87 | The Purpose of Weakness: What Paul's Thorn Teaches Us (2 Corinthians 12:7)

What if the weakness you keep asking God to remove isn’t proof that something has gone wrong?

We spend so much of life trying to prove we’re enough.

Strong enough.
Capable enough.
Successful enough.
Spiritual enough.

Then weakness enters our lives and exposes what we’d rather forget: we have limits.

The apostle Paul knew that feeling.

After receiving extraordinary revelations from God, Paul was given something completely unexpected: a painful, persistent “thorn in the flesh.”

Why?

Paul tells us twice: to keep him from becoming conceited.

The thorn was painful.

But pride was the greater danger.

Listen to discover how Christ can use the very weaknesses we wish would disappear to deepen our humility, dependence, and trust in Him.

In This Episode, We'll Discuss:

✅ Why Paul’s thorn was about more than suffering
✅ How even God’s blessings can become occasions for pride
✅ Why weakness does not mean Christ has stopped working
✅ The danger of taking credit for what grace has provided
✅ A better question to ask when God doesn’t remove the burden
✅ Why you were never meant to be enough because Christ is enough

We don’t know why every thorn comes.

But we do know this:

Your weakness does not put you beyond Christ’s work.

Sometimes Christ changes our circumstances.

Sometimes He uses our circumstances to change us.

