I have recently been faced with suffering. My 20-year-old son was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. Every day during his treatment, I woke up with two thoughts running through my head: I don’t want this. And I can’t do this. I felt my weakness in the face of such difficulty so profoundly, and I sought solace in the apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians.
When we rely on our own strength, we do not want to be associated with weakness and suffering. But Paul did. He didn’t run from it. He didn’t try to hide it. He didn’t get mad at God for allowing it in his life. He wanted to be associated with weakness and su ering because he wanted to be associated with Jesus.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:17, “So let the didn’t mean, “Oh, I’m just not good at something.” one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Paul said we’re to revel in the fact that we are able to know God and experience Him. We’re to look for and rejoice in how He acts on our behalf and how He shows Himself in our lives.
And what did Paul point to as the primary means God showed him who He is and what He does? His own weakness and suffering. The apostle described a thorn in the flesh he lived with every day. We can only speculate what this thorn was, but whatever it was, it was a circumstance that caused Paul daily anguish. In some ways, our not knowing is a gift because, although each of us faces different weaknesses in ourselves and suffering in our lives, every one of us can resonate with Paul and find solace and help in God’s words to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).
In other words, we most clearly see the fullness and extent of God’s power as He walks with us and helps us in our weakness and suffering.
Often when I talk to people about how they have endured su ering, they describe how they’ve felt the closest to God in their deepest suffering. Paul told us why that is often the case: When we are most aware of our weakness and when we rely on God to come through for us is when we most clearly see and experience the power of God holding us, sustaining us, and helping us endure.
Paul said this was the point of his thorn: It served as his daily reminder not to revel in himself or rely on his own strength but, instead, to delight in who God is and how He acts on our behalf. The thorn reminded Paul he was weak, but it also reminded Paul that God was strong in him.
And so Paul took great pleasure in that. He boasted in his weaknesses. By weaknesses, he Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:17, “So let the didn’t mean, “Oh, I’m just not good at something.”
He meant a lack of strength or a spiritual low point brought on by difficult circumstances. So Paul boasted about not having spiritual reserves, because it’s a boast in God’s character and abilities, in His reserves.
We are wise to do the same. We don’t have to like our suffering and weakness. In fact, Paul asked God to remove his thorn, just like Jesus asked for the cup of God’s wrath to pass from Him; so it’s acceptable for us to ask God to remove our thorn as well. But what Paul was saying was that, whether God removes it or not, the truth is the same: God will be more than enough for us in it, weakness and all.
This article originally appeared in the June 2025 edition of Mature Living.
About Christine Hoover
Christine Hoover serves as the Women’s Ministry Associate at The Austin Stone Community Church’s Northwest congregation in Austin, Texas. She has authored seven books, including Messy Beautiful Friendship, How to Thrive as a Pastor’s Wife, and You Are Not Forgotten, as well as a Bible study on Matthew, Seek First the Kingdom. In addition to writing and church work, Christine is a speaker and an Executive Producer of Ministry Wives Podcast. Her work has been featured on The Gospel Coalition and Christianity Today. Christine is married to Kyle, a pastor, and they have three boys.
More Than Enough
In this 8-session, verse-by-verse study on 2 Corinthians, Christine Hoover guides you through one of Paul’s most personal letters to discover how God is the ultimate source of the strength and sufficiency you need. You’ll find that God gives you strength to go on—through troubles, disappointments, and temptations—and strength to go forth, equipping you to serve Him and compelling you to share the gospel. Weakness is not a disqualifier or a flaw in our design. In fact, God shows Himself most powerfully in and through our fragility and vulnerability. We’re called, then, not to work harder or to hide our weaknesses, but to call upon God’s infinite resources and rely on Him.
