Have You Ever Been Thankful for the Thorns?

Have you ever been thankful for the thorns?

Those thorns of heartache? Of loss? Of adversity?

Those sticking, pricking, piercing thorns?

No?

So, why, you ask, should we ever thank the Lord for the thorns in our lives?

Because the enemy stands ready to prick us at any time with adverse circumstances and praise and thanksgiving ring that funeral-bell he hates.

Occasionally, God will remove those thorny situations. However, at other times, He will leave them because He knows the end result, as when He left Paul’s thorn in his flesh.

The next time a thorny ordeal is pricking you, remember the words of this prayer by George Matheson, a blind Scottish theologian and preacher in the late 1800s, who wrote the hymn O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go (and others)...

My, God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorn...Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow.

He thanked God for his blindness, for his ministry of thorns. Is that something we would do?

Have others thanked the Lord for their ministry of thorns?

*Fannie Crosby (1820-1915) What if Fannie decided to be negative about her blindness? Would she have had the same result of her ministry of thorns? The blessing of over 8000 hymns, such as To God Be the Glory and Blessed Assurance?

*Dr. William Moon (1818-1894) of Brighton, England was also stricken with blindness at the age of 21. He prayed: “Lord, I accept this talent of blindness from Thee. Help me to use it for Thy glory that at Thy coming Thou mayest receive Thine own with usury.” The result of his ministry of thorns? He invented the Moon Alphabet, the first to be used for the blind.

*The apostle Paul did not complain that his “thorn” was not removed; he mastered it. He praised the Lord with his life. The result of his ministry of thorns? Equipping believers and growing the church.

*What about Habakkuk’s attitude? The prophet asserted his faith in God and promised to praise Him, even if all else failed, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” (Hab. 3:18 NKJV)

What did David say? “I will praise the Lord no matter what happens. I will constantly speak of His glories and grace.” (Ps. 34:1b TLB)

Life is rife with the thorns of adversity.

But are we thankful?

Do we have a ministry of thorns?

Do we go beyond the pain to make our lives reflect the glory of the Lord?

Being thankful is easy when everything is hunky-dunky, but the praise that emanates from a pain-ravaged heart, pressed by a thorn, is the sweet-smelling sacrifice of holy incense that rises to the throne room and lingers at the Father’s feet.

May your thorns always be pricks to praise the Lord...Lynn