Did Paul accept the thorn passively?

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He did not. He asked the Lord three times that it be removed from him.

We are to call on the Lord in the day of trouble and He shall deliver us. Praising God for everything that comes to us, without letting our requests be made known to God, can easily lead us into passivity. Passivity is a form of deception.

We are to pray fervently and continuously that God’s will, as we understand it, will be performed in the earth. This includes salvation for our unsaved love ones, healing for our bodies, a breakthrough when we are surrounded by the enemy, and deliverance from every other affliction and problem that confronts us during our pilgrimage.

We never are to accept our circumstances passively, assuming that what is taking place is God’s will. All surrender to inevitability, to passivity, to hopelessness and helplessness, must be cast out of the saints completely and at once.

Passivity, and praising God in the sense of accepting blindly all that happens to us, is not a scriptural form of positive thinking. It is a trick of the enemy to lead us away from the fiery, fervent, continuing supplication and intercession that result in the will of the Father being done in the earth.

Arise! Cast off all your acceptance of things in your life that are not as they should be, about which you are not at peace. Immediately begin to believe God for the fulfilment of all the desires of your heart. We have not because we ask not.

Are we to praise God in all matters?

Indeed we are. In addition, we are to proceed directly to Spirit-filled prayer concerning every issue with which we are troubled.

Then, when our prayers are answered, our joy is full and praise to our wonderful Lord Jesus ascends to Him because of the answer to our prayers.

Most Christians who are ill do not have a thorn from the Lord to keep them humble. Rather, they are in a spiritual battle. They will come through victoriously and be healed if they will believe that Jesus is their Healer, ask the Lord to heal them, obey the Lord in all matters, and forgive every person without exception against whom they are holding a grudge.

It is the Lord’s will that we be whole in spirit, in soul, and in body.