Did God say NO to Paul when he asked God to remove his thorn in the flesh?
When the Apostle Paul begged God to take away his “thorn in the flesh,” God answered by saying, “my grace is what you need, my power works best in weakness.” Was that a “no?” No! That was a solution.
2 Corinthians 12:8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God speaks directly to Paul and associates GRACE with POWER. Grace is an inner power that causes us to overcome any and every situation we may face. GRACE is God’s divine influence in our hearts that causes us to be strong, patient, loving, joyful, wise, and so on.
God didn’t say, “no, not right now, I need you to suffer a little while.” He said, “Paul, if you’ll access my power within you, you’ll have victory in this area.”
That’s not a NO, that’s a SOLUTION!!! This is true for us as well!
LIVING IN THE POWER OF GRACE
By God’s definition, GRACE = POWER. How does that help us practically?
Let’s say you want to make more money. First and foremost, find out what God says about about money, He says, I give you the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:19). He says he makes one rich, and he adds no trouble with it (Proverbs 10:22). He defines himself as our Provider. And finally, Jesus associates God’s willingness to meet our needs with his value for us (Matthew 6). If he’s willing to die for us, I think he’s willing to meet our financial needs.
This doesn’t mean God owes you a Bugatti and a mansion, and it doesn’t mean you can be irresponsible with money, and God will bail you out with a check in the mail. It means God is faithful to His Word, and you allow Him to empower you (grace), you will experience His promises.
If you follow God’s instructions about money, in that you stay out of debt, you’re generous, and you don’t put it before Him, your heart will be sensitive to His influence (grace) regarding money and you will follow His leading.
This is true of any area of life. If you’ll renew your mind according to His Word, and believe it in your heart, you will follow His leading and experience His perspective of that area.
How Do I Access Grace?
Like Paul, you don’t need to beg God to show up and fix your problem, you need GRACE. you need to be sensitive to God’s influence in your heart to follow Him through life.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Start by acknowledging that you are at peace with God, you are His righteous child, and you make yourself impressionable to be inspired by God to act on His supply of GRACE.
Practical Application
If you have an anger problem you’d like to work on, be honest with yourself about it, affirm that you are not the anger problem itself and that God’s grace can help you overcome it.
Take a moment to visualize yourself in a situation in which you get angry and see yourself handling it differently. Then, the next time you feel yourself getting angry, remove yourself, relax your body, acknowledge that God’s GRACE is in you, then LET IT EMPOWER YOU!!
How do you let it empower you? Try it, and you’ll find out.
I PROMISE you, if you turn to God in the heat of the moment, He will be present, and He will supply you with GRACE, but it’s your choice to yield to it and act accordingly.
This is applicable in all temptation, whether it be bad financial practices, anger, eating habits, pornography, laziness, lying, drugs, the list goes on.
TRY IT!! God’s GRACE is all you need, His power in you is the strength you need in your weakness!!
