But 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Paul had asked, repeatedly, for something to be taken away — some persistent hardship he calls a "thorn in the flesh," never fully explained, which is part of why so many people over the centuries have found it easy to project their own onto it. He wasn't looking for a silver lining. He wanted it gone.
What he got instead wasn't removal. It was a reason to keep carrying it: grace that's enough, power that shows up specifically in weakness rather than despite it. That's a strange kind of answer to a prayer, and if you've ever prayed for something to be taken away and instead just had to keep living with it, this passage doesn't pretend that's a lesser outcome — it reframes it entirely.
The boasting in weakness that follows isn't false humility or making the best of a bad situation. It's Paul actually locating where he experiences God's power most clearly — not in his strength, but in the gaps his strength doesn't cover. If you've spent your life trying to hide your weak spots, this passage is arguing they might be exactly where something else has room to show up.
Is there a weakness you've spent years hiding that you could imagine, instead, as a place something else might show up?
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.