Bible Verse of the Day Friday February 3rd, 2023

2 Corinthians 12:7b-8 Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

The Apostle Paul held a unique position in the building of God's Church. First, he was the only one of the Apostles that did not accompany Christ Jesus during His time here on earth. More astonishing was he, as Saul of Tarsus, went on a self-initiated campaign to destroy the church. He went on a crusade headed for Damascus to bring Christians back to Jerusalem for trial and, most likely, execution. On that Road to Damascus, he met Christ Jesus, who asked him the question that changed Saul's life: "why are you persecuting me?" Many years later, John Newton penned the line, "I was blind, but now I see," demonstrating what Saul went through the following three days after his encounter with the resurrected Jesus. God blinded Saul for three days, and then not only were his eyes opened, but God replaced his old heart of stone with a new heart surrendered to Christ Jesus (Ezekiel 36:26).

During Paul's first missionary journey on the Island of Cyprus, Saul of Tarsus became forever known as Paul the Apostle (Acts 13:9). Paul later went on two other missionary journeys carrying the Gospel of Christ Jesus to two continents: Asia and Europe. Paul also wrote thirteen (13) of the twenty-seven (27) books of the New Testament. Some Bible scholars give Paul credit for writing the Book of Hebrews; however, there is no definitive evidence. God showed Paul many mysteries hidden from humankind from the beginning of time. Before he began his first missionary journey, God raptured his spirit into heaven, where he saw things that none could tell (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).

God blessed Paul with privileges that no human could even imagine, and to ensure that he did not become proud and arrogant, God placed a "thorn in his flesh." We do not know the specifics of this tribulation, other than it was a messenger from Satan that tormented him, but we do know that three times Paul asks God to take it away. Jesus told Paul the same thing three times, that God's grace is adequate and ample and that "His grace is made perfect in our weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

We are our strongest when we are at our weakest because, in our weakness, we will reach out to God, who will never let us down. On the other hand, as Paul was well aware, left to ourselves, we would become conceited and boast about our strength and accomplishments as humans. All born-again followers and believers in Christ Jesus will experience some form of a thorn in the flesh, an evil representative of Satan to distress and torture us as long as we are in this life. The promise we have from God is that God's power is made perfect in our human weakness and is sufficient to provide for our every need. As glorious as this promise is, there is another one that can assure us that we will never walk alone; God said that He would never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Let us all respond to God in the same manner as Paul and boast only in our weakness so that God's strength and power may dwell in us.