In my more foolish moments, I have sometimes thought that what each of us needs is one glaring sin—some wrong so evident that it would prevent us from ever claiming purity and righteousness for ourselves over against our opponents. Then we could not divide the church into us and them—into those of us who know the truth and practice it and those who are totally in error in their thoughts and actions. Then perhaps we might realize that good and evil are characteristic of us all, that there is a graciousness in our opponents that we have not acknowledged and faults in ourselves that we do not see, and that finally all of us are nothing more than poor sinners in the eyes of God, desperately in need always of his forgiveness and his mercy. We all are, at one and the same time, the just and the unjust, the good and the evil, upon whom God in his lavish grace causes his rain to fall and his sun to shine (Matt. 5:45).

God’s other way
But yes, such thoughts are foolishness. The Lord God does not want any one of us to sin in order to teach us humility. Rather, as we can read in 2 Cor. 12:1-9, God chooses another way. He lets us live with our thorns in our flesh.

As Paul writes in that 2 Corinthian passage, he had lots of which he could boast. Not only, "as one untimely born" was he given a revelation of the risen Christ, but he tells us that he also was caught up into heaven in a prophetic vision and given a glimpse of the wonders of paradise. Few saints through the ages can match that experience. Yet, says Paul, to keep him from being too elated by the abundance of revelations given to him, he was given a thorn in the flesh, "a messenger from Satan," to bother him constantly.

The mystery of the thorn
We do not know what that thorn was. There have been endless speculations about it. Some have thought Paul had epilepsy or some other physical ailment. Others suggest that it was a speech impediment, or recurring depression, or some spiritual temptation. A few have suggested that Paul had sexual cravings of some kind or other. Whatever the thorn was, Paul considered it a chronic "weakness" that interfered with his ministry. Thus, he could call the thorn a tool of Satan that was attempting to subvert his mission.

Three times the apostle prayed to God to remove the thorn from him, and we would think the Lord would do so in order to further the cause of Christ. But always the answer to Paul’s prayer came back, "My grace is sufficient for you." In short, God used that thorn to further the gospel, to show that the power of Christ was greater than any thorn, to convince Paul that he was totally dependent on his Lord, and to keep him humble, boasting not in his own strength but in the strength of the Lord. Glory would thereby be given to God and not to the apostle.

Our thorns
We all have our own thorns, don’t we—little "messengers from Satan" that interfere with our witness to the gospel and our Christian living. For some of us, it is self-righteousness and pride, for some it is a physical ailment. For others it may be guilt over a past abortion or a homosexual inclination. Some may even be haunted by fear and self-doubt when asked to witness to Christ. Whatever our own particular thorns, spiritual or psychological or physical, we would like to be rid of them so we can be better disciples, and we sometimes pray for God to remove the thorns and to make us whole.

But the answer comes back to each of us as it came to Paul. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." God’s support of our ministries, God’s working through us, God’s forgiveness of our impediments, is more powerful than any hindrance that Satan may put in our way. And the fact that we are not whole, that we are not pure, that we are not perfect and wholly good, is evidence of the fact that we do not spread the gospel and transform lives. God does. But nevertheless, God graciously uses us in his purpose.

Victory over thorns
So the message is clear to each of us, struggling with our thorns. We need not give in to them and succumb to self-righteousness or fear, to sexual sin or past abortion’s guilt, or to any of those inclinations that would turn us from God’s way for life. We need not let our thorns defeat us and discourage us from ministry. God’s power is greater than Satan’s. To be sure, he does remove some thorns from us that can be done away. But God also gives us grace to endure and triumph over those thorns that are with us always. Until the kingdom comes, and until that which is imperfect is made perfect eternally, you and I will always have our thorns. But God’s might is greater than any wound in ourselves that we endure. By his grace, we can live with the thorns and not let them defeat us and our ministries. For God’s power is manifested in our weakness.