Like a person on an IV drip drip he's doing something.

Dr Tony Evans says the thorns God sends our way make us uncomfortable but they also make us grow.

If you keep pulling out the IV because you don't like it. uncomfortable, but they also make us grow.

But if you keep pulling out the IV because you don't like the form,

you'll never see the medication at work.

This is the alternative broadcast,

featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Even if your life is coming up roses, you'll get your share of thorns to go along with them. But today in this classic

presentation Dr Evans explains that you get them for a reason and he'll talk

about specific ways we can deal with their discomfort. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 as we listen in.

In verse 7, he introduces us to it, the reality of a thorn. He says, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations for this reason

to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me that's not buffet me to trouble me to torment me to get on my last nerve. The Greek word for a thorn refer to a splinter or a needle of some kind

that pricked you.

We've all had a needle or a thorn

or a splinter from wood to get in our finger or toe and irritate us. It could be used of a hook that catches a fish piercing its its skin of which it can't shake itself from without tearing and making things worse.

A thorn is anything that nags or irritates your life on a continuous basis?

A thorn? Is anything that nags, irritates, exacerbates, or frustrates your life ongoingly?

You can't shake it. It hangs around.

Paul says that was given to me a thorn in the flesh.

Something to irritate me. Now you can read

commentaries galore and you have a lot of guesswork as to what Paul's thorn was.

For example, Paul talks about how when he was trying to write the churches,

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