The Sufferings of Paul

I am reading in 2 Corinthians 11-12 about the sufferings that the apostle Paul had to endure as a follower of Jesus Christ and as a minister of the gospel of our salvation. He faced many beatings, imprisonments, stonings, shipwrecks, hunger and thirst, and lack of sleep, etc. And he was burdened for the church, that they not continue in sin, but that they walk in the ways of the Lord. And it grieved him if anyone sinned. But God used him greatly, and He gave him many revelations and visions which were used in his life in teaching the people the things of God and of the gospel of our salvation.

7So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. 10That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:7-10 BSB Berean Standard Bible).

We do not know what Paul’s “thorn” was exactly, for he did not say. But we do know is that it was not sin, for Jesus died on that cross to deliver us out of sin so we will obey God with our lives. He died to free us from sin! His grace, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord’s return (see Titus 2:11-14). So God will not refuse to remove sin from our lives, and His grace is not sufficient for us if we decide to continue in deliberate and habitual sin (see Romans 6:1-23).

Making it Personal

Today I was on an internet site called “Facebook.” It is a place where we can gather together on the internet with friends and family, mostly people we know and have known in person throughout our lives. And all of a sudden I got notified that I had a response to one of my posts from someone from my youth. But this one was posted on April 10, 2022, and it was a picture of my dad as a young boy, with my comments attached. He and my mom were both born in 1914 and both died in the year 2000 at the age of 86. Also today the Lord had me post a poem about the purpose for our own lives.

These kinds of things don’t usually happen in my life by accident. Usually when something like this happens I know God has a message He wants to convey through it. And the message is two-fold. One has to do with the sufferings that we face throughout our lives, which can begin in our childhood, and the second is that God has a purpose for the things we suffer, for the things He allows in our lives. There are lessons to be learned even through the hard times, and God uses these hard times in our lives to prepare us for what He has for us to do, for His callings upon our lives.

A Very Wicked Man

My dad was a very wicked man and an abuser of some of the worst kinds to my mother and to me and my siblings. I feared the man greatly, and I tried to avoid him as much as possible. He wasn’t just a big bully, and he wasn’t just mean and hateful, but he took advantage of some (or all) of his children in some of the worst ways, and we also witnessed his beatings against our mother. Although I feared him greatly, I learned to forgive him over again and again. But for the longest time I could find no good in him, and no good memories about him, either. So the Lord worked on me in that area.

As the years passed, and as I grew older, I found that there were memories of him that I could enjoy, and that’s a good feeling. One of the things I enjoy is the picture of him when he was a boy which I posted on Facebook. And I have some stack tables that were his that my children use to eat at when we visited them, and I like that memory. And I remember how he would move pictures around on the walls all the time and he would have to show us how he rearranged them. So, finding something good to remember about him was very healing for me. And the pain of the past went away.

Life With Purpose

But going back to the poem (“Life Unending”) the Lord had me post today after I received that comment on that post from 2022. It asks the question if we have given thought to why we were even born. Have we thought about our purpose, for why God put us on the earth, and why He gave us the parents that He gave us? For Jesus Christ, who is our creator, is the one who formed us in the wombs of our mothers. God put us in the families we grew up in, for better or for worse. God had a purpose in allowing me to go through all the sufferings I have had to endure throughout my whole life.

On sort of a humorous side to this, my maiden name is “Thorn,” and Paul was given a thorn in his flesh to torment him. And God’s grace was sufficient for me through all the sufferings the Lord took me through in my life, even if I did not always recognize that as such. Through everything that I suffered in this life God had a plan and a purpose for my life. He was preparing me for the calling He placed on my life 22 years ago. I don’t think I could have endured the past 22 years if I had not gone through the sufferings I did which prepared me for “such a time as this.” Suffering serves a purpose.

[Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 10:16-25,34-39; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-17; John 15:18-21; John 16:33; Acts 14:22; Romans 5:3-5; 2 Corinthians 1:3-11; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 3:7-11; 1 Thessalonians 3:1-5; Hebrews 12:3-12; James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6-7; 1 Peter 4:12-17; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13]

Suffering Serves a Purpose
An Original Work / September 9, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

A Believer’s Prayer

An Original Work / July 31, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

With my whole heart, Lord, I pray
To be Yours, and Yours always.
Lead me in Your truth today.
May I love You, and obey.
Lead me in Your righteousness.
When I sin, may I confess;
Bow before You when I pray;
Live for You and You always.

Love You, Jesus, You’re my friend.
Life with You will never end.
You are with me through each day,
Giving love and peace always.
You will ne’er abandon me.
From my sin You set me free.
You died on that cruel tree,
So I’d live eternally.

Soon You’re coming back for me;
From this world to set me free;
Live with You eternally.
Oh, what joy that brings to me.
I will walk with You in white;
A pure bride, I’ve been made right
By the blood of Jesus Christ;
Pardoned by His sacrifice.