2 Corinthians 12: 1 - 10
Why doesn’t God always deliver us from hardship, even when we cry out to Him? What if we tried everything we could to remove intense suffering, yet nothing seems to change? While there is some mystery, we do know that God permits troubles in our lives to form us into the image of Jesus. He cares more about our character than our comfort. Pride, unaddressed, would destroy us. Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 refers to being given “a thorn in [his] flesh” so as to keep him humble, learning how to “boast all the more gladly about [his]weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on [him.]” The hope for this message is to consider responding to hardship as an embrace of the way God wants to shape us.