If you read last week’s blog, you know that I when I sat down in the morning to write it, I became immediately irritated because of a nagging disruption placed there, apparently for my benefit. Rather than attempting to fight off the distraction, I embraced it as a teaching moment. The result was a blog titled, I Can’t Shut Off My AI. It was, no doubt, a form of testing and, ultimately, a gift from God the Holy Spirit, Himself.

When God puts a thorn in your side, while it may be uncomfortable and downright irritating, He’s teaching you something. Don’t be arrogant about it, embrace it by being teachable. Humility turns curses into blessings.

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 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. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
- 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

We humans love our routines, don’t we? The issue with human routine is that it builds strong expectations about today and even the future (we develop strength of conviction). This so-called “strength”, however, can develop into a serious weakness, drowning out God’s voice. So, God uses disrupters to wake us up. Sometimes, He even uses sharp instruments to prick our attention. The Bible uses the “goads” analogy to illustrate this concept. Goads were sharp instruments used to force stubborn animals to start or keep moving. God will use anything He can to discipline us. Since I’m so dependent on technology, He knows right where to poke me. Sometimes I “kick against the goads”, as Paul did (Acts 26:14), and even “plead with the Lord” for the irritation to be removed from me (ala 2 Corinthians 12:8); but eventually, after I realize what God’s up to, I stop kicking and start learning.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."
- Isaiah 55:8-11

The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
- Judges 7:2

God never wants us to take credit for our strength (that’s when it becomes a weakness). So, He disrupts our routinized lives to destroy any strength we have derived from our fortified expectations. As Paul wrote, “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). This applies to all aspects of our lives!

For the record, Microsoft’s irritating little “co-pilot” AI prompt has been with me the whole time today. With a little attitude adjustment (thanks, God) it now symbolizes a strong lesson God has taught me. You see, with a little change in perspective, when you begin to see things God’s way, you begin to “see it all as Truth”, as I like to say.

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.
- Ephesians 5:13-14a

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins