Strength for the Journey: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10: Dealing with Pain and Weakness

People who are healthy and vigorous have many opportunities to be serve God, but how can those of us who live with pain be useful?

2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10: DEALING WITH PAIN AND WEAKNESS

INTRODUCTION

Today I want to talk to you about something in the Bible that has brought me great comfort recently, and I think will be important to you also.
As I’ve grown older, I have had to come to terms with weakness, with pain, with limitations.

When life becomes less and less comfortable—and even painful—and we have less and less to look forward to on this earth, it is easy to become preoccupied with what we’ve lost.
We are sad that we have fewer and fewer opportunities to serve others and to serve the Lord.
We may have a sense of weakness and insignificance.

But there is something the apostle Paul wrote in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians that has been a great comfort to me, and I want to share it with you.

TEXT: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

I. Paul had had a wonderful spiritual experience. It was a vision. I have never had a vision, but Paul had a vision.

A. He was caught up into the third heaven, the Paradise of God

There he heard things that cannot be told—things too wonderful to put into words—an infinitely precious experience, but one he couldn’t share, or that was inappropriate to share.
God meant this revelation for Paul alone.

B. Immediately, on the heels of this wonderful experience, came a painful, incessant affliction.

He calls it a “thorn in the flesh” because it was so painful.
He says his thorn in the flesh came to “harass” him.
The Greek word means to beat on him. It was no minor affliction.

What it was, he doesn’t say. People have guessed that it could have been chronic headaches, vision problems, recurrent fevers, spiritual temptations, or a speech impediment. But it isn’t important what the affliction was. By not specifying the nature of his “thorn in the flesh” we are free to think of it as similar to whatever affliction we are enduring.

C. Notice, this affliction was not sent by God.

Paul calls it a “messenger of Satan.”
The devil intended to trip Paul up, to discourage him, to tempt him to sin, and to slow down his work for Christ.

II. So Paul prayed, as he did about everything in his life.

A. He prayed especially hard about this because it was so painful, so limiting. He asked to be delivered.

B. Paul was powerful in prayer, but this time the answer he received was not what he expected or wanted: God told him that this “thorn,” this painful affliction would not go away.

It was something, I assume, that Paul lived with for the rest of his life—just as some of us have afflictions that will never go away.

C. God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Grace is God’s good will toward us and his good work in us.

Grace is an overflowing force in our lives. It cleanses us and makes us holy. It gives us joy and peace in the midst of trouble. It brings us to eternal life in glory.
Paul’s circumstances didn’t change—he still suffered from the sharp pain, but now he experienced a counterweight to the pain—the grace of God—so that he was able to bear it.

God’s power is made perfect in weakness—Paul experienced the full force of God’s strength in his life.

God’s power always works in human weakness. As long as we feel strong and capable, we don’t need God. We will solve our problems ourselves.

I used to work in a mental hospital. I remember a young woman, a patient, telling me that she didn’t want God in her life because God would be like a crutch and she didn’t want to go through life depending on a crutch.
But God isn’t like a crutch. God can heal our broken souls.
When we are weak and without strength, then God’s strength can flow into us.

This is a principle in the Bible

When I know my spiritual poverty—then God can become my heart’s treasure, and I am rich in blessings. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
When my hands are empty and not grasping and holding on to the pleasures of this lower life—then God can place in them his spiritual blessings.
When I am beaten down by circumstances, so that I am weak in myself—then my weakness becomes the stage for God to display his power.

III. Suddenly Paul saw a purpose in this pain and difficulty that had come to him.

A. Even though his affliction had come from the devil, it was something that God was going to use in his life. He said, “So I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (v9).

He boasts about what great things Christ can do. This is not what we call “boasting” or “bragging.” This is rejoicing in God’s grace.

“…so that the power of Christ may dwell in me”: The Greek word translated here “dwell” is to pitch one’s tent. Paul is saying that in his weakness Christ’s power comes and takes up residence in him.

B. So Paul says he is content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities…because when he is weak, then he is strong. The weaker Paul gets, the more powerfully God can use Paul as his servant.

He would no doubt rather not be weak, or insulted, or endure hardships, persecutions, of calamities, but he can endure them, and he can see that they are making him a stronger believer.

C. In what does God’s power consist in a life like yours and mine?
We aren’t great apostles, but God can still give us strength, even in our weakness strength to believe…to pray…to live for God…to do something for God…

CONCLUSION: The lessons we learn for this scripture:

Even the greatest and best saints are tempted by pride. Let us remember that we also can fall into uselessness if we begin to think we are really pretty good Christians.

God can bring good out of our weakness and pain.

I know this is hard to believe. Sometimes we may find it all but impossible to believe. But let’s cling to the truth that even when we are feeling really bad, God is doing his work in us. Someday we will understand.

Constant pain—however hard it is to bear—can make us cling closer to God.
God may become more real to us. We look forward more eagerly to our heavenly home.

Let us offer our pain and our limitations—all that afflicts us—to God daily and ask that he will take these troubles to make us more sympathetic,
more humble,
more faithful—
and even more useful as we come alongside of others who also suffer to comfort them with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted by God (2 Cor. 1:4).

And always remember:

“Weeping may tarry for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Ps.30:5).

We can endure almost anything if we can believe and feel that God holds us and will never let us go.

Paul wrote in this same letter:
“This slight momentary affliction
is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory
beyond all measure.
For we look not at the things that are seen
but at the things that are not seen.
For the things that are seen are temporary,
but the things that are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17).