, have a thorn in the flesh which is. . . . I have often prayed, as Paul did, that it be taken away, but it is still with me. Teach me to delight in my weakness so that Your strength can be evident in my life. Teach me to depend on Your grace and Your Son. In Him I pray. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).