7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Have you ever wondered why bad things happen to someone? Maybe you’ve wondered why they have happened to you? Have you ever been tempted to think “If I just had more faith, I’d be healed” or perhaps “If I could just find the secret sin in my life, I wouldn’t struggle with this sickness.” That’s not the way it works. Sure, we do have to live with the consequences of our sins, but it is a false premise to think that if we lived a “perfect life” we’d have no issues, that’s just not true. Look at the Apostle Paul. He could definitely have boasted of being the most godly man in the Bible (outside of Jesus), and yet he had a physical ailment. He pleaded with God to heal him, and God would not. Rather, God promised to give Him grace sufficient to bear the difficulty, and this showed Paul that God would use this difficulty to teach him something productive. God’s grace is more than enough for us through the pain… it’s perfectly fine to ask Him to remove our struggle, but at the end of the day, we let that be God’s choice… we’ll trust him for the results.
