“… I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
— II Corinthians 12:9

Whatever the thorn in Paul’s flesh was, we have all gained from it.

That is because, whether we admit it or not, we are all rather thorny people.

We could spend our days and nights picking at the thorns and begging for their removal, or we could move forward in grace.

We harbor delusions of self-sufficiency and adequacy because we simply do not understand the real source of real strength. Pride, ego, and self-centeredness blind us to our needy state. We deny the thorns if they do not go away on their own, and then we cover them with layers of hypocrisy.

Get real.

Worship is not an illusion. Nor is it a time of glorified denial, where we display the selves we wish to project to our brothers and sisters. We do not come to church to parade our perfection.

We come to worship to get real with God and with one another, so that God can become real to us.

In worship, we acknowledge real strength. It is God’s strength, not ours.

We are commanded to be strong in the Lord — not in the flesh, not in our own strength, and not in our own willpower. As we come, we bow before the Lord with humility and with recognition of our own weakness.

It is Christ’s power, not our own, that we need in order to overcome what we are powerless to overcome.

When we are weak, then we are strong, because we rely upon the God of strength.

When we come to that realization, we can truly worship.

Prayer

Lord, teach us to stop pretending.
Teach us to bring our weakness, our wounds, our thorns, and our need into Your presence.
Let the power of Christ rest upon us, not because we are strong, but because You are.
Amen.