"My grace is sufficient for you...

2 Corinthians 12:1-10 (N. I. V.)

Paul's Vision and His Thorn

1I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.2I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows.3And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows--4was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.5I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.6Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.