2 Corinthians 12: 7-10
“Some want to live within the sound of Church or chapel bells; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” - - C.T Studd
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
“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. 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. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
There has been extensive debate over our passage this month and what this so called, “thorn” was that tormented the Apostle Paul. Some have suggested that it was an illness, a habitual temptation or sin, or possibly a contentious relationship. Regardless of what camp you land in or what you believe, the depth of this passage and what it conveys still remains. Through the sovereignty and providence of God, the apostle Paul found himself battling something in his life that he begged the Lord to remove from him. And seemingly the Lord’s response was no, for the grace of God was sufficient for Paul and this weakness in Paul’s life was a display of God’s power being perfected. How do we make sense of this?
Text like these must be balanced with the full revelation of scripture. In his preaching series to a Mississippi Prison, Evangelist and Missionary, Paul Washer, conveyed to the inmates that them being in prison was an act of grace and love by the Lord in their lives. What a statement to make. Paul Washer goes on to explain that him telling them this is the most loving thing he could do, how so? Scripture explains that God as our Father disciplines His children. Hebrews 12:6-11 states:
“For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.’ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Paul Washer emphasized this point by referencing the book of Romans where the Apostle Paul quoted the Lord with, “Jacob I loved and Esau I hated.” How did God hate Esau? He let Esau be Esau. How did God love Jacob? He disciplined him.
The disciplines through these interventions by the Lord in our lives can be hard things in our humanity to come to peace with. But we must step back from our circumstantial toils and be humble in the reality of our humanity and that our Father is a God who knows the end from the beginning and is not limited to our finite perspectives. What Paul Washer was conveying to these inmates is that God as their Father was so loving He set up a roadblock, on their headfirst dive towards hell, called prison. He in His sovereignty allowed them to be restrained in their sin by the “justice system” and allowed them, by His timing and purposes, to be restricted to prison. Where, by His grace, they were able to hear His gospel and believe. Does this mean they will be freed from prison and released back into society because they have been spiritually reborn? No. But as most of them affirm in their testimonies, the rebirth of their spirit has given them a peace beyond understanding where they recognize the temporary restrictions of this lifetime now in prison, due to their choices, is nothing in comparison to the gravity of eternity.
This is what I believe is the heart of the Apostle’s Paul message. Faith is trusting the Lord in His work through our sanctification process on this side of eternity as He conforms us to the image of His son. If most of us Christians would be honest, we know that in our own lives this “high n sight” is often 20/20 as we look back on the grace of God in our trials and tribulations. This is what we must preach to ourselves during these times. What does that mean for us as First Responders? We have the unique ministry and occupational opportunity where God can and does use us as intervention tools of grace in the lives of others. Whether that is through our role as agents of justice for the individual destroying the lives of others or their own soul in crime or sin, or the preservation of life by those of us in EMS roles, we can approach these times in humility to recognize the impact it has not only on our walk, but also those we are serving. The true battle of our post conversion walk is truly seeing ourselves in the identity that we now live in through the blood of Christ. The reality that the Father looks on us in the righteousness of His Son by this blood and not in our shortcomings. Our flesh and the enemy, our great accuser, wants us to reject this love and look backwards, not forwards. When we embrace this reality, the natural reaction should drop us to our knees in awe and reverence for a God that not only is just, but also the justifier.
Romans 8: 26-30:
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.”
“Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God’s majesty.” – John Calvin
James Doyle -April 2025-