My Strength Is Made Perfect in Weakness

The Story

The apostle Paul had seen things most people never will. He was once caught up into heaven, he wrote, and heard words that couldn’t be spoken.

But to keep him from becoming proud, he said, “there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.” Paul never tells us exactly what the thorn was. Some think it was an illness, others a problem with his eyes, others a constant enemy. Whatever it was, it hurt, and it didn’t go away.

Paul did what any of us would do. He asked God to remove it. He asked once. Then again. Then a third time.

God’s answer wasn’t what Paul expected. “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

God didn’t take the thorn away. Instead, He promised that His grace would be enough to carry Paul through it.

And Paul changed his whole outlook. From then on, he said, he would boast about his weaknesses, so that the power of Christ would rest on him. “When I am weak, then am I strong.”

Reflection