Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this
reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the
flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning
this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to
me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in
weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my
weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well
content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with
difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.[1]
I see no point in wondering about Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”;
the focus of his writing was God’s response to his prayers for the thorn to be
gone, and also his reaction to what he was told. To those he wrote “I am well content with weaknesses,
with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for
Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” When things weren’t
going the right way my mother used to say, “These little things are sent to try
us.” I’m not sure that was theologically sound. That however didn’t matter
because the notion helped my mother get through difficult times. That’s what I
see happening with Paul. His response to having to put up with his thorn should
be the response of every believer when faced with hard times, or problems. Certainly
we need to ask God’s help either to get rid of some impediment, or learn to
live with it.
…whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss
for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view
of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and
may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law,
but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from
God on the basis of faith,[2]
Paul’s statement followed a catalogue of his achievements,
his Hebrew status was impeachable. He was someone of note, a Hebrew among
Hebrews. His attitude toward those achievements was the same as what he
demonstrated when God told him to he’d have put up with his impediment. Paul
had it made, position, qualification, and attitude to go with them. He
willingly gave all of that up, and when told that Jesus could be seen clearer
through his weakness than through perfection, his was excited to let it happen.
His weakness became his strength.
My view on prayers of request is that one should pray for
what he or she wants, and give thanks for whatever God provides. We shouldn’t
expect an audible response from God, though some say they have had such. My
experience has been to notice God’s response in how events unfold. I realized
early in life that if I goofed off instead of studying, no amount of prayer
resulted in good marks. Likely, God’s response was in the teacher’s comment, “Could
do better if he applied himself.” Paul’s reflection on prayer did not include
laziness or goofing off. Instead of falling back on previous achievements Paul
saw his way forward, “I am
well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions,
with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
At the first sign of trouble my prayers usually focus on a fix to get things back
to normal quickly. Somehow I have been able to look at Paul’s attitude without
it having directly impacting mine. In the early phase of Christianity God
worked with believers differently to what he does today. I don’t expect to have
the interaction with God like the first believers. There’s a lot of confusion
today about what one can expect from praying. Preachers of “the prosperity
gospel” would have us believe that God wants us all to be rich. Others teach
that God heals all people, all you have to do is pray.. Christians seem
confused about what constitutes a valid prayer. Some denominations teach
followers to recite the “Lord’s prayer”. There are prayers and instruction on
prayers in the scriptures. Hezekiah
prayed for delivery from the Assyrian army; God routed the enemy and saved his
people.[3] At
a later time Hezekiah became fatally ill and prayed; God answered his prayer
and healed him.[4]
Hannah prayed for a son and God answered her prayer, she gave birth to a son.[5]
James taught on the power of prayer.[6] Jesus
taught his disciples how to pray.[7] We
are not living under the law in the time of the prophets, we are not living in
the last days of the Jewish era when Christianity began.
We are living in the time defined by God’s love, a time of
opportunity in which man can be united with God. We live in a world in which
both the kingdom of God and the kingdom of evil coexist. Since Jesus’ death,
people can choose whether to be in God’s kingdom or not. We do not pray for God’s
kingdom to come to earth, it is on earth. Believers are in God’s kingdom. Prayer
is communication with God the Father, and God the Creator. Paul’s prayer for
relief was very specific, he asked God to remove an issue causing him
discomfort. When God told him his weakness allowed Jesus’ strength to be seen, he
stopped praying to have that issue removed. When we ask God for relief from
some difficulty, or to be given something, we have to allow God to answer in
his way. Teachers who say that God will give you prosperity, or even health,
because you simply pray, are not always right. Their teaching doesn’t answer
why sometimes what you pray for is not given. That’s not a problem if you are
just asking for something you want, but don’t need. If it’s a matter of life
and death, and sometimes you get what you asked for and other times you don’t,
that, leaves a person wondering; was it how I prayed? Why did one person die
and another healed? We need to look back to when Jesus was on earth; did he
heal every sick person? We know he didn’t raise everyone who died at that time.
Maybe if we can answer why Jesus didn’t heal everyone, or give life back to everyone
who died, we could answer why God responds to prayer the way he does. James has
some words on God answering prayers. I don’t know, and, don’t need to know, why
the prayer for one person results in healing, and the prayer for another has a
different result.
Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and anger gave orders to bring Shadrach,
Meshach and Abed-nego; then these men were brought before the king. Nebuchadnezzar
responded and said to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego,
that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now
if you are ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre,
trigon, psaltery and bagpipe and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship
the image that I have made, very well. But if you do not worship, you will
immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire; and what god
is there who can deliver you out of my hands?" Shadrach, Meshach and
Abed-nego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give
you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is
able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out
of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king,
that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you
have set up."[8]
The attitude shown by the three accused is what we all
should strive for. “…our God
whom we serve is able to deliver us; …. But even if He does not, let it be
known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the
golden image that you have set up.” We believe, we trust, we pray, knowing
that God can accomplish whatever we ask. However, we don’t know what God will
do. Our attitude should be, that we will continue to believe, to trust, and to pray.
The efficacy of prayer has little to do with how we pray, and everything to do
with God’s will. We can’t and don’t need to understand, we have to live by
faith.
Sometimes due to our circumstances it feels that we can’t do
very much. There is someone we need to observe; Jesus watched as people donated
money at the temple. The rich people gave generously, as Jesus watched he saw a
widow put a couple of small coins into the container, Jesus told his disciples
that the widow had contributed more than any of the others. Jesus said, that the
rich gave from a position of wealth, but the widow from her poverty. The lesson
for us is that God looks at things differently to how we see them. God is shown
through the miracles of feeding many with very little to be able to increase
our efforts exponentially. What may not seem like much to us is magnified by
God.
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