🎧 Listen now to Episode 87: The Purpose of Weakness: What Paul’s Thorn Teaches Us.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I wonder if you've ever noticed how much of life is spent trying to prove that we are enough, strong enough, smart enough, capable enough, spiritual enough, good enough. We admire competence. We respect independence. We celebrate people who seem to have it all together. And if we're honest, we want to be those people too. That's why weakness threatens us. Weakness interrupts the image we've worked so hard to build. It reminds us that we have limits. It exposes our need. And for many of us that's exactly what we fear most. Some people respond by trying harder. Others simply give up. The proud heart says I'm enough. The discouraged heart says I'm not enough. But both hearts are making the same mistake. Both are looking at themselves. The gospel directs both hearts away from themselves and toward Christ. It says Christ is enough. That is exactly what the apostle Paul learned. Few people in history experience what Paul experienced. He was caught up into paradise. He received revelations so extraordinary that he was not permitted to speak about them. But the very next thing Paul tells us is not another vision, not another revelation, not another triumph, it's a thorn, a painful, persistent weakness that would not go away. Why would the Lord allow one of his most faithful servants to carry such a burden? That is the question before us today. And before we leave this text, I believe we'll discover something that can completely change the way we think about weakness. Because sometimes the greatest danger in our lives is not the weakness we can see, it's the pride we cannot. Let's get into it. Welcome to Sunday Renewal, the podcast designed to help you revive your faith, restore your hope, and discover the deep, unshakable peace that comes from walking daily with God. I'm Ernest Benjamin, a husband, father, entrepreneur, and someone who spent nearly two decades teaching and preaching God's word to people just like you. People who want more than just feel-good messages. They want truth, biblical truth that meets them in their real lives and empowers them to live boldly for Christ. I believe God's word isn't just inspiring, it's life-changing. And each week we'll explore scripture in a way that's practical, relevant, and deeply personal so you can apply it to your life right now and take your faith to the next level. So let's dive into today's episode and take the next step toward renewal together. Before we look at the thorn, we need to understand what came just before it. Paul is reluctantly defending his apostleship against false teachers who measured spiritual authority by outward impressiveness. They boasted in their accomplishments, in their experiences, in their credentials. Paul doesn't want to play that game, but if boasting is necessary for the sake of the gospel, he will boast differently. He says in Second Corinthians chapter eleven and verse number thirty, if I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. And so beginning in Second Corinthians chapter twelve verse one, he tells of being caught up in the third heaven, caught up into paradise, where he heard things too wonderful and too sacred to repeat. Then without warning, the story takes an unexpected turn. You would almost expect Paul to tell us about another great victory. Instead, he tells us about a thorn. Listen carefully to verse seven. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. That's Second Corinthians chapter twelve verse seven English Standard Version If we read this verse too quickly, we'll think Paul's thorn is the main subject. But if we read it carefully, we'll discover that the emphasis of the passage isn't the thorn. It's what the thorn is preventing. Our instinct is to ask what was the thorn? Was it physical? Was it emotional? Was it spiritual? Paul doesn't answer those questions. Instead he answers a different one. Why was the thorn given? Look at your Bible for just a moment. What phrase does Paul repeat in verse seven? In the English Standard Version it reads the phrase that's repeated is to keep me from becoming conceited. He says it once, then he says it again. That repetition is not accidental. The Holy Spirit is directing our attention to the very heart of the passage. The repeated purpose tells us how to interpret everything else in the verse. The first thing Paul wants us to notice is not the thorn itself. It's why the thorn was given. Before Paul ever explains the pain of the thorn, he explains the danger of pride. Don't miss what Paul is saying. The thorn was painful, but pride was the greater danger. Now that raises another question. Why was Paul in danger of becoming conceited or self exalted? The answer is surprising. It wasn't because of some great failure, it was because of an extraordinary blessing. Paul says because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations. I want you to think about that. The very blessings God had entrusted to Paul became the occasion for one of Paul's greatest spiritual dangers. The revelations were not the problem. Pride was. God's blessings are always good, but our hearts can turn even God's best gifts into occasions for pride. The problem is never God's blessing, the problem is what our hearts can do with God's blessings. And if we're honest, it's not just Paul's danger, it's ours. We may never be caught up into the third heaven, but God has entrusted each of us with blessings, abilities, knowledge, opportunities, resources, ministry, influence, success. And every one of those blessings can either deepen our dependence upon Christ or quietly tempt us to believe we need him less. God's greatest blessings do not lessen our need for humility. They often deepen it. And if the apostle Paul needed protection from pride, then none of us has outgrown our need for humility and continual dependence upon Christ. Paul has told us why the thorn was necessary. Now he tells us how Christ accomplished that purpose. A thorn was given me in the flesh a messenger of Satan to harass me. Notice that Paul doesn't minimize the pain of the thorn. He calls it what it was, a messenger of Satan sent to torment him. This was real suffering, real pain. This was real opposition, but Paul also says the thorn was given to him. Paul doesn't stop to answer every question we might have. Instead he tells us what we need to know. What Satan meant as an instrument of torment God used as an instrument of grace. Satan was working against Paul. God was working in Paul. That doesn't mean the thorn wasn't painful. It means the thorn was never meaningless. We know why Paul's thorn was given because Scripture tells us, Scripture does not tell us why every thorn is given. And so we should be very careful not to claim certainty, for God has chosen not to speak. But Scripture does tell us what Christ was protecting Paul from. Paul says it twice to keep me from becoming conceited. We've called that pride, but let's make sure we understand what Paul means. To become conceited is to become lifted up, to begin thinking more highly of ourselves because of what we've received, because of what we've accomplished, experienced or become. And that's what makes pride so deceptive. We can take something God has given us and slowly begin using it as evidence of our own importance. The gift came from God, the opportunity came from God, the ability came from God, the growth came from God, and yet somehow the heart begins taking credit for what grace provided. Scripture repeatedly warns us about that danger. Proverbs chapter sixteen verse eighteen says pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before fall. Pride is dangerous precisely because it can grow in us long before we recognize where it is taking us. We tend to fear what might hurt us. Scripture teaches us to fear what might corrupt us and destroy us. That's why the thorn was painful, but pride was the greater danger. And Scripture gives us a vivid picture of how this happens. In Deuteronomy chapter eight, Moses is preparing Israel to enter the promised land. God is about to bless them abundantly. But listen to his warning. Deuteronomy chapter eight, beginning in verse number eleven, take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who fed you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manner that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end. Beware, lest you say in your heart My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. Look at verse eleven again. Take care lest you forget the Lord your God. Verse fourteen Then your heart will be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God. And by verse seventeen, listen to what the lifted up heart begins saying My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. Do you see the progression? God gives, the heart is lifted up, we forget God and the source of our blessings, and then we start taking credit for what God provided. That's the danger. And Moses gives the corrective or the corrective