Devotional: Thorn in My Side

Over the weekend I had an old sin resurface that I thought was dead and buried. I suppose all this time it was really just hiding. I thought I had conquered it but Whoop! There it is. Don’t you hate that? You think you're delivered from something and then the devil whispers in your ear, "Or Nawl?"

What I am coming to learn is that we have these particular issues that just really have a strong hold on us. And actually I’m starting to think that they may be deeply rooted in us so much so that they can’t just be yanked out.

It’s like we’re a big ball of yarn. We have these strings that are a little knotted, dirty, a different color than the rest; we're mix matched. If we could just take those tattered pieces out of the bundle we’d be a beautiful homogeneous ball of yarn. But if you think about it, if we were to start cutting and pulling these strings the whole ball would unravel.

So that’s why I believe God has been teaching me that I have to take this thing that keeps popping up to him continually. Not to be removed but contained. Some things God will heal and take away instantly or he'll take them away overtime but other things will remain.

Verse: Here's a verse that speaks to that. 2 Corinthians 12: 7b-9a this is Paul speaking to the church at Corinth:

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Take Away: So there’s a blessing in all this. Though Paul is tormented the good news is he gets to go to God. The trouble he’s having forces him to get in the face of God repeatedly. He said he plead with God three times. And when God replies he is essentially saying keep pleading, keep coming, my grace is sufficient, my power is perfect but only if you keep showing up to me in your weakness.

Because we are flesh/human we all have sin. Some sins have a greater holds on us than others, but the good news is that it gives us a reason to go to God. It’s one of the things that helps to bring us back to him. It’s like with the prodigal son. If he had never squandered his money or if the famine in the land never came, then he would have never come back home to his father. And with the Father is where we need to be.

Application: So if there’s any sin you’ve repeatedly had to ask God for help with, it might just be something you’re called to carry. And instead of asking God to remove it ask him to give you the strength to carry your burden/cross to the end without failing. Maybe even think of the blessing behind it. For Paul his thorn kept him humble. What does yours do?


Note: I took a leadership development class at New City Church of Los Angeles last year and one of the tasks/assignments we had to do was to make our own devotional and share them with the class. This is the result of that effort. I am not a preacher lol.