In our text, the apostle Paul demonstrates a level of transparency that is refreshing for the church.

Understand, that this apostle has to manage the tension of being great while simultaneously remaining
grounded. As an apostle, he’s got to operate with confidence without ever allowing himself to become
conceiving. And one of the constant refrain of apostle paul is that he always guides the church against
boasting or what he calls glorying or becoming puffed up. In fact apostle paul considers all boasting an
unprofitable thing because he understands that every good and perfect gift comes from God. This is a
battle that paul himself has to battle with because when we look at Paul’s life, one of the things that
becomes clear is that the apostle paul is a pretty self-assured kind of guy. Paul is so strong spiritually
that when he lays down at night, the heavens begin to open up and God begins to write the very history
of the cosmos iand he begins to write them on the walls of paul’s mind. And paul is at a place where he
is honest enough to admit that hes had such success, that God has used him powerfully, hes seen God
operate on his lifewith such force that there is a temptation for him to become arrogant and conceited
and forget that it is God that operates inside of him. And so what he says, that God has done for me,
God has given me a precaution God has put a failsafe in my flesh God has given me a thorn to buffet me,
and it is literally that thorn that operates as the last restraint that help me remain saved in my journey.
It is amazing at how his disposition towards the thorn begins to change, At first he said I hated the
thorns, I pleaded to God to take the thorn away from me. Buit the longer he abide with the thorn he
sees it as something that is necessary he sees it as the last buffer between him and the aliened nations
from God. And when you hear him talk about the thorn there is almost a sense of relief, a sense of
gratitude, a sense of appreciation for this tormenting thing, because he realizes that he cannot be saved
without it. It is an interesting thing because he is grateful for the thorn that brings discomfort to his life.
Because he realized that without this thing his likelihood of being saved goes down exponentially.

I believe that we have to learn not just to praise God for those things that elevates us and promotes us
but also we have to thank God for the experiences that keep us grounded in life. And I know that this is
a hard thing to praise God for, because the temptation for humans is to only thank God for the things
that brings us pleasure, to thank God for the things that brings us promotion, we save our best shouts
for the things that appealed to our flesh, but sometimes we have to thank God for the experiences that
helps us to be reminded of where our help actually comes from. The truth is, we got to thank God that
even though you didn’t get that job right away, it may have taken a little while, but in the meantime you
learn that God was your provider, even though we didn’t get married at 28, somewhere along we got
engaged to Jesus Christ, we ought to thank God that even though we don’t have a big house, or a
mansion, you are living on an apartment, rented or a small house, you’ve got a big faith. Sometimes we
have to thank God for the experience that knock me flat on my back, because it is when I was knocked
on my back that I learned to look to the heavens from which cometh my help. And realize that my help
cometh from God. And it is an interesting text for Paul asked God three times for these burdens to be
removed from me, but God’s response was, “It is not going to be removed but I’m going to give you
grace to be able to bear up under the weight of this adversity. I just want to leave this 3 things about
how to handle when our prayers are not answered on the way we like.

1. God won’t remove things that keeps you prayerful and close to him.
Paul prayed, that this things would be removed from him, but it is literally this thorns which
adjutates his flesh that helps paul to operate with sense of dependence. It is the thorn in his
flesh that operates as the driving agent that leads him closer to God. And when sometimes
when life gets hard, we say “God I want you to get me out of this” instead of asking “God what
 do you want me to do to get out of this. Sometimes, we want those pressures and tensions that
makes us closer to God to be removed, but why would God remove those things that keep you
closer to him. And sometimes those tensions are what God deem necessary and essential to the
development of your character and the sanctification of your soul.
You may try to elude that person in a church but when you get to the new church you again
encounter that same type of person, that when you try to leave one job and when you get to
the new job you encounter the same type of personality. No matter how many times you avoid
and escape those same things are going to show up. What I want to say is that sometimes, you
don’t need a new situation, you don’t need a new job, you don’t need a new church, but what
you need is a new heart fo jesus christ.
2.