Skip to main content

As Your Soul Prospers

                 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. (3 John 2 NSAB1995)

                 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. (3 John 2 NIV)

                Same verse, two versions. Normally, I share NIV, but I learned this verse with the word prosper in it, and it seems to be missing something without it. I have to begin by saying that I’ve been experiencing this verse for the last seven to ten years. I will admit that I have prospered, at least according to the judgment of some, but I didn’t feel prosperous. It always felt as if I were under someone’s heel or thumb. I won’t bother with the details, but as I began writing, and later, as I began trying to gain competence in life in general: gardening, doing minor carpentry, crafting, preserving foods, etc., I have begun to feel a little more prosperous, a little more free.

                But as I read this verse this morning, what came to mind was the question of whether anyone – and especially God – would really want me to prosper and be in good health, or for my soul to prosper. Oh, I know, God and others are supposed to want me to prosper, but God’s definition of “prosper” and yours, and mine, are probably not the same. God’s idea of prospering has to do with His involvement in your life more than with our bank balances (since $ often becomes a god that separates us from Him). Over the past several years, for me, prospering has meant doing things I love instead of being crushed by a job I’ve hated, learning, and being able to help others. Having an income, while nice, hasn’t been the highest priority. Your idea of prosperity is whatever your idea is. For some, it’s dollars available to spend.

                But the caveat in this verse is as your soul prospers. That begins with our relationship with God. It includes our relationships with others, ourselves, possessions, responsibilities, desires, hopes, dreams, and even the world. And the problem is that as our soul properly prospers in any of these, the others tend to follow along. And as our soul is in a wrong relationship with any of them, the others tend to follow along. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more