Hangnails

By Cheri Cowell –

Hangnails have to be one of the most annoying things of life. They are an irritant that won’t easily go away. We usually get a hangnail when we are nowhere near a pair of clippers and an Emory board. So we end up just dealing with it the best we can by either trying to ignore it or putting a bandage over it. Neither option actually fixes the problem, which only gets worse until we repair the damaged nail. God knows all about hangnails and other irritants in life. In fact, He allows them, sometimes to help us know our human limitations. What do I mean?

Much speculation has taken shape over ‘Paul’s thorn’ mentioned in today’s scripture lesson and what that thorn could have been. I actually like the fact that it was not spelled out. In this way all of us can relate his suffering to our own thorns, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. How assuring it is that Paul, who was loved dearly by God for his great faith, asked God three times to remove his thorn and God said ‘no.’ Because of that we can be assured He loves us greatly even when He has to say ‘no’ to us.

PRAYER: Thank-You, God, for being with me in whatever difficult situation I am in today. I praise You for being my strength and ask that my weaknesses may be used to glorify You in spite of life’s little irritants.

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:7-9 ESV).