Thursday 15th June
Read 2 Corinthians 12:7b
“Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” (NIVUK)
It is indeed a difficult challenge to not boast in gifts and talents we have received. They ever so slowly become a source of pride. So hard that for Paul, his exceedingly great gift was matched with an equally discomforting challenge. There has been much speculation concerning the nature of this ‘thorn in the flesh’. I have read of at least six options, all equally unprovable. But the precise nature of the ‘thorn’ is less important than its presence. God so cared for Paul that he prevented him from becoming big-headed and proud by allowing Satan to torment him. Paul can see both Satan and God’s hand behind this ‘thorn’.
Often we seek to allocate misfortune and tragedy to the hand of Satan or to the hand of God. Rarely will we allocate them to both. Yet this nuanced view of life ‘under the sun’ is likely to be true more often than not. The expectation that those who are more spiritual than us mere mortals somehow have less to do with evil and Satan is false. Just as the opposite view that when tragedy and misfortune strikes it is due to some ‘sin’ within the person on the receiving end. But many wrestle with such a ‘grey’ view of tragedy and misfortune, preferring to allocate blame one way or the other. As Job and Jesus discovered, God’s purposes and glory are often revealed amidst the direst and most undeserved of circumstances.
Misfortune itself may be a gift from God, sent by Satan, to prevent you from relying on your own strength and to limit pride and allow room for weakness to reveal God’s grace.
