Category: Devotion of the Day

RICH AND HEALTHY

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as they soul prospereth.
III John 2

John is not conditioning Gaius’ prosperity and health on the state of his soul, but rather is assuming his soul’s prosperity as a fact. Nevertheless, it is true that God wants no man to be richer than his soul, and the spiritual condition is the true gauge of a man’s real success. No man with a sick soul is really prosperous. Even the medical world stresses as never before the connection between health and religion.

Prosperity, health, and spirituality are here joined, and well they may be. The man who is right with God and men is in a fair way to being in good health. Even if the outer man decay, the inner man is renewed from day to day. And a new body is guaranteed as part of his salvation. And prosperity is assured, for whatsoever the righteous man doeth shall prosper. The man who is rich toward God is truly rich, and he who is healthy in his soul is truly healthy. Along with it, we shall have such material prosperity and physical health as we need – and why should we want more?

NO OPTION

Ye are not your own…for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s
I Corinthians 6:19, 20

It has been said that becoming a Christian is optional, but after we become Christians we have no option, we are to obey. Most church members are strangely ignorant of that. We go on living as though we were our own and had paid for our redemption. But we are not owners of anything, we are stewards of everything we are and have. And it is required of stewards that they be faithful. It is required of servants that they serve. It is required of soldiers that they obey. And every Christian is a steward, a servant, and a soldier.

We have no right to anything, we are bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. We are His property. It is not for us lightly to choose what we shall give or withhold. We belong to Another and He has the say-so.

What a long way we are from realizing this on Sunday morning, when we have to be begged and besought to give God a tip! To withhold one thing is theft, for everything is His!