Scripture: 3 John 1:3-4 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers[a] came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
Observation: May "walking in the truth" be our goal, the goal for our children, and for other believers. Let us not allow gossip and and slander become our joy when believers stray from the path of truth.
Application: As I heard in Sunday School yesterday, God created us as beings with free choice. Free to choose our path in life. Free to believe in a Creator. Free to believe in nothing. Those of us who grew up in the church, with parents who took us faithfully each week, know about the truth. But just as being in a garage doesn't make us a car, being in a church does not make us a Christian.
I have watched devoted Christian parents struggle when their children fall away from God. Their heartache and their sadness and their desire to see their kids come back to Christ. My children are 18, 16, and 14. So far, they are walking on the path of truth with a desire to serve. It is such an encouragement to hear from others who share with us that our children are shining a light. There really is no greater joy than to hear about how believers are being the salt and light to a fallen world. Not just our own children, but their peers at church and the students that attend the Christian school where I teach...to hear about what they are doing with the knowledge they have is such an encouragement and inspiration.
However, that is the reality. We live in a fallen world and temptation is everywhere. Just as we saw David, God's chosen and most prolific writer of praise, fall to the sexual temptation of sin with Bathsheba there may be times when we hear of others falling to temptation as well. It is in these times that we need to remember that we are all sinners and that our gossip of these situations never help the situation. I am guilty of gossip and I am terrible at keeping secrets (even good ones!) but I really need to be conscious that my words are not tearing down others. When I see an instagram post that displays less than stellar language, when I hear of a Christian couple who is separating or divorcing, when I learn about behaviour contrary to God's design may my first thoughts be to lift them up in prayer that they may see what they are doing through God's eyes.
Prayer: Lord. You are perfect and we are not. We continually fall short of your design. Thank you for the gift of forgiveness. May we also show forgiveness and love to others when they fall short because you first forgave us. May you find us walking in your truth and encouraging others to do the same. Amen.
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 2 Samuel 23-24; Colossians 1
3 comments:
Good point, lift the fallen up in prayer rather than spread the news that they've sunk to a new low. It's never too late for anyone as long as they're still alive, to seek forgiveness and dedicate themselves to God.
This same verse spoke to me as well.
I, too, appreciate your point of praying for those who fall or who are struggling.
Vs 4 stood out to me too. It is a prayer of all Christian parents to have their children walk with Christ. I pray that they will continue to do so, and as they search for their future spouses that they too will have the same love for Christ.
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