12:8
Three times Paul prayed for the thorn to be taken away. So what do we learn from this? One thing not to learn is that Paul didn’t have enough faith, and if only he had had enough faith the thorn would have been taken away. This is an utterly stupid “interpretation”, and is not the message that the Bible is conveying here. One thing is that the thorn, whatever it was, was causing great distress and grief to Paul. He clearly didn’t like having it, and thought it was a great hindrance to what he was doing for the Lord. He pleased three times. These were heartfelt prayers. God does not always answer our prayers in the way we think He should.
12:9
But the Lord did answer Paul’s prayer, He deepened his understanding. Remember what had happened to Paul. He had been miraculously converted, had seen visions of God. He had been given tremendous insight into the gospel. He has seen the gospel break though into many parts of the Roman Empire. In such cases it is easy for any of us to become proud, and in v7 Paul says that this happened to stop him becoming conceited. “My grace is sufficient for you”. The things that God achieves through us happen above all else because of the grace of God. And we see here another example of active grace. Grace is not just about our being forgiven in a passive sense, it is also active in enabling us to achieve things we should not be able to achieve. God’s power is made perfect in weakness. This is both a rebuke and an encouragement to us. It is a rebuke whenever we are tempted to think that our abilities are what is achieving things. It is an encouragement when we feel weak. So Paul learnt from this, and that is why, in contradistinction to the “super apostles”, he boasted gladly about his weaknesses.
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