When Your Prayer Is Overruled
After reading a handful of my Communiques, it’s not hard to tell what I spend most of my time writing about… building faith, sharing bone-fattening reports, and highlighting answered prayers for District evens and projects. But this month I feel to answer the question, “What about when your prayer is overruled”? I don’t hear many sermons on that topic. But it is where each of us lives. So, here we go.
In 2 Corinthians 12:7-8, the Apostle Paul pulls back the veil on a very personal prayer: And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
Paul has a very transparent moment when he lets us into one of the most personal and painful experiences of his life. He was a man of faith, wisdom, and understanding; he was very spiritual and intelligent. God set him aside and used him in supernatural ways. God brought him to a level of influence that is incomparable to any other in the New Testament.
But before Paul could become intoxicated on his own accomplishments, he says, “lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh”. In other words, lest I be exalted above measure with the things that went right, God balanced me with things that went wrong.
God has a way of balancing your life. Your strengths balance with your weaknesses. Your triumphs balance with your tragedies. Nobody escapes. If you are living your life for God, if you are being used and blessed by God, there will always be something to balance you out. You're going to be wise over here but have no clue what to do over there. You're going to be victorious about this, but never seem to get the victory over that.
Paul pulls back the curtain for us to see that anybody and everybody, even if you have written two-thirds of the New Testament, can have a messenger of satan to buffet them (sorry, when I write, I refuse to capitalize the word, satan, even if it is bad grammar). The word buffet in Greek means “to punch with strong punches; to beat up the body”. If you have ever experienced any success with God, before you could get intoxicated over the success, you got punched. No one but you may have seen it. But somewhere in your life, if you have been exalted, you have been punched in your gut. Paul was punched in the gut. He was being buffeted by satan. There was a thorn in his flesh.
A great debate has always surrounded what this thorn in his flesh could have been. Thousands of commentaries and theologians have tried to guess what it was, but nobody really knows. And I think that God leaves it to our imagination so that we can fill in the blank with our own thorn. We can recognize that all of us have something different that we face, that balances us, that makes us pray, that makes us need Him!
Paul prayed three times, travailed before God, and asked Him with everything inside him: God, take this thorn out of me! Whatever it was, it was painful. I'm trying to get you to understand how life balances itself, how no one gets everything, and no one is exempt from pain. But God is still just, even if life's not fair. You are not going to get through this life without using your tear ducts. No matter how intelligent you are, no matter how anointed you are, no matter how many degrees you have, somewhere in your life, there will be something that punches you in the gut and leaves you on your knees saying:
“I speak Greek and Hebrew, but I don't know how to speak to my own child.”
“I can give advice to everyone on the job, but I don’t know what to do in my own marriage.”
There will always be something that will escape your grasp, that will humble you, sometimes humiliate you, and take all the air out of you!
Paul prays and prays and prays about what has overwhelmed him. What is it that is overwhelming you? I'm not talking about what you manage well. I'm talking about what you don't know how to deal with. What is it that rocks your world? It’s as if I can hear Paul’s prayer, “God, here I am. I’m out here working for you. I’m writing everything you tell me to write. I’ve established churches everywhere you sent me. I’ve preached the gospel faithfully even when I was in jail. I’ve laid hands on dead people and seen them get out of the grave. So, I'm asking you for one personal favor. I don't ask you for much. I didn't say anything when I was shipwrecked. I didn't say anything when I was beaten. I didn't say anything when I was locked up in jail. But I need just one favor, Lord, please take away this thorn. It's too much for me. Lord, take it away!
I want you to understand the power of this prayer. This is not somebody praying for a parking place at the mall. Paul is praying about something that overwhelms him. Perhaps somebody is reading this who knows what it is to be overwhelmed by something, and you say to God, “Lord, if you could just take this away, I'd be a better mama, I’d be a better wife (or father or husband), I’d be a better Christian, because this overwhelms me”.
Look what happened. Paul, whose ministry witnessed the dead raised, the sick healed, and who overcame great forces of nature, man, and the devil, went to God on behalf of his own problem, and he was OVER-RULED. You have the right to object and disagree, but He has the right to overrule.
So, WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN GOD OVERRULES? What do you do when you pray for something good, and God says, “No”? You have a loved one in the hospital who’s sick. You prayed, you fasted, you anointed them with oil, and quoted all the best verses over their bed, and then life goes out of them. You’ve been overruled. The enemy looks at you and says, “Where is your God now?” We don’t need anybody to tell us what to do when our prayer gets answered or when the miracle comes. Tell me what to do when I’ve done all I can do, and God still says, “no”.
It was Jesus who prayed, “Father, I know you sent me down here to go to the cross, but maybe there can be a revision on the contract. Maybe you can amend the decision just a little bit, because if it be my will, then we could let this cup pass from me” (Derald’s interpretation). Jesus prayed that prayer three times, but the Father overruled.
And God says, “No, Paul, you have been overruled”. Then God tells Paul why he was overruled. “Because my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness”. Here comes Derald’s interpretation again: “I know you think that your plan is sufficient, but my grace is sufficient. I considered my grace before I allowed that messenger to send you trouble. I wouldn't let you be attacked on this level if I didn't give you enough grace to handle it.” God considered the weight load long before He put the pain in your life. He knows how you feel when you feel like you cannot handle it any longer. God may not stop it. God may not give you what you ask for. But His gift is GRACE TO MAKE IT THROUGH. You’ve got grace for this moment in your life. You’ve got grace for this situation. Whatever you face, you’ve got grace for it.
When the devil punches me in the stomach, I pull out Deuteronomy 33:25, which says, “as thy days, so shall thy strength be”. That means the tougher the day, the greater the strength. The harder the test, the greater the power. God measures the day before He releases the strength, and He always gives you enough strength to get through whatever comes into your day!
When Paul hears God’s reply, he says, “Therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9). The Apostle is starting to realize that tribulation is an indication of the grace he has to overcome the situation. Paul goes from being overwhelmed because he was overruled to being overjoyed. The new convert may be overjoyed when they come out of tribulation, but the seasoned saint gets overjoyed in tribulation, knowing that the tougher the day, the greater the grace, and the tougher the times, the stronger the strength. His grace is sufficient. In Him, you can get through anything.
IN THE AUGUST COMMUNIQUE
In my August Communique, along with the building updates, I will announce our total amount raised reflecting our last campaign offering received for Mission Louisiana on Friday night of Camp Meeting 2026. I will also give a recap of the Kids and Youth Camps as well as Camp Meeting. Happy August!
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Superintendent’s July Itinerary
June 30 – July 3 Tioga, LA – 111th Camp Meeting
8-11 MS Camp Meeting
16-18 Tioga, LA – Hispanic Camp Meeting
20-24 Out of the Office
26 West Monroe, LA – Pastor Jason Ramsey