Dealing with a thorn in your side? Here are four ways to defeat it for good.

You can’t ignore a thorn or a splinter in your skin.

It doesn’t get better, and it doesn’t go away.  You have to “deal with it.”

God told Israel, “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you LET REMAIN shall be as barbs in your eyes and THORNS in your sides.”  (Num. 33:55) 

Here are four things I have used to help me “deal with the thorn”:

1.  Satan always tries to get his foot in the door.

A “thorn” is a tiny little thing that can become huge.

Satan gets his “foothold” with a thorn.  He gets you to tolerate a broken relationship, an irrational fear, or a minor habit.

He whispers, “That’s not that big of a deal.”  Don’t tolerate that thorn.  He is leading toward a much bigger ending to the story:  divorce, phobia, or addiction.

When you see a tiny thorn, turn on the burglar alarm!  Don’t allow him a crack in a door or a window of your life.

2.  Don’t start making plans to accommodate the thorn.

If you came home to someone lying on your couch, eating your food, or showering, you would not tolerate it.  Regardless of how they begged and reasoned with you, your only statement would be, “OUT!”

I was watching television as a child, and suddenly a drunken man came through the door.  My mother, watching from a kitchen window, ran out to where I was and began PUSHING the man toward the door.  She got him outside the door and then locked it. (She later gave him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich through the door!)

Don’t tolerate anything that is nesting up in your life.  “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7)

3.  The longer something is allowed to stay, the longer it may take to get it out.

One of my kids got a fish hook stuck in his finger while we were out of town fishing.  We immediately took him back to our city, and a skillful ER doctor had it out in seconds.

If we had kept fishing and taken a few days to go to the hospital, it could have taken surgery.

Be patient. Procrastination may have deepened the issue.

Don’t give up if the first battle doesn’t end the war. Stand your ground and refuse to let this thorn become permanent.

4.  Refuse to pity yourself, tolerate, or accept as permanent anything from the kingdom of darkness

Satan cannot stay in your marriage, your ministry, your health, relationships, or finances.

Don’t sink into depression and get paralyzed.  Stand firm against the enemy and declare that God is greater than any “thorn” currently in your life.

Draw a line in the sand today.  “Enough is enough.”  

Start to glorify God in advance for victory.

God wants you to be free from every thorn in your life!