Now, I don’t know what that thorn in the flesh was. Maybe some of you do. I have found a few people who said they knew, but they never persuaded me that they were right about it. One fellow said that HE knew what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was; and I was eager to hear about it. He said, “Why, you know, he wrote the Galatians and told them they would have plucked out their very eyes and given them to him [See Galatians 4:12-16]. And, Paul also said, ‘You see how with large print, or large writing, I write to you.’ [Galatians 6:11 KJV: ‘Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.’ Galatians 6:11 NKJV: ‘See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!’ Galatians 6:11 NIV: ‘See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!’] So he must have had a problem with his eyes.”

In other passages, Paul talked about, maybe, his personal appearance was not— He maybe wasn’t as handsome as Apollos, or maybe somebody else. Maybe that was it. Or, maybe he had a speech impairment. One other falla said to me, “Oh, I know what it was.” He said, “It was stomach trouble.”

I asked, “Well, what makes you say that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was stomach trouble? “

He replied, “Because all preachers have stomach trouble.”

I said, “Well, I don’t have stomach trouble.”

“Well,” he said, “you’re not enough of a preacher to count.” Maybe so.

Paul had a problem of some kind. He called it “a thorn in the flesh,” and I’m still open to the answer. But I know this about him—that it troubled him greatly.

You may have some things in your life that are troublesome to you. It may be some kind of a physical infirmity. It may be cancer; it may be heart disease; it may be arthritis. It may not be that. It may be financial problems. It may not be that. It may be family problems. I heard one preacher say one time that he had three great burdens in life. And he went on to say that one was his wife, and the other two were his children. I never thought of my family that way.

Paul prayed about his thorn in the flesh. The Lord answered his prayer. The Lord didn’t remove it, though, but here’s what the Lord did say to him: '“My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

“ Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities,” said Paul, “that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

You see Bennie Henn and some of these other fellas professing to HEAL people of their diseases, and you hear young Roberts over there in Tulsa [Oklahoma] talking about the hour of healing, the power of healing and so on. God is NOT glorified in all of that sort of thing! God is glorified when we, in our weakness, let HIM rule in our life doing His Will. Then our weakness makes His strength perfect and we glorify Him. That’s one of the great things about the grace of God.

Well, my time us up. My cough drop is gone. It’s time to quit. But, isn’t God’s grace something marvelous? It’s marvelous in salvation. It’s marvelous in giving us a purpose for being here . And it’s marvelous because it helps in the time of our weakness .