Do you have a THORN in your flesh?

2Co 12:7  And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 

2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

A thorn in the flesh.

Do you have a thorn in your flesh?

Do you have something in you- a messenger of Satan buffeting you?

1Co 5:5  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 

Job 2:7  So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. 

Paul knew he had a thorn in his flesh, and he knew that thorn was placed there by Satan, and allowed to be there by God's plan. Did he like the thorn in his flesh? NO. He prayed for it to be taken away three times. Now this is a man of God, an Apostle who saw Jesus and whose life was changed by our Savior. This is a man who could pray for people and heal them. This is a man whose very touch of a garment sent to an ailing person could heal them.

Act 19:11  And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: 

Act 19:12  So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. 

This man could NOT pray away the thorn in the flesh. He stopped praying for it to be taken away after he did so three times. Why? Because He knew if God hadn't taken it away there was a reason for its existence in his life. Did that make it any less a messenger of Satan to torment Him? NO. What it did was give Paul knowledge that God has His reasons beyond our comprehension for the trials and tribulations, the chronic ailments in mind and body. We don't have to believe that we are lacking faith when our lives are not transformed- when thorns are not removed from our flesh. Satan would have us believe that we are to blame for these thorns and he wants the thorns we possess to damage us spiritually. Satan wants us to focus on our thorns and lament their existence in our lives. Satan would have the thorns we bear consume us, devouring every last hope we have of belonging wholly to Christ.

Paul would have been exalted above measure if he wasn't given the messenger of Satan in that thorn buried in his flesh, whatever that thorn may have been. Paul knew that God needed Him to be humbled by his imperfection, not crippled by unbelief that God was still in His life as he possessed this thorn of Satan. How many do you suppose may have uttered the words that he healed others but couldn't heal himself? How many focused on Paul's thorn to their detriment? How many allowed that thorn in his flesh to bring them closer to the Lord, realizing Paul, was indeed LIKE THEM and not some God to be worshiped?

Again I ask you, do you have a thorn in your flesh? Something you've prayed for God to remove only that prayer answered, wasn't the answer you desired. Will you endlessly ask God to remove that thorn from your flesh, never accepting that it may be His will for it to be left in your flesh to keep you on the path He has set before you, a path that would keep you His.

May God help us, bless us, keep us in HIM now and forever, all through Jesus Christ our LORD and our SAVIOR!