When, God?Sample

PRAYER:

God, in seasons of difficulty, I can so easily begin to doubt your goodness and power. Help me to have confidence in your love and care for me.

READING:

When God Is Uncooperative – Part 1

Today we begin a story about Paul, the man who took the gospel outside of Jerusalem and  Judea and began to spread it all over the world. Paul spent 20 years of his adult life traveling all around the Mediterranean Rim into very hostile environments, introducing the idea that God sent Jesus into this world to die for the sins of humankind. Paul was shipwrecked, beat up, stoned, put in prison, and almost drowned. Yet he did nothing but serve God faithfully. 

Paul became a Christ follower three or four years after the resurrection. Before that, he actually persecuted the church.

Soon after he became a Christ follower, Paul developed some kind of physical ailment (we think) that became an obstacle to the work God had called him to do. He began to ask God to remove the affliction, and the answer was no. But God promised him something else, which he also promises you and me.

Our story comes from one of the letters Paul wrote to Christians in Corinth, to a church he started. In the letter he describes his experience to them. He says that God had revealed such remarkable things to him to share with the rest of Christendom that in order to keep him humble, God had allowed him to experience this affliction. 

In his letter, Paul gives us insight into what we can expect when God says no.

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh… – 2 Corinthians 12:7

The thorn in Paul’s flesh was some sort of irritation, some sort of ailment that followed him wherever he went.

… a messenger of Satan… – 2 Corinthians 12:7

We don’t know if Paul meant this literally or figuratively. But whatever it was, this thorn in his flesh was so awful that it tormented him. Some people think he had recurring epilepsy; some people thought he had recurring malaria; some people think it might have had something to do with his eyes. (We do know that Paul had really bad eyesight.) Paul pleaded with God to do what he had done for other people: to heal him.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. – 2 Corinthians 12:8

The affliction got so bad that Paul didn’t just ask God to take it away, he pleaded with God. Paul was someone God loved and used in a significant way—but in spite of that, God said no. 

REFLECTION:

Is there something (or someone) in your life that you would consider to be a thorn in your flesh? Can you relate to Paul’s pleading for it to be taken away?