Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake I DELIGHT IN WEAKNESSES, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
~2 Corinthians 12:7-10~
To me, this is the "happy as a clam" passage. I think it drives a lot of people crazy trying to figure out what Paul's "thorn" was, but I am kind-of glad he didn't name it....it is almost like we are given permission to fill in the blank with our own present difficulty or hardship....(the irritant we cannot remove from our shell)...and see how it too can be covered over and over by God's grace and transformed by God's power into something of a rare treasure.
Only in this way can we DELIGHT in weakness.
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