When we look at a rose we can admire the beauty of its color and the fragrance it gives but have we ever stopped to consider its thorns?

We can learn a lot when we parallel our lives to that of the rose. Our lives can reflect such beauty in how we live and serve God but underneath it all are the thorns!  What could their purpose be?

2 Corinthians 12:7 MSG

Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. * * *

What an awesome revelation!

Note: When God’s people communicate their experiences, let them always remember to take notice of what God has done to keep them humble, as well as what he has done in favor to them and for their advancement.. 

Insight: This thorn in the flesh is said to be a messenger of Satan, which he did not send with a good design, but on the contrary, with ill intentions, in order to discourage the apostle (who had been so highly favored of God) and hinder him in his work.  But God designed this for good, and he overruled it for good, and made this messenger of Satan to be so far from being a hindrance that it was a help to the apostle.

Note: Though afflictions are sent for our spiritual benefit, and even though we may pray to God to remove them: we really should desire too that they accomplish the purpose they were designed for. 

Even if we pray one, two or three times about something, we should not give up until we get an answer! 

God may not always answer in the way we would like but He reassures us that “His grace is sufficient for us.”  

Grace signifies two things:     

1. The good-will of God towards us.  2. The good work of God in us. 

“When I am weak, then am I strong.” This is a Christian paradox:  When we are weak in ourselves, then we are strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; When we see ourselves weak in ourselves, then we go out of ourselves to Christ, and receive strength from him.

Now when we admire the rose we will think about the thorns and it’s contribution to its beauty!