Speaker 1: 0:13

Up to this point, it was a regular day for Micah. He had been playing and doing regular kids stuff at his age. One particular afternoon, however, his mother told him not to play or to live too far away from their home. She explained to him that there had been some sort of a religious revolt downtown and that the Romans occupants and now rulers of the region were activated to assess the situation and, if needed, intervene accordingly. Micah did not understand much of this information, but he did see his mother's face, which granted him assurance that whatever was happening happened to be something serious. Micah was to meet his friends for a much-anticipated animal parade. You see, matthew, micah's father, carved him a beautiful horse with detailed muscle features and even hair. Micah was sure that he was going to be victorious on the exhibition. That day, micah and his friends met at their usual location and they were playing frantically with their carved toys and having a great time. But not too far from their location, however, micah heard a mob and tumultuous screaming voices. Once they were alerted to the full situation, they ran towards the noise. Micah remembered his mom's advice not to live too far from the house but breaking through the crowd to get a better look at what was happening, he sees a man carrying a large piece of wood plank on his back, while getting whipped and cursed by the crowd and Roman soldiers. Micah began to feel scared and thought of leaving and returning home. But before he left, this bloody stranger with a weird crown on his head took a closer look at him. Micah felt his heart dancing inside his chest when he noticed that this man gave him a weak but unmistakable smile. Suddenly, in the middle of all this, the bloody stranger fell to the ground. Micah heard his painful voice inside and felt deeply sad. The Romans kept hitting him and ordered the man back onto his feet and to continue his walk. After a bit of struggle, the man did just that. He got back up on his feet and continued his painful walk. But something remarkable took place. Upon regaining his composure, micah found a piece of fragment from the stranger's crown. The boy took a thorn from the ground. Micah looked at it and, out of nowhere, a voice inside his head told him this will be with you until I return. Not knowing exactly what that meant, micah saved the thorn and ran back home.

Speaker 1: 3:25

We knew little of Micah's life after these events took place until an archaeological expedition found documents abandoned inside a jar of clay in a remote cave somewhere in the Middle East. The written material outlined a man that, although being a great citizen and a great man of faith, a family man struggled with some kind of an addiction. What kind of an addiction, you may ask? Well, the absolute details were not revealed either, but what we do know is that there seems to have been a documented spiritual struggle with this man. His life portrayed a complicated scenario that found him struggling between pursuing right from wrong and fighting to make sure that he was in good standing in the faith and with God. In one section of the parchment there is a mention of this man's precious collection of wooden toys and childhood memorabilia, but one of them stood up as the most protected and guarded one a small tree the thorn mean.

Speaker 1: 4:59

In a general sense, the thorn will always reveal the power of weakness in each and every one of us. In 2 Corinthians 12.7, paul tells the Corinthians about his thorn and how that made him feel so beneath the providence, sanctity and purity of God Notwithstanding. God reassures him that he is aware of it and that he is also stronger than it. As we study biblical humility, we realize that it represents our submission to a higher power in order to overcome our struggles and sins. It means our submission to God. Humility centers us between the mortality of this world and the eternity that identifies heaven. Paul was essentially confessing the Corinthians about his personal struggle with this issue, while also reassuring them of the awareness that God has about it and how he will be the one resolving the matter. That bloody stranger, who we now know to be Jesus of Nazareth, told Micah this will be with you until I return.

Speaker 1: 6:12

But that did not mean the thorn itself. He was speaking about the struggle with his addiction that would eventually ensue. His thorn was similar to Paul's. Their weaknesses were exposed and had no other choice than to practice a level of humility that will propel them forward. Submitting genuinely to God is the only effective way to fight sin. This will also lead us away from temptation. This will also lead us away from temptation.

Speaker 1: 6:44

But one may ask why the thorn? Why the thorn in the first place? Well, because the thorn is the way God helps us to get close to Him. He uses our weaknesses to ensure we keep proximity to Him, to him. In 1 Corinthians 12, verse 8, paul wrote that God chooses the despised to bring his glory forward. The thorn represents that event. That simple piece of the tree branch that Micah held represented the human struggle to sanctity in a sinful world. In fact, 1 Corinthians 12 8 may mean just that. He takes a sinful man in a sinful world and introduces him to a life of sanctity, only to return him right back to the same sinful world he once lived in.

Speaker 1: 7:42

What a powerful, miraculous concept. You see, god is not so much worried about your thorns, my thorn. He is more worried about the way we go around and how to fight against it. Will we do it by ourselves or believe when he said my strength is made perfect in weakness? I have my personal thorn, you know. I am pretty sure that you have one as well, but now we know that this is normal and even acknowledged by God himself. The question is how will we fight against it? Thanks to Micah's curiosity, that day we can now understand. Be blessed. Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved.