The question was, " has God ever given or allowed something painful in your life that you desperately wanted removed, but later wouldn't trade?" Kelly Minter in her study, "All things new".
Whoa...let me list the things...
Don't we all want the perfect life, the perfect children, the perfect marriage, the perfect.....but since we are imperfect in an imperfect world, that just doesn't happen...
I watched the movie, "the Zookeepers Wife" recently after reading/ listening to the book. The horror of the falling of Warsaw, the horror of Jewish murders, the horror of the killing of innocents whether people or animals...evilness...but it brought out the strengths in people that they didn't know they had...
In Paul's case in 2 Corinthians, he gives glory to Christ who strengthens him in his weakness...he can glory in his thorn, because Christ worked through that pain to work good...a greater gain came by greater pain...
I know for a fact that I wouldn't want to repeat any of the pain that I have experienced, but my life has changed over the years drastically because of the pain...if has given me more empathy for a multitude of events in my life and those around me... I can give a hug or encouraging word to those who are experiencing those "thorns". Christ is more real, more consuming than if I hadn't experienced pain...thank YOU...draw me closer...
Jeremiah 31:25 "I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
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