"I need to accept this as my 'thorn in the flesh' like Paul did."
How it sounds in your head: Maybe this is my thorn—something I have to endure to keep me humble. Paul prayed three times and God said no. Maybe God is saying no to me too. Perhaps my purpose is to glorify Him through suffering, not healing. I should stop asking and just accept it.
"Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed."
-- 1 Peter 2:24Religious misinterpretation of 2 Corinthians 12:7 used to justify unanswered prayer and ongoing sickness as God's will.
She's prayed repeatedly without visible change, and the 'thorn in the flesh' teaching gives theological permission to stop fighting and accept defeat as spiritual maturity.
Bound by a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years—she could have been told 'accept your thorn.' Instead, Jesus called her forward on the Sabbath and said, 'Woman, you are LOOSED from your infirmity,' and IMMEDIATELY she was made straight and glorified God—no acceptance of chronic condition, just instant freedom.
I REFUSE the lie that my sickness is a God-given thorn. IT IS WRITTEN that by His stripes I WAS healed—past tense, purchased, finished. Paul's thorn was a messenger of Satan, not a disease from God to keep him humble. IT IS WRITTEN in 3 John 2, 'I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in HEALTH, just as your soul prospers.' God's will is health, not chronic suffering. The BARAK blessing protected Abraham even when he lied twice—healing is my covenant right, not something I beg for. I am loosed from infirmity NOW.
The Father isn't asking you to spiritualize suffering and call it His will. He's the Father who loosed the woman bent double after eighteen years without a lecture about accepting her condition. He paid for your healing at the cross—it's not a thorn you endure but a gift you receive.