Friday, February 13, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 2 Corinthians 12-13
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 19
Key Verse
2 Corinthians 12:18 — “I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?”
Devotional Thought
What if the thing you have begged God to remove is the very thing He intends to use? That is the unsettling question 2 Corinthians 12 puts before us this Friday morning. Paul, writing near the end of his troubled relationship with the church at Corinth, admits he once had a glimpse of glory — caught up to the third heaven, into paradise, hearing words no man may utter. Yet rather than letting that mountaintop define him, he boasts in his infirmities. A thorn in the flesh was given him, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, and three times he pleaded with the Lord for its removal. The answer was not deliverance but a sentence that has steadied believers for two thousand years: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Notice that God did not explain the thorn. He gave Himself instead.
Paul carries that posture all the way to the end of the letter. He will come to Corinth a third time, and he will not be a burden to them, because a parent lays up for the children, not the reverse. He is ready to spend and be spent for them, even if the more abundantly he loves, the less he is loved. Then, in chapter 13, he turns the mirror around: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.” The Corinthians kept demanding proof of Christ speaking in Paul; Paul asks them to test whether Christ lives in them. He closes not with rebuke but with a blessing we still speak over one another: the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost.
Psalm 19 sings the same theme from a different angle. The heavens declare the glory of God without a syllable, day unto day uttering speech, night unto night showing knowledge — and yet their voice goes out to all the earth. Then the psalm turns from the sky to the scroll: the law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; the statutes are right, rejoicing the heart; they are sweeter than honey and more desirable than fine gold. But the psalmist does not stop at admiration. He prays, “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.” He knows that beholding God’s glory and God’s word must lead to honest self-examination.
Here is where these readings meet us in mid-February. The winter sky is still dark early, and many of us are carrying thorns we have prayed over more than three times — a chronic illness, a fractured relationship, a temptation that will not loosen its grip, a grief that has outlasted everyone’s sympathy. Paul does not tell us the thorn will vanish. He tells us grace will prove sufficient inside it. And Psalm 19 reminds us that the same God whose handiwork the heavens proclaim is the God who cleanses secret faults and keeps His servant from presumptuous sin. So today, before the day’s demands press in, do what Paul and the psalmist both do: examine yourself honestly, name the weakness you would rather hide, and let it become the place where Christ’s power rests upon you. When you are weak, then you are strong — not because the thorn is gone, but because He is near.
Reflection
- What “thorn” have you asked God to remove three times or more — and have you allowed His “My grace is sufficient for thee” to be enough, or are you still waiting for the thorn itself to leave?
- Psalm 19:12 asks, “Who can understand his errors?” When you honestly examine yourself this week, what secret fault or presumptuous sin does the Spirit bring to light, and will you bring it to God for cleansing rather than manage it in the dark?
Prayer
Lord, the heavens declare Your glory and the firmament shows Your handiwork, yet You have stooped to speak to us in Your word, which is perfect, sure, right, and pure. Cleanse us from secret faults and keep back Your servants from presumptuous sins, that they may not have dominion over us. We confess the thorns we have begged You to remove and the grace we have resisted receiving. Teach us that Your strength is made perfect in weakness, and let us gladly glory in our infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon us. Examine us, prove us, and let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 19:1 — “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”