Dear Christian friends:

We've lived long enough to know that there is plenty of trouble in the world. Happens to both. Why? Given by Satan or God? Does God hate me? In our text St. Paul answers these questions and gives us great comfort and hope. He shows how we should act and think.


Accept it as something good which your heavenly Father lets happen to you for your good. (verse 7) St. Paul tells about his own trouble and why God let him have that trouble.

"Thorn in the flesh", a festering eye, which also made him ugly. He says God let Satan give it to him. Some people think Satan decides, but Satan can't unless God allows it. Job shows this. So accept it! Why did God let Satan trouble Paul? To keep him humble.

What trouble or cross has God let Satan give to you? One is your deafness. How do you feel about it? Bitter? Feel like giving up faith and hope in God? Learn from St. Paul to accept your trouble.

Should we try and be free of it? Yes! That's okay. Paul prayed three times to be free of it. But we should not go looking for trouble or make trouble for ourselves as some do. It is enough when God allows it to happen.

Sometimes, often God frees us! Jesus healed many sick in His time. Some deaf hear more than the "hearing". You can give more glory to God than the hearing.

How are we to feel if God decides to let us keep that burden? Like Paul, God said to him, "My grace is enough for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." God did not take away Paul's burden, but gave him grace (help) to accept and bear (suffer) it. Paul believed that God loved him although He let him keep that burden. It was God's way way of keeping Paul humble and God gets the glory, not man.

So we should accept and think of our troubles in that way. God lets these troubles happen for our good to guard us from pride and sin and unbelief. So we can give glory to His Name!

Dr. Salvner: "When I'm weak: then I'm strong in the Lord. Martin Luther: "Formerly I might have thought that God had utterly forsaken me; but now sickness is as welcome as health, and a dungeon and prison seem to me as a royal hall. For since God is a gracious Father all this (burden) is lovely and precious." Deafness is the same!

So, don't complain and don't give up faith and hope while you suffer your burdens and crosses. God loves you, and will give you sunshine after the storm. Only believe!

Amen.