April 12, 2021: SOAP #4148: 1Samuel 13; 1Chronicles 2-3; 2Corinthians 12
SCRIPTURE: 2Corinthians (NIV) 12:7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 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. 10 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.
OBSERVATION: Paul realized that the great things God had shown him, and the mighty ways God had used him, could have caused him to become proud. He could have been arrogant with a “look at me and how great I am” attitude. Such an attitude would have destroyed what God wanted to do through Paul. God was not using Paul for Paul’s sake. He was using Paul for the sake of the church! God allowed Satan to “torment” Paul in some way. Maybe it was with memories of how he had persecuted the church before the Lord stopped him. Maybe it was some physical ailment. Maybe it was all the trouble that seemed to stir around him in every city.
What the trouble was is unimportant. What is important: God’s grace was enough to sustain Paul. God’s power would be seen through Paul’s weakness!
APPLICATION: I believe God purposefully does not reveal Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” Whatever it was is unimportant to me. What is important to me is that His grace is sufficient for whatever my thorn might be! God’s power can be seen through my weakness or lack. When what I have is insufficient, I find that God is all sufficient!
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, you are God. You are all sufficient for my need. Your power can be seen in my weaknesses. When I do not know what to do, my eyes are on you. Amen
Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!
SOAPs by Pastor Leon 
I soo agree with you about ‘God’s grace’ in Paul and its sustaining power. I also think that these verses reveal Paul’s awareness of his weakness. There is humility in that statement. I am reminded that my weaknesses are real and no amount of false pride or faking I’m okay or not so bad will lead me into a right relationship with God. Confess and accepting who I am are vital to a healthy relationship with our Lord. The older I get, the more I realize how little I know, how little control I have in my life, and how little power I have in my life except for God working in and through me.
Charles Klassen