Good Morning Friends,
“The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I
love in the truth. Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that
all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me
great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the
truth and how you continue to walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to
hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (3 John 1:1-4)
Gaius was a good friend of the Apostle John. John
hoped for the best for Gaius and prayed to that end. John prayed for Gaius’s
health and for his overall well-being, “that all may go well with you.” There’s
nothing wrong with praying those kinds of prayers for the people we care about.
Even Jesus was concerned about those same things and He demonstrated that concern
by healing those who were sick and hurting.
But there was a concern in John for his
friend that was more important than his health and well-being. John’s
overriding concern was the condition of Gaius’s spiritual life. It gave John
“great joy” to know that Gaius was faithful to the truth and walked in the
truth. In fact, nothing gave John greater joy than to know those he cared about
were “walking in the truth.”
We have friends and relatives around us. Our
desire for them is that their lives go well. We want them to be healthy. We want
their careers to be going smoothly, that they will enjoy their work and that it
will provide well for their needs. Those are good and appropriate desires and good
requests to bring to the Lord for those we care about.
But the challenge I see in the attitude John
demonstrates here is to be sure we know what’s really important. The spiritual
life of our friends and relatives is more important than the condition of their
health. Their spiritual life is more important than a good job and adequate
finances. Their spiritual life should be our greatest concern and the topic of
our most fervent prayers for them.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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