Thorny Torments Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Thorny Torments-------------------------------- Date: 3/20/2001 Keywords: "grace" "sufficient" "thorn" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10* 7. To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9. 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. 10. 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. Questions 1. Is God obligated to remove things that tempt us to sin if we ask him to?   2. Are you tormented by a recurring failure to resist porn?   Practical help It can be hard to discover the good purposes that God has in mind when you're in the midst of what seems to be a torment. Even the great Apostle Paul had to deal with persisting torments, as today's passage tells us. What can you gain from his experience? Maybe you've prayed and asked God to deliver you from the temptations of porn and he hasn't answered the way you wanted. Maybe you wonder if he's listening. Do you think Paul had the same frustrations? I'm guessing he did. You can find new strength today by taking hold of what Paul took ahold of -- God's grace! Today take verse nine and write it on a sticky note (or something) and display it prominently around your monitor. You'll be amazed at the sufficiency of Christ's strength in the moment of your weakness. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2001 by eXXit *Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version © Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.