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Think
about our dear brother Paul who had an irritating demon bothering him
everywhere he went! Wow, that must have been difficult to deal with,
right? Also think about Job. Satan came to bother him, and the Lord
allowed that, but He didn't let him completely destroy him. God put a
limit on what Satan could do. In all that trial it caused a greater
dependence on God. Job continued to praise the Lord and so did Paul.
He had a thorn in his flesh, and he still praised the Lord and went
about doing the Lord's work. Was it hard? You betcha!
No
matter what the enemy has brought against us and for whatever reason
we can say thank you Father for your grace! We can choose to praise
God before our breakthrough. In fact, that's the song I woke up with
this morning. It's called "Praise before my breakthrough."
It's a wonderful song you might want to listen to. We can trust in
and rely on God's grace through the trial.
Look at
the Amplified Bible talking about the thorn, (1 Corinthians 12:7-9)
it says "because of the surpassing greatness and extraordinary
nature of the revelations which I received from God for this reason
to keep me from thinking of myself as important, a thorn in the flesh
was given to me a messenger of Satan to torment and harass me to keep
me from exalting myself. Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord
three times that it might leave me, but he has said to me, "My
grace is sufficient for you and my loving kindness, and my mercy are
more than enough, always available regardless of the situation, for
my power is being perfected, and is completed and shows itself most
effectively in your weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly
boast in my weakness, so that the power of Christ may completely
enfold me and may dwell in me.
Praise
the Lord! We think about a thorn as a harassing spirit from the
enemy. Now job had sickness come on him and many of us have had
different kinds of trials come in that way. The enemy does seek to
come and harass, and he seeks to bring discouragement, and he seeks
to try to get us disappointed and frustrated and angry. But we aren't
going to do that because we know that we know that in all these
things God makes us more than conquerors!
Philippians
2:6 reminds us that God began a good work in us, and He will bring it
to completion in the day of Christ Jesus. He will work in that
situation and through it, and He will finish it all the way up to
when Jesus comes back for us. That's when our sanctification process
will be completely done and not until then. We can praise the Lord
because we go further with this and realize that in 1 Corinthians
15:57 we are reminded that we can say "thanks be to God who
always gives us the victory. Another verse talks about how He always
causes us to triumph.
Friend,
I know what it's like to have a thorn in the flesh and it is not
pleasant! I've had one since 2019 and it's only by His grace that I'm
alive to tell about it today. And I'm so thankful for what he has
done for me that I have got to tell the world all about Jesus. His
love is everlasting. His grace is sufficient. Yes, his mercy is new
every morning. No matter what we're facing we can know this, that no
matter what trial, what thorn we might be dealing with, God is there
with us! He's with us in the heights, He's with us in the depths.
He's on
the mountain and He's in the valley! He is everywhere present. He
never leaves us, nor does he forsake us! Oh, He has got me preaching
from the rooftop this morning! The blog is late coming out this week,
but this morning I realized after my time with Jesus that it wasn't
ready yet.
My
friend, be encouraged today that all we do when the thorn in the
flesh just irritates and bothers us is keep on praising and thanking
our God! He is faithful. He will bring us through it. He will
encourage us, and he will deliver us. Thank Him in it knowing that it
was never Him that caused the problem to begin with. It's usually the
flesh or the devil and we praise God that he gives us the victory in
all these things because that's the benefit of our salvation. Be
blessed today and in the days to come with your victory in Jesus'
Name.
Listen
to the song, "Yesterday, today and Forever. Spot on for this
topic. God bless you!
This
blog is reaching people all over the world! God is sending His Word
out to the nations! Be blessed and filled dear friend and pass this
message along to others.
We love
you so much!
Love
and blessings!
Denny
& Hanny Stearns
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