Photo By: Olga Reznik (Creative Commons)
There is not a person my age that is not intimately aware that “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” I would venture that people of the next generation are only slightly less familiar and the one after that has at least heard the song – it was quite important to our generation and it will be played on radio and live by cover bands for years to come.
Here I go with music again. Imagine – No, not the song.
Well, I am talking about thorns today but not the power ballad variety.
For several days now, I have been reminded about the “thorn” or as Paul calls it “the messenger of Satan” that he was stricken with. The bible does not tell us what the “thorn” was and I am not going to speculate – it is not relevant to this post. The thing I am going to focus on is what Paul said after that.
In verses 8- 10 of 2 Corinthians 12 Paul says this about his tormentor:
“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.”
It is right there at the beginning. Paul says three times he pleaded…
BUT, Paul says “but he said to me, “…’My grace is sufficient’…”. I read that and my heart melted.
I have spent countless hours – no, I don’t do it every day but I have spent so much time asking God to get me out of my J-O-B that I would say it borders on an obsession – heck, if I got paid for the time spent praying for just that one thing I’d make enough money to leave that J-O-B.
Small over estimation – really small.
Turns out my J-O-B IS my thorn.
Well, duh! I know right?
Realizing that totally changed my attitude. It caused me to see something that I been missing for I don’t know how long.
I had taken my eyes off God. The J-O-B became my God. It got all my attention. All my focus – not all my love but if you look at your life, how you spend your money and TIME is usually a good indication of where your heart can be found.
Jesus told us to love God with all our hearts, minds, bodies and souls – I was not even coming close to that doing what I had been which was ignoring the gift God gave me to use and looking only at my circumstances.
There can be no argument that God wants to have exceedingly abundantly more than we can hope or imagine – the bible says as much – but we have to put him first and when you think about the fact that he died FOR the sins of the WHOLE world, why wouldn’t you?
Mick Holt 
17 Comments
Love this post. I have been thinking about thorns a lot lately. I think my migraines are my thorn.
Nicole, they very well could, the migraines, be your thorn. There’s lots of speculation, since Paul does not say in 2 Cor. what his thorn actually was, as to what it could have been. I lean toward vision issues based on other references he makes about his eyes. So it is not a stretch to think that headaches could be yours.
Like I am learning to do with my J-O-B, when one starts to come on use it to thank God for the opportunity to really trust him.
I remember seasons of feeling thorns with a specific job assignment. After I season, things changed.
The scriptures do tell us there is a season for everything. Thank you for stopping by and sharing.
My thorn is anxiety, and my tendency to worry about everything. Yeah, I know there’s a genetic reason for some of it – but at the end of the day, it’s got a lot to do with my faith. Worry comes from a desire to CONTROL life, and lacking the faith to *hand over the reins* to God.
Ahem.
Working on it. Praying about it. Learning how to surrender…
GOD BLESS!
I think the most important thing is that you recognize and are working toward letting it God have it all. It’s not easy.
Thanks for stopping by.
Enjoyed the post Mick.
My thorn would have to be busyness.
It’s easy for me to spread myself to thin…to the point where I don’t enjoy much or anything.
I’ve gotta work on that one.
Larry,
I know what you mean. We take on all kinds of projects because we enjoy them and end up hating them by the end.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting – I appreciate the support.
Happy Monday? Time to get your grind on!
It’s a Monday thing!
My job was my thorn, as well. I quit and started my own business. Thorn = gone 🙂
Cool. Good for you. What kind of business did you start and do you sell franchises? 🙂
The exciting thing is that work came before the fall. So although now our work is subject to the curse – there will come a time when work will be holy and exciting and not a thorn at all. That gets me pumped up!
Even in this life I look forward to work that “means something” to some one other than my boss! My eternal job, oh man, I cannot wait.
Great post, it really spoke to me. One of my thorns is worry. Sometimes I worry I’m not doing enough for the kingdom but you helped me relax some. My time and money show my heart is Kingdom bound. yes, I mess up- I’m human- but overall I love God and He knows that.
Thanks for this encouraging post. Just what I needed!
Thank you, glad you liked it. God does know your love and he loves you too.
Trackbacks and Pingbacks
[…] Every J-O-B Has its Thorn – Jobs – Can’t stand ‘em can’t quit ‘em! […]