Last week on Tuesday Tea Time with the Lord we talked about the unending graciousness of the Lord. Getting us christians back to the simplicity of the gospel speaking on His grace, love and mercy He shows to us- for us to extend  it to others. Powerful discussion! The Holy Spirit truly moved indeed. Speaking for us christians to show that love to others and calling us to elevate higher in our walk. If you missed it,  I encourage you to go back and listen to the replay!  You will be so glad you took the time and did!

This week the title of the message is:

The Thorn In My Side

I start off with a story! Yesterday I was at my friend’s house checking on her. She had been given fruit from someone’s garden and looked so delicious. I bit into it. It was delicious and so juicy. I took another bite and out of the plum fell a giant pincher bug! I was so disgusted I couldn’t eat anymore! Of course, the Lord led me to the revelation of how we look beautiful on the outside and there are hidden things in each one of us that remains. Something seeping in corrupting our fruit spiritually.

We pray and pray for the Lord to remove them. Some He does miraculously. Others- as we have discussed before He requires us to be a willing participant. Yet, others remain not moving at all! In my own walk and even in the Word I believe He left it to keep us humble. As if He removes everything pride will set in thinking we don’t need Him. I need Him every second of every day! We all have hidden things no one knows about! That’s why the Lord  speaks to always be kind. That leads us to the Apostle Paul In Acts 9 we read about Saul on the road to Damascus.

He hurled threats and even murdered Christians until the Lord met him on that road. Saul thought he was doing the right thing thinking Jesus was not the messiah killing in the name of the Lord. God met him on the road asking  him why he was persecuting his children? After becoming blind and being prayed over, Saul repented. He turned and went in another direction. His name then became Paul and faced all sorts of persecution from the leaders. Later in 2 Corinthians 12:7 Paul went up to the third heaven and spoke about having a thorn in his side, asking the Lord to remove it 3 times. He didn’t. Some say his thorn was lust as men are weak in that area. Others say it is sin and his old man.

While others say it was Satan tormenting him or seeing something causing fear. Regardless of what it was, the fact remains. There was a thorn(something causing pain} that the Lord remained there. Everyone has a thorn in their side. Whether it is fear, doubt, old man(sin), ailment, health just to name a few. In Matthew 9:20 we find the woman with the issue of blood. She was being isolated, losing hope, no doctors could heal or help her for 12 years!

For Moses in Exodus 3:11 it was at the burning bush  and hitting the rock when God told him to speak to it in Numbers 20 where his thorn was doubting. One of David’s thorns was Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. Not only lusting after her but putting her husband to the front of the line to be killed. For others their thorn was their old man(sin) trying to raise its ugly head as we walk in this world .

But when we go to church when we’re around the other Saints we do not want to be transparent. We do not want to show our weaknesses to show our flaws because then we think we’re not being good enough Christians and others will judge us and look down at us. But if we’re being honest, like we discussed last week, we already face condemnation and persecution at every size but we think withholding transparency will win other people over so we don’t have to experience it more. But that is a lie.

The only thing it does men and women of God is make us look like hypocrites when they see the real us. And when we deceive people and think that we are perfect it makes unbelievers think that it is too hard to be a Christian it is unattainable and they can’t reach it. Which is not the truth either and it’s really sad. I don’t want my lack of transparency to hinder anybody’s walk. But at the same time I don’t want my flaws and weaknesses to hinder their walk either. So how do we do this then as Christians in a fallen world? Do we show everybody our flaws bleeding on people being messy or do we hide our flaws and have this Mirage of expecting perfection? With anything in life God is calling us to a life of balance. To be real, Raw and transparent. Opening up ourselves, sharing who we used to be in our sin, sharing our testimonies Great and Small and sharing where we are imperfect and God still working on us and asking for prayer.

Am I saying it’s ok to be rude with people? disrespectful? angry? tempers flying ?blatantly sinning using it as an excuse? Of course not that’s not God’s heart and that’s not where He’s trying to get us to be. He’s trying to get us to be honest with people sharing our weaknesses with others being vulnerable and transparent. But at the same time working on ourselves. Allowing the Lord to take us through the process. I used to be one that used to care what people thought of me. Everybody does to some point but I used to let it muzzle my mouth and not allow the Lord to use me for His Glory. I used to be one that put mentors on a pedestal and learned the hard way through betrayal that everybody is broken and human just like me.

No I haven’t reached Heaven yet so that means Perfection hasn’t come yet. He is still working on me in different areas. Even though I fall short just like everyone else the biggest difference is I allow the Lord to use it for Him in His Glory as well as allowing Him to take me through the process to mold me, cultivate me, develop me and mature me into who He’s creating me to be. Most of you know my story of who I used to be. For the purpose of today’s lesson I will  be transparent and share a little. My old man was irritation,agitation frustration ,Pride, anger ,self righteous, jealousy, gossip, backbiting and unforgiveness. that was on me for about 35 years so bad that it controlled me.

I hated the person I became. And that’s when God led me to deliverance classes and started me on that Journey. Then came my work injury (my ailment, my thorn in my flesh) which is debilitating chronic pain everyday for the last four years this December. Even though I hate pain and a baby when it comes to pain God has used it for His Glory to bring an intimacy and dependence on Him like never before so I often tell people that try to say sorry- I say  thank you but I wouldn’t trade it for the world because it has gotten me closer to Jesus then I’ve ever been in my whole 51 years. So moving forward no matter what we are dealing with, whether it’s the old man trying to rise up, doubts, fears or ailments on the body stay encouraged we all have them everyone is going through something behind closed doors.

Let’s allow the Lord to take us through the process to develop us, make us,mold us and mature us. Allowing the Lord to use us to encourage other people to speak our testimonies as well as staying in the circle of God He has placed us in being transparent asking for prayer. I love you all with the love of the Lord. My prayer for all of us as we journey through this life is we find our Jonathon’s. We find our tribe. Stay connected. Stay engaged. Keeping others uplifted and encouraged leaving no one behind so we can link arms united as one in Jesus name. God bless you