That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

You have made me act like a fool—boasting like this. You ought to be writing commendations for me, for I am not at all inferior to these “super apostles,” even though I am nothing at all. (2 Corinthians 12:5-11)

When all you have left is Jesus, you’ll realize Jesus is enough. What was Paul’s “thorn in the flesh?” Paul often used the word “flesh” to mean the sin nature. So perhaps Paul was referring to some sin in his life that he could never overcome—like a bad temper, perhaps.

Jesus refused to remove Paul’s thorn, whatever it was. Instead, Jesus told Paul that his “grace” was enough. What is grace? It is an undeserved gift. So why did Jesus tell Paul that some undeserved gift was enough for him? Because the underserved gift was God’s forgiveness. Jesus died for all our sins. Whether we keep on having a bad temper or not, thanks to what Jesus did on the cross, God has already forgiven us.

So there was no reason for Paul to worry about his thorn, whatever it might have been. Jesus’ power works best in our weakness. Only when we realize how weak we are can we be amazed by the power of God—because only then do we recognize that it is God’s power at work in our lives rather than our own power. Jesus really is all we have—but that’s like the richest man in the world saying that all he has is money.

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