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When was the last time that you boasted of your weaknesses or gave thanks in the midst of your suffering? If you’re honest, it’s more likely that you’ve experienced discouragement after pleading with the Lord to take away your pain, only to have it remain. People are taught to boast not in their weaknesses but in their strengths. And we don’t normally view suffering as an opportunity to magnify our Savior’s strength. Instead, we just want God to take the hurt away. While there’s nothing wrong with asking the Lord to deliver us from painful circumstances, it’s important that we understand how to respond when He doesn’t.
The Apostle Paul learned contentment in peril, pressure, pain, and persecution as he experienced God’s preservation and power in the midst of it. Notably, one of his greatest sources of pain, “a thorn . . . in the flesh,” was “given” to him by God (2 Cor. 12:7). Although we don’t know what Paul’s thorn was specifically, we do know that Paul suffered daily because of it. We also know that it was a messenger of Satan to harass him. Additionally, the thorn was given to him by God to keep him from becoming conceited. Finally, it was given to him to display Christ’s strength in his suffering.
As Jesus pleaded with God the Father three times to take the cup of suffering away from Him (Matt. 26:36–46), so, too, Paul pleaded three times with Jesus to take away his thorn, but He didn’t. Instead, He spoke to Paul in his pain: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). When we boast of our weaknesses to magnify Christ’s strength, His power will rest on us. Literally, His power will tabernacle with us.
The imagery is the same used in Exodus 40:34 when “the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” The tabernacle symbolized God’s presence, protection, and promises. The Apostle John picked up this imagery in speaking of Jesus as the fulfillment of the tabernacle, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). This will be consummately fulfilled when Christ returns and “the dwelling place of God is with man” (Rev. 21:3). In 2 Corinthians, Paul is using covenantal language to remind us that in our pain God is present with us, His protection is upon us, His promises are undergirding us, and His power is strengthening us. Therefore, we can be content, even with a thorn.
Dear believer, remember that the power of Christ rests on you in the midst of suffering. Your weakness is an opportunity to showcase the strength of your Savior to a watching world. You can be content in peril, pressure, pain, and persecution as you experience God’s preservation and power in the midst of it. And as you learn to be content, you can help others walk through weaknesses, insults, hardships, chronic pain, persecutions, and calamities with their eyes fixed on Jesus.