Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

2 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 8 and 9,

three times I pleaded with the Lord about this,

that it should leave me.

But he said to me,

my grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect in weakness therefore i will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses

so that the power of christ may rest upon me this is such a powerful passage paul's talking here about a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan harassing him.

And we don't know exactly what he's talking about here practically. There's all kinds of

conjecture about what it might mean. But obviously, it was a nuisance, a harassment in his life, something he

wanted to be gone. And that's what he says in verse eight, three times I pleaded with the

Lord about this, that it should leave me. God, please take this away. And God didn't. Instead,

God said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

In other words, God said, this thorn is going to stay, and you're going to see my grace

is sufficient for this thorn.

And I'm going to work in ways beyond what you can imagine to show my power

in your weakness, which then leads Paul to say, okay, then I'll boast about my weaknesses,

so that I can experience the power of Christ.

And then he goes on in verse 10, I didn't read this verse, but he goes on to say, okay, I'm content

then with weaknesses.

And this is where we start to get a glimpse into what this thorn might be.

Insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities.

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