When God Says No

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me,‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’" 

—2 Corinthians 12:7-9

What do we do when God says “No”? The great apostle Paul prayed and God said, “My grace is sufficient for you….” Did God not answer Paul’s prayer? Did God fail? God did answer Paul’s prayer, but He answered in a way that neither we, nor Paul, might prefer or expect. God didn’t verbally say “No” to Paul’s request; He instead simply reminded Paul of a deeper, more important truth—that He had already answered it by giving him grace.

Paul prayed three times that the thorn in his flesh might be removed. We don’t know what the thorn was; the Scripture doesn’t say. We just know that it was given to him to keep him humble. God didn’t tell us what it was because He didn’t want us to know. If we did know, then we might think that His grace was only sufficient for Paul’s specific situation, rather than the thorn that we have right now. Whatever it was, it was too hard to deal with, too difficult to bear, so he did what he was supposed to do, he prayed.

God responded to Paul’s prayer, but not in the way that Paul expected. Our Lord responded by saying, “My grace is sufficient for you….” God said “No” to the thorn’s removal for reasons that He did not disclose, but He used that opportunity for Paul’s good (as He always uses suffering in the lives of believers), to teach that having His grace is more valuable and necessary than being free from suffering. “My grace is sufficient,” he said. The word “grace” means “favor bestowed upon.” And the word “sufficient” means “enough.” God was saying that His grace was enough for Paul to fight against the thorn in His flesh. How?

By saying that His “grace was sufficient,” Paul was reminded that the resource he needed to deal with the thorn had already been given to Him through Christ. He simply needed to understand how to appropriate it. The second part of the verse answers the first part, “for My power is made perfect in weakness.” The sufficiency of grace enables us to see that we are insufficient to combat temptation or deal with suffering in and of ourselves. It is through suffering that we cling to grace and the Holy Spirit is most clearly seen in us. But is His power really made “perfect in our weakness”? Isn’t God already perfect? He is perfect and will always be so, but “perfect in our weakness” can be understood to mean that His power is most clearly evidenced in our brokenness. Like a kernel of wheat that falls to the ground: It cannot give life until the hard shell dies. Only when the shell dies is the life within it able to flow out. And it’s only when the shell of self is cracked by insufficiency and failure that the grace of God flows out from us. In other words, Jesus is most seen in us when we are most conscious of everything we are not—and of all He is.

My brother or sister, I pray that Christ might be clearly seen in you. I pray that God might show the sufficiency of His grace in the moments of your weakness. As you pray, don’t give up, but listen for His direction and then learn to do what He says and love what He commands. Amen.