Paul has begged God three times to remove his unnamed 'thorn in the flesh' — and received a refusal. God's answer is not healing but revelation: the very weakness Paul wants removed is the space where divine power becomes most visible.

From the writers we read together

Brennan Manning

Author, The Ragamuffin Gospel

Manning spent years wrestling with addiction and failure — and found that God's grace kept meeting him there. Second Corinthians 12:9 became foundational not as a triumphalist claim but as a survival verse: when the thorn would not leave, when the weakness would not resolve, when healing did not come — grace was still sufficient. This is not a promise that things get better; it is a promise that God's power shows up most clearly in your worst moments.

Paul's response to this word from God is startling: he boasts in weakness. Not endures weakness, not accepts weakness, but boasts — so that the power of Christ may rest on him. The Greek for 'rest upon' (episkēnōsē) echoes the Shekinah glory dwelling in the tabernacle. God's glory has a habit of dwelling in what appears broken. What thorn in your life have you been demanding God remove? What would it mean to let His grace be sufficient instead?