"Thorn"

A pullin’ wire and settin’ posts,

Been at it quite a bit,

Hangin’ in till that old fence,

I’ll finish ‘fore I quit.

But gaucho wire will stick you,

And so will that mesquite,

Every rose will have its thorn,

But better not retreat.

‘Cause if you do the work will fail,

And we won’t smell the rose,

You gotta take the bad with good,

It’s life, I would suppose.

Old Paul, he talked about his thorn,

And begged the Lord to take,

What it was that gave him grief,

But God said, here’s the grace,

To deal with every obstacle,

And all that’s hard to bear,

His grace is all sufficient,

And it is always there.

It’s wonderful when God will change,

Everything so great,

But sometimes He just changes us,

With grace that’s never late.

His strength in our weakness,

Made perfect, don’t you see,

So He will get the glory,

It’s just how things should be.

And one day all the curse is gone,

No more thorns or weeds,

The manifested sons of God,

Complete and without need.

But until then we’ll walk with Him,

And trust Him to come through,

With grace for every challenge,

That’s always what He’ll do.

“My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness…” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NLT)

Paul wanted relief from what he called his “thorn in the flesh.” No one knows exactly what it was, but Paul begged God to take it away! But God said no, and instead promised him grace to deal with it. What a lesson! God either changes everything or He changes us. We typically want a miracle that will do the first. But sometimes God has something better in mind. Grace to learn, grace to grow, and grace to ultimately overcome whatever challenges we face. Someone has said when all you have left is grace, you find out that grace is all you need.

Lord, give us the grace that helps us overcome life’s thorns, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Martin Grelle, used by permission. Thanks, Martin, and God bless you.