II CORINTHIANS 12:7-10
To keep me from becoming conceited…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.
Dear Lord,
This teaching is hard to comprehend, to accept the thorn in my flesh that has worn me down to nothing could be for my good. I have pleaded with you three times three thousand times to take it from me – yet it is still with me. The many years continue to pass and I continue experiencing devastating, painful torment. I continue to plead for Your merciful deliverance from ravaging effects of emotional, mental and physical agony. Though You have not delivered me in the way I have asked, I know Your powerful grace continues to sustain my spirit in my weakness. Then I realize, perhaps I comprehend this teaching after all.
