August 9.
A Well Worn Thorn

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.

Lest I should be exalted above measure. Unless I get lifted in pride, unless I start thinking I’m more than others, unless I get to the point where I’ll stop speaking to my sons, Timothy and Titus and these others. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh. When country folk think in terms of a thorn, you think in terms of a little splinter, something that got caught in your finger. That’s not the thorn spoken about here. In the original languages, the word thorn means stick. It comes from the idea of one actually being placed on the cross. You may think this was just a temporary situation, but the text says that he had warred with this thing for fourteen years.

Now most of just cannot handle suffering fourteen days. If it is the right kind of suffering, fourteen hours is too long, and of course if it’s serious enough, fourteen minutes. But here is a person that had experienced this matter for fourteen years. Although it was fourteen years ago, every time he would move he had to think about what he saw in the third heaven. Every time he would testify, he would get right up to this experience and have to cut it off. When he got ready to tell his next testimony, he had to cut himself short. When he got ready to preach a sermon, he said, “I want to tell you about… and he would have to stop. Sometime there are some things in your life you just want to tell, but can’t. When you can’t tell anybody else, you start telling yourself. It’s hard to talk to yourself about the good things of God without getting lifted up. If you’re not careful, there is a spiritual pride that gets you to a point where you’ll start looking down at other folk and think you are more than they are. But the thorn kept him humble.