GOD'S PAINFUL REMINDERS

by Pastor Paul Naumann

"And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 

— II Corinthians 12:7-9

In Christ, Who provides strength for this life and salvation for the next, Dear Fellow-Redeemed,

Do you know what a "Post-it Note" is? Not long ago I was watching a documentary about three of the most successful businesses in the country. One of them was the 3-M Company. Their fortunes have taken a sharp turn for the better recently because of their new product, the Post-it Note. It really is one of the handiest things around — a little pad of paper with a strip of adhesive on the back of each sheet. Whenever you want to remind yourself (or somebody else) of something, you just write it down, tear it off, and "Post-it" in a place where you can't possibly miss it. It works great, especially for a forgetful person like me. I think the folks at St. Paul's have noticed that the church has been consistently warm on Sunday mornings lately — it's because I've got a note on the door of my office reminding me to turn up the heat on Saturday night!

You know, Christians in general are notoriously forgetful people. We tend to forget, very easily, Who it is Who supplies all our wants and needs, day by day. We're especially forgetful when it comes to our most important need — salvation. Well, God has His own kind of "Post-it Notes," His own way of reminding us where these blessings really come from. Little memory refreshers that are often painful, but necessary. The Apostle Paul found that out in his own life, and he shares his experience with us in our text for this morning. Let's take a closer look at that word of God, and give thanks, with Paul, for...

"GOD'S PAINFUL REMINDERS"

I. ...that HE supplies our earthly needs. II. ...that HE provides our salvation.

I stepped out my front door yesterday morning, after we'd gotten our two feet of snow, and it gave me sort of a thrill to make the first footprints in those deep, pure-white snowbanks. It was almost as though I was "going where no man had gone before!" The Apostle Paul was in a rather unique position that way. I mean, think of it! He had the honor of being the first missionary to bring the good news of the Gospel to the world! He was a pioneer in the missionary field. The fact that there had come to be Christians in nearly every part of the civilized world was, in a large part, due to the work he had done for Christ. What a feeling! He must have been sorely tempted to feel proud of his accomplishments, to boast about his special revelations, to consider himself a pretty exceptional human being!

God must have seen how great that temptation would be. So God gave Paul a reminder. A little something to jog his memory from time to time. To bring him up short, and remind him just Who was the Creator, and who the creature; Who the Master, and who the servant; Who the Employer, and who the employee. Paul says, "...Lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure." Paul was given a "thorn in the flesh." Over the centuries, lots of people have speculated about what that "thorn" might have been. Some think it might have been a nagging illness, like recurrent malaria, or a mild form of cerebral palsy. Some even think it may have been a speech impediment — you can imagine how annoying and discouraging that would be for a man who's full-time job is preaching!

Whatever it was, it troubled him. It bothered him so much, that he begged God over and over again to take the "thorn" away. "Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'" God didn't take it away. He left the painful thing in place, as a necessary reminder to Paul.

Does all this sound familiar to you? It should, because God uses the same system of painful reminders in your life, too! Sickness, trouble, sorrow, and guilt... These are bad things that are all incorporated by God in a good purpose — to remind you of a couple of facts that it's absolutely essential you remember! The first is that He's the one who supplies your earthly needs. The second (and most important!) is that He's the one who provides you with salvation!

When I was in High School, one of my favorite songs was one called, "Lean On Me." You've probably heard it. The song reminds us that, much as we hate to do it, we have to "lean on" other people for help sometimes. God sometimes puts thorns in our lives, to remind us to lean on Him for our earthly needs. They are painful reminders that we really have to rely on the Lord to provide health, safety, money, happiness...to provide everything!

We can't know and trust God's strength until He shows us our weakness. And I'll bet you know exactly what I'm talking about. Right now you're probably thinking of a particular thorn in your life... Perhaps it's a severe illness, or a disease, or an injury that you've suffered. There's nothing like a serious health problem to make us realize how frail we really are, and to drive us back to God. It makes us cry out to God, with Jeremiah, "Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise." — Jer 17:14.

Perhaps you or a loved one has experienced an accident recently, or a near-miss - a close brush with death. That makes you think, doesn't it! About Who is watching you around the clock, and Who is protecting you from hidden dangers. God promises, in Isaiah, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord you God..." — Is 43:2-3.

Have you been having money troubles lately? Wondering where the next meal's going to come from, the next pair of shoes for your kids? How you're going to cover your taxes this spring, or your next insurance payment? That could be your thorn! Perhaps God's trying to remind you that He, not you, is the One who supplies your daily bread. Jesus says, "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

And that brings us to a bigger and more important question. Because it's a mistake to trust ourselves to supply our earthly needs, but it' a much bigger mistake to trust ourselves for salvation! And God has a painful reminder for that, too. Did you ever think of your sins, and the guilt you feel over your sins, as a thorn that God uses in your life? The Bible says that the Lord will make "all things work together for good to them that love God;" — why not the sinfulness that we see and detest in ourselves?

Yes! Our conscience, the guilt and sorrow we feel over sin, is a device God uses! He uses it to turn us away from our own failed attempts at righteousness. That's the only way He can lead us, in repentance, to Jesus' perfect righteousness! Paul says, "Godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted." — II Cor 7:10. That big "thorn" in our lives is called the Law. When we look down the list of God's commandments, the reality that we haven't kept any of them slaps us in the face. We realize that we haven't got the power to please God on our own. Everywhere we turn, we see the "Post-it Notes": the sins, the failures that remind us how truly weak we are! And that drives us, as it should, to the grace of our God. He reassures us, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." "Therefore," Paul says, "most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

God wants to provide your salvation, so let Him do it! Throw off your own righteousness, and trust in the power and righteousness of Christ! He's kept all the commandments that you could never keep. In your place, He walked the narrow path of righteousness in life. In all the spots along the way where you stumbled or went astray, He kept God's Law for you. As John says, "He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin." — I John 3:5. When the time came for all the accounts to be paid, when all the sins of the world were totaled up, Jesus signed on the dotted line. The weight of the cross was heavy as He walked toward Calvary, but nothing compared to the crushing burden of the sins of mankind — your sins and my sins. But Jesus picked them up and carried them on and on. Every bloody, agonizing step, all the way to the cross. And there He got rid of them, once and for all. For God "made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." — II Cor 5:21.

Because of what Jesus did for us, we're free from our sins, alive to God in righteousness! We're ready and waiting to take our place next to our Savior in heaven — the place He earned for us with His righteousness. He is the One who provides our salvation. And if God sees the need to send reminders of that fact into our lives, as painful as those reminders may be, we can rejoice with Paul that the power of Christ is resting upon us!

Have you ever seen how cultured pearls are produced? A tiny grain of sand is introduced into the mantle of an oyster. The sand acts as an irritant, which the oyster reacts to by coating it with a smooth white enamel. When many coats of this enamel have been built up on the grain of sand, it becomes a pearl — a thing of extraordinary beauty that is valued the world over. God sends thorns in our lives — painful little irritants — to remind us of our weakness, and teach us to depend on Him for our physical and spiritual needs. God grant that we may see these thorns for what they are — gifts that lead to the beauty of life everlasting. Then we'll understand , with St. Paul, that "our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." — II Cor 4:17. AMEN.