Paul Asked God Three Times And Got A No

There is something you have prayed about more than once and it is still there. Not a dramatic crisis, just the thing that keeps grinding on you. Paul had one of those and he was honest about it.

He called it a thorn in the flesh. 2 Corinthians 12:7 says it was "the messenger of Satan to buffet me." That word messenger describes a person, not a disease. Paul was talking about constant harassment that followed him from city to city, not a sickness God handed him.

He asked God to take it away three separate times. That is not weak faith. That is a man who knew he was allowed to ask.

God's answer was not silence. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Read the tense. The grace was already sufficient before Paul opened his mouth. God was not adding something new, He was pointing Paul to what he already had.

Think about where this actually lands. The flatmate situation that has not improved in eight months. The relative who takes a shot at you at every family function. You are not being told to grit your teeth and be a stronger person about it. The strength is already in you because the Holy Spirit is in you, and the moment you stop pulling from your own reserves is the moment His start flowing.

Paul ended up saying in 2 Corinthians 12:10, "for when I am weak, then am I strong." He was not celebrating being exhausted. He found out that running empty is exactly where God's power stops being a concept.