I've prayed for healing and it hasn't come. The pain is still here.

When healing does not come, it is easy to hear silence as a verdict on your faith. Paul asked three times and was answered — just not by removal. He kept the thorn, and he was the one writing letters that still hold people up. Whoever told you more faith would have fixed it had less of it than he did.

The conversation

The child: “Daddy God, I've prayed for healing and it hasn't come. The pain is still here.”

God: “Paul asked Me the same thing. Three times. He called it a thorn in the flesh.”

The child: “What did You say?”

God: “'My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.'”

The child: “That doesn't feel like enough.”

God: “I didn't remove the thorn. I gave him something to carry it with.”

God: “'My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Not despite it. In it.”

The child: “People say if I had more faith I'd be healed.”

God: “Paul had more faith than anyone who's said that to you. He kept the thorn.”

God: “'When I am weak, then am I strong.' That's the paradox of My kingdom.”

The child: “Will I always have this thorn?”

God: “In this life, maybe. In eternity, every thorn is gone. Every tear too.”

The child: “Then I'll stop fighting it and lean into Your grace.”

God: “You already are.”

"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9, KJV