The Bible talks about healing and wholeness in the Lord. There is one part though, where the apostle Paul talked about asking God to remove a “thorn in his flesh” and God did not heal him. Paul said that he asked the Lord three times for healing, but God only answered that “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Make no mistake, Jesus is a healer. I personally have seen and known of multiple miraculous healings in the name of Jesus. So why didn’t God heal an apostle? You would figure somebody so close to the Kingdom would be first in line for that healing, but it was not to be.

The Holy Spirit does not spell out specifically what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was. He means it that way. God doesn’t want to narrow down specific illnesses or injuries that He will or will not heal. God is the creator of everything and has power and dominion over any and all sickness or injury. He can do it all.

The point of the passage was not a specific illness or injury. The point is God’s response. “My grace is sufficient for you” He says.

God wants you to know that no matter what the problem is, He can take care of it. He will heal or remove any problem or obstacle in your life that keeps you from achieving your destiny.

There are some things though that God will not remove. There are some things that He does not want healed. God means that for our own good, we just may not realize it with our worldly minds. Truly meditate on this next sentence:

God‘s plan for your life is more important than your need for comfort.

If God needs to place an obstacle in your way to redirect your path to something greater, He will do it. If God needs you born with a handicap, for instance, so that you can show hope to a dying world, it is worth it for the salvation of souls.

In the book of John, it shows Jesus and the Apostles passing by a man who the Bible says was blind since birth. Back then, it was thought that if you had a handicap, either you or someone in your family had sinned. The Apostles asked who had sinned to cause the blindness. But Jesus answered, “Neither. He was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Then, Jesus healed the blind man.

The blind man could have been healed earlier in his life or even not been born blind at all, but that wouldn’t have helped us. That would have meant no glory to God and no salvation for the onlookers who were there. Only in the fullness of time, according to God’s perfect plan, would the man be healed.

Those kinds of things do not make sense to our earthly minds that are more focused on the right here, and now. It doesn’t make sense to the average person. But if you had the mind and vision of God that sees the end from the beginning, you two would agree that it was the right thing to do.

That sort of thing goes back to the old question that many of us have of “why do bad things happen to good people?”

The answer to that is “to bring about a greater good.”

If you want proof of that, I point to the cross of Jesus. The greatest evil ever done, the creation killing the creator. At face value, it is a horrible thing. That is, until the resurrection.

Jesus died to take our sins away, so that, just as He rose from the dead, so shall we on our last day and be with Him in Heaven for all of eternity.

Jesus’ shed blood on the cross represents the greatest evil bringing about the greatest good. It’s hard to see and understand from a human perspective, but fully necessary in God’s plan for our salvation.

Sometimes God heals our infirmities and takes away our thorns from our side. Sometimes he doesn’t. Know for certain that if God doesn’t change your circumstances, he’s wanting to change you instead.

Is it possible that you are trying to pray away the very thing that God is blessing you through?

God has a plan for us that is exceedingly, abundantly, far above and beyond anything we could ask or think. Trust that your Heavenly Father loves you and wants to give you only His very best.

God’s blessings to you.

DH