measure in verse number eighteen. He says you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this they it is he, God, who gives you the power, the ability to get wealth. The answer to pride is not pretending the blessing isn't good. It's remembering where the blessing came from. That's what makes Paul's situation so striking. His revelations came from God. His calling came from God. His ministry came from God. His usefulness came from God. But the same heart that receives God's blessings can begin taking God's credit. So Christ intervened. The thorn kept confronting Paul with something the revelations might have tempted him to forget. Paul was still dependent on God, still needy. He was still a recipient of grace, still unable to do what Christ had called him to do apart from Christ Himself. God's greatest blessings do not lessen our need for humility. They often deepen and increase our need for humility. And if Paul needed Christ to protect him from becoming impressed with Paul, to keep him from becoming impressed with himself, we should never imagine that we have outgrown our need for the same grace. So what does this mean for us? It does not mean that every weakness in your life is there because you're proud. We've already established that Scripture does not give us permission to say that. Sometimes we look at our limitations and think if I could just get rid of this, oh man, then Christ could really use me. If I was stronger, if I were more confident, if I didn't struggle here, if I didn't have this limitation, if this burden could finally go away, then I could become the person Christ wants me to be. But Paul's thorn forces us to question that assumption. What Paul experienced as weakness Christ was using as protection. What Paul would soon ask Christ to remove. Christ was already using to accomplish something Paul needed. The thorn was painful. The harassment was real, but the Lord's purpose in it was good. Psalm one hundred nineteen verse seventy one says it is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. Notice what the Psalmist does not say. He doesn't say the affliction was pleasant. He looks back and recognizes that God accomplished something through his affliction that he needed. That's a very different way of looking at weakness. We naturally ask how can I get out of this? And sometimes that's an entirely appropriate prayer. Paul is about to pray for exactly that. But Scripture teaches us to ask another question as well. What might Christ be doing in me through this? Not because we presume to know why every hardship has come, not because we stop praying for relief, but because faith refuses to measure Christ's goodness only by whether he removes what hurts. Sometimes Christ changes our circumstances, and sometimes he uses our circumstances to change us. That's what was happening to Paul. The thorn was not evidence that Christ had stopped working in Paul's life. The thorn was one of the ways Christ was working in Paul's life. So before we leave this verse, let me ask you to consider three things. First, where are you tempted to take credit for what God has given? Paul's danger came because of extraordinary revelations. Yours may look very different. Maybe it's your Knowledge. Maybe it's your ability, your career, your family, your ministry, your experience, your accomplishments, even your spiritual growth. The question is not whether those things are good, the question is whether God's blessings have made you more grateful and dependent upon him or more impressed with yourself. Deuteronomy warned us how quietly this happens. God gives we receive, and somewhere along the way the heart begins saying, Look what I've done. So ask yourself, where have I begun taking credit for what grace has provided? Second, what weakness have you assumed Christ cannot possibly use? Maybe there's something about your life you keep looking at and thinking if this were different, then I can really be useful. Maybe it's a limitation you cannot change, a burden you did not choose, an inadequacy you wish you didn't have, something that continually reminds you that you are not enough. Don't call it good if Scripture doesn't call it good. Don't pretend it doesn't hurt, and don't assume you know exactly why Christ has allowed it. But don't make the opposite assumption either. Don't assume Christ cannot be at work simply because you are weak. Paul's thorn teaches us that the very thing we think is hindering Christ's work may sometimes be something he is using in his work. So perhaps the prayer is not only Lord, please change this. Perhaps it is also Lord, while I wait, don't let me waste what you may be doing in me through this. And finally, where do you need to stop trying to prove that you're enough? That's where we begin today. Some of us spend enormous energy trying to prove our strength, and others spend enormous energy grieving the fact that we don't have enough strength. But Christianity does not begin with the announcement that you are enough. It begins with the confession that you are not, and the good news that Christ is. You do not need to be enough. You need Christ. And sometimes one of the mercies of weakness is that it keeps reminding us of what pride desperately wants us to forget. We need God. We need Him. We begin this morning with the fear of not being enough. And maybe that's exactly where some of us are living. You know your limitations. You know where you're weak. You know the thing you wish were different, and perhaps you've convinced yourself that your weakness must mean something has gone wrong. Paul would tell us to be careful with that conclusion. He had been given extraordinary revelations, and then he was given a thorn. The revelations reminded Paul of what God had shown him. The thorn reminded Paul of what he still was dependent. The thorn was painful, but pride was the greater danger. And Christ loved Paul enough to care about more than Paul's comfort. He cared about Paul's heart. Ultimately he cared about Paul's soul. So maybe the question to carry home isn't simply how do I get rid of my weakness? Maybe there is another question. What if Christ is doing something in me that I cannot yet see? We don't know why every thorn comes. We don't pretend that we do. But we do know this. Weakness does not mean Christ has stopped working. Paul's thorn was one of the ways Christ was working. So bring him your weakness. Ask him to remove what hurts. Paul is about to do exactly that. But while you ask him to change your circumstances, trust him enough to let him change you. You were never meant to be enough. And sometimes our weakness is what keeps us close enough to remember that. Let us pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for loving us enough not only to give us what we want, but to give us what we need. Forgive us for the ways we take credit for what your grace has provided. Forgive us for how easily our hearts become lifted up and how quickly we forget that every good blessing that we have comes from you. And Lord, for those of us carrying weaknesses, limitations, and burdens we desperately want you to remove, help us to trust you even when we don't understand what you're doing. Give us the freedom to ask you for relief while also trusting that you may be accomplishing something in us that we cannot yet see. Keep us humble, keep us dependent on you. Keep us close to you. And when our weakness reminds us that we are not enough, turn our eyes away from ourselves and back to Jesus. Remind us again that we were never meant to be enough. Christ is enough, and may even our weaknesses keep us close enough to remember that for your glory and for our good in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for spending this time with me on Sunday Renewal. My prayer is that today's episode encouraged your heart, strengthened your faith, and reminded you that God is still at work, redeeming, restoring, and shaping your story for his purpose. If this message spoke to you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with someone in your life, a friend, a family member, or a coworker, because God often uses one simple conversation to bring renewal to someone else's journey. And if you have a moment, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts truly helps others discover messages of hope and faith when they need them most. Before you go, I want to invite you into a deeper journey. I've created a free five-day devotional called Renaming Your Story from Pain to Purpose to Legacy. In just 10 minutes a day, it's designed to help you walk through healing old wounds, breaking false labels, is stepping into the fruitfulness and legacy God intends. If there's someone you love who needs encouragement, healing, or direction, or if this journey is for you, this resource is available now. Just click the link in the show notes to get started. Remember this God is present, your past does not define you, and your story is still in motion. Until next time, walk by faith, stay open to God, and trust Him with the next step. God bless you.