Posted on 06/21/2017 12:48:52 PM PDT by WhatNot
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
If we acknowledge God in whatever our life situation, He promises to direct our paths. When we seek Him, when we take into account His preserved Word and apply Scriptural principles in our life decisions, He gives us His divine guidance. Only in God's preserved word does Jesus speak to us, but the Holy Spirit "guides and provides" according to our individual needs. Sometimes we need His comforting, other times we need His convicting, but when dealing with life-limiting "thorns in the flesh" we definitely need acceptance, because His grace might have to suffice.
2 Corinthians 12:7
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
Whatever Paul's thorn in the flesh, whether chronic disability or persecution, after praying three times for its removal, God told him, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" in other words stop praying for its removal and begin accepting the situation. Once Paul came to grips with the fact that God was not going to remove the thorn he said, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Blessings in disguise often come through our infirmities and learning to view them spiritually is not easy, but the heavier the burden we carry the more we have to cast upon Christ who is our overcomer.
John 16:33
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Humorous: where’s the Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew text thread?
The thread broke under the strain. :)
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Amen. What’s the worst that can happen, we die and go to Jesus?
Paul, nee Saul of Tarsus,l frequently awes me. The KJV translation of him is particularly awesome, I Corinthians in it’s entirety.
I held my wife’s hand two months ago as she slipped out of this presence - her cancer is now gone Praise God! and now we are waiting for our blessed reunion.
And yes, ‘Tears will never stain the streets of that city,
No wreaths of death on my mansion door
Teardrops aren’t welcome beyond the gates of glory
Cause the heart will never break anymore
Cause the heart will never break anymore.
I tend to doubt that Paul’s eyesight was the source of his ‘thorn in the flesh’ as it is a buffeting. I don’t actually equate the two as compatible . . . and is the eye ‘really’ the flesh?
I could be wrong . . . it’s happened! once or twice.
My sincere sympathy for your earthly loss; But - PRAISE THE LORD that your wife is with Jesus. And that you have wonderful comfort looking forward to a future reunion
On a more serious note: about the thorn that Paul had.
Sometimes God does choose to leave mountains unmovable and I think Paul would have had liked this song: http://youtu.be/B6fA35Ved-Y
Though there is one technical issue with it: it doesn’t say that it only takes a little faith to move mountains, it says that it takes the faith of a mustard seed.
I’ve thought about this over the years — what faith can a mustard seen have? — and I’ve come to this conclusion: it is not a little faith at all.
Rather, look at the question I posed. What faith CAN a mustard seed have? It isn’t intelligent, lack knowledge or knowing, and has no will of its own. It is a seed, nothing more and (important) nothing less.
To the extent it can have any sort of faith at all is that it just plain accepts what it is already. The only thing a still living mustard seed can do is grow. It doesn’t become more of a mustard that it already is. Time and events matter only with respect to crude appearances but the seed is the same as the tree it will some day be.
That is its faith. If it could testify it would say without doubt and with full conviction: “I’m a mustard!”
So to have the faith of a mustard seed must be similar. To accept without wavering that what you are in Christ, with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, now is what you will be then. Yeah, you and I are small to insignificant and would blow away in a stiff breeze were we not held in place ... but we are saints, we are already holy and unlike those still out of Christ our body of death is a mere husk that will fall away at that point in time when it’s gonna happen.
The faith of a mustard seed isn’t a little faith at all!
It’s like coming as a small child, what does a child know? Trust. A small child trusts their parents. That too seems a mustard-seed-like arrangement.
So it seems God respects a faith that accepts what He has done, that it is already done, and that trusts Whom has done it and will bring about growth in its season.
Amen to that!
God allows us to get sick and grow old in order for us to turn our hearts toward heaven. Many a lost soul has come to Christ as they recognize that their bodies are wearing out.
Imagine if Adam had not been thrust from the garden and was allow to continue to eat from the fruit of life. He would live forever no matter how sick he became or feeble (as was David at the end).
Steve and Annie Chapman have a song where they call it our “second childhood!”
Our faith is summed up in this verse rather nicely . . .
“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Notice it does not say anything about ‘my’ faith - it is HIS faith.
Remember, we are to count ourselves crucified daily - and what faith can a dead man possibly have?
The man was stoned and thought dead, so I’ve speculated that it was some related disability, something that never healed well, and that it may be that his experience he mentions could have also happened at the same time, reinforcing the connection between experience and “thorn”.
. . . I was only speaking of the belief of some that it was his poor eyesight.
Dittos to everything in this reply.
I wasn’t getting in your grill. Just making a comment.
Though as one who suffers headaches, and given the assertion that he had poor eyesight, I could see one possibility that is matches up with a very believable injury suffered during stoning and which could also be associated with impaired vision caused at the same time ... and yet the impared vision itself not really be the gripe still.
Sorry, re-reading my reply does look defensive . . . din’t mean it though. :)
Amen...
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