A Simple Head Cold

2 Corinthians 12: 7-9 . . . But to keep me from getting puffed up, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from getting proud.  Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, "My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.

Summer colds seem to always hit us at the wrong time.  Everyone tells us to take this medicine or that herb to get rid of a cold.  What I have discovered was that it takes seven days to begin feeling better with drugs, or it usually takes me seven days to get well no matter what I ingest.

Fighting a cold  gave me time to think of the afflictions that Paul encountered during his ministry and missionary journeys.  During some study of God's Word, I found several theories of Paul’s afflictions.

In today’s verse, Paul’s thorn in the flesh is described as "an angel of Satan":

1.   Possibly a demon actually inflicted bodily pain upon the apostle.

2.   The fact Paul asked God to remove it three times, , tells us how painful and debilitating these encounters must have been.

3.   That this affliction was periodic rather than continual is obvious, since Paul could not have functioned if it were a constant thing.

4.   Conclusion: Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was a disabling, periodic and extremely painful ordeal inflicted by a demon directly.

Another study presents the afflictions as being physical: 

1.   From the time of meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, it is believed that Paul had poor eyesight a severe form of ophthalmia (i.e. eye disease. This view is based on Paul's comments in Gal.4:15).

2.   A form of epilepsy. Recurrent malarial fever (Sir Wm. Ramsay this affliction is quite debilitating and is accompanied by a peculiar headache which is 'like a red hot bar thrust through the forehead'. Sir William Ramsay says Paul contacted this disease during his first missionary journey while in Perga in Pamphylia [Act.13:13].

3.   Another author [W. M. Alexander] believes Paul's malady may be more specifically identified as Malta fever, which is accompanied by severe pain, nocturnal delirium, unsightly eruptions, and loss of hair).

Dr. Tony Evans noted that the afflictions we experience here on earth are just preparations for the desire to get to heaven and never experience afflictions again.

Thinking about all that Paul encountered by living through his afflictions and still built a close relationship with the Lord, means we all can actually thank the Lord for our aches, pains and sicknesses.

Since finishing this study my colds are nothing to complain about and I thank the Lord that my afflictions are so minor.

Maybe we all can thank the Lord when we get sick.  Maybe it’s just a wake up call?