"...there was given to me a thorn in my flesh ... Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, My power is made perfect in weakness." II Cor. 12:7ff Have you ever thought that the Lord, the enemy or someone had dealt you a blow, or an impossible situation that you felt was just not fair. Certainly, Paul was important enough so that God should have removed the "thorn". Was God not able? Was he being mean? Was he punishing Paul? We can say a big no to all three. The real truth of the matter is that God does not need our brawn to get His work done. Many times, He does use our talents and abilities, and other times the job is too big or He just wants us to use His power. Perhaps in the midst of your struggles, He's saying to you that His grace is sufficient for you. If we can't get the job done in our own strength and have to depend on His, then we can't take the credit for the task and He gets the glory. Where is our attention focused? If it's on the thorn, then we tend to go around in a perpetual pity party. If it' s on the task at hand, then the tendency is to focus on the pride of our accomplishments. But if our attention is on Him, then our focus is on what He is doing, and on His abilities, and what it truly is that He wants done. His strength can then be made perfect in our weaknesses.

Strength in Weakness