Bible League: Living His Word I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.What does the LORD want for us? What can we pray for with confidence that the LORD finds it to be an acceptable request? According to our verse for today, there are at least three items. First, we may pray that someone's soul gets along well. The Apostle John's letter was written to a man named Gaius. Although John did not feel the need to pray for Gaius' soul, since it was apparently getting along well, we can see that it would be a legitimate request. The soul or heart is the focal point of human existence, for everything we do flows from it (Proverbs 4:23). The soul of an individual person is getting along well when it is indwelt and directed by the Holy Spirit, as opposed to being directed by its own sinful spiritual state (Romans 8:9-10). One can legitimately pray, then, that the LORD would send the Holy Spirit to transform a person's life by indwelling them, filling them, leading them, inspiring them, and so on. Second, we may pray for the good health of someone's body. In general, the LORD wants us to be healthy. Although there may be exceptional instances when the LORD allows sickness into our lives in order to fulfill some purpose of His, as was probably the case with the Apostle Paul's "thorn in the flesh" (II Corinthians 12:7-10), our verse makes it plain that it is appropriate to pray for good health. Indeed, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the gift of healing (I Corinthians 12:9). It would not make much sense for the LORD to give this gift if He did not want people to be healed. Finally, one may pray that everything goes well. The LORD not only wants us to be spiritually and physically well, He also wants everything we are involved with to go well. Again, although there may be times when the LORD allows things into our lives that we would rather not have, His general desire and purpose is for our overall well-being. In point of fact, a day is coming when everything will go well for us all the time. When you think about it and add it all up, our verse for today is just one way of saying that we can pray about every area of our lives. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingIsaiah 13, 14, 15 Isaiah 13 -- Prophecies against Babylon NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Isaiah 14 -- God's Merciful Restoration of Israel; Judgment on Assyria and Philistia NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Isaiah 15 -- Judgment on Moab NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Galatians 6 Galatians 6 -- Bearing One Another's Burdens; Becoming a New Creation NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.Insight Today's pressures make it easy to ignore or forget the lessons of the past. But Paul cautions us to remember the lessons the Israelites learned about God so we can avoid repeating their errors. Challenge The key to remembering is to study the Bible regularly so that these lessons remind us of how God wants us to live. We need not repeat their mistakes! Morning and Evening by Spurgeon 1 Kings 18:43 Go again seven times.Success is certain when the Lord has promised it. Although you may have pleaded month after month without evidence of answer, it is not possible that the Lord should be deaf when his people are earnest in a matter which concerns his glory. The prophet on the top of Carmel continued to wrestle with God, and never for a moment gave way to a fear that he should be non-suited in Jehovah's courts. Six times the servant returned, but on each occasion no word was spoken but "Go again." We must not dream of unbelief, but hold to our faith even to seventy times seven. Faith sends expectant hope to look from Carmel's brow, and if nothing is beheld, she sends again and again. So far from being crushed by repeated disappointment, faith is animated to plead more fervently with her God. She is humbled, but not abashed: her groans are deeper, and her sighings more vehement, but she never relaxes her hold or stays her hand. It would be more agreeable to flesh and blood to have a speedy answer, but believing souls have learned to be submissive, and to find it good to wait for as well as upon the Lord. Delayed answers often set the heart searching itself, and so lead to contrition and spiritual reformation: deadly blows are thus struck at our corruption, and the chambers of imagery are cleansed. The great danger is lest men should faint, and miss the blessing. Reader, do not fall into that sin, but continue in prayer and watching. At last the little cloud was seen, the sure forerunner of torrents of rain, and even so with you, the token for good shall surely be given, and you shall rise as a prevailing prince to enjoy the mercy you have sought. Elijah was a man of like passions with us: his power with God did not lie in his own merits. If his believing prayer availed so much, why not yours? Plead the precious blood with unceasing importunity, and it shall be with you according to your desire. Daily Light on the Daily Path Psalm 19:1 For the choir director. A Psalm of David. The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Acts 14:17 and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." Psalm 19:2,3 Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. • There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. Psalm 8:3,4 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; • What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? 1 Corinthians 15:41,42 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. • So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; Daniel 12:3 "Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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