Take a moment to read 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 before reading the devotional below.
God doesn’t always answer our prayers how we want him to. Paul can relate to that. He asked God repeatedly to remove some type of physical ailment — what he calls “a thorn in the flesh” — and God does not. Paul says that God kept that torment in his life so that he would not become proud. He needed to learn to rely fully on God.
Paul mentions his torment right after sharing about the significant supernatural encounters he had when he first started following Jesus. He could certainly have considered himself a spiritual giant. I bet you can imagine that Paul’s message could have slowly shifted over those 14 years to less about Jesus and more about Paul. His point here is that he’s not going with the argument, “Listen to me! I’m so great!” but instead, “Listen to me, I’m still pointing to Jesus.”
Here’s your freedom for today:
God’s power dwells within your weakness.
We don’t like to think about weakness much. America is full of products that aim to end any type of momentary suffering. We want to feel good. All the time. But spiritually, God sometimes allows pain or suffering in our lives for our benefit. Suffering is not seen as “bad” but actually spiritually useful. Learning to rely on God is so important to your spiritual well-being that God may not remove everything from your life that you wish he would. What situations could you accept today, relying on God to meet you in that place? What does his grace mean for you today?