2 Corinthians 12:6-10
6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 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.
New International Version (NIV)
Not that long ago I was pretty upset that God healed me of something but not everything.
Paul prayed for a healing of a, according to my research, chronic condition. “Some of the more popular theories of the thorn’s interpretation include temptation, a chronic eye problem, malaria, migraines, epilepsy, and a speech disability.” Read more:http://www.gotquestions.org/Paul-thorn-flesh.html#ixzz3baNRUy2D
I’m very happy that temptation is mentioned on this site. Those of us with addictive personalities find ourselves in temptation very easily. I know that I justify something to myself, like a cigarette or a beer, very easily. I’m not sure how, but I lie and trick myself into thinking that this beer or this smoke is going to make all the difference. Then the guilt sinks in and selling another drink or smoke becomes twice as easy. Then the next time it’s five times easier, then ten times, then twenty, and so on. Now, despite having cursed at God and saying that He was wrong, I’ve learned that He has a plan that I may never truly understand. I understand that my weakness gives Him strength and that even when I fall into a hole that is to deep for even the light of the sun to reach, the light that is His never ending love will always reach out to me.
Just take His hand.
