2 Corinthians 12:9

Paul asked three times. The number is not incidental; he wants us to know he did not give up quickly, and that this was not a small thing he was willing to live with.

The answer is a refusal. The thorn stays. What he is given instead is a sentence, and he evidently found it sufficient, because he quotes it for the rest of his life.

My grace is sufficient for you. Sufficient is a modest word and it is chosen carefully. Not abundant, not overwhelming. Enough — which is exactly the amount you need and never more than you can notice. Anyone who has been through a hard year knows this specific texture: not a flood of help, but the odd fact that you were never quite crushed.

Then the reason, which turns the whole request around: my power is made perfect in weakness. Perfect here means brought to completion, brought to its full expression. Paul is being told that his weakness is not an obstacle to the work; it is the medium of it.

Which is why his conclusion is not resignation but preference. Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses. He does not merely accept the thorn. He changes sides about it — and the reason he gives is that the power of Christ may rest on me, using a word associated with the presence that settled on the tabernacle.