ICS Daily Devotions
How Is Your Well Being?
3 John 1:2-4 (NKJV) Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Being in lockdown at home for a prolonged period with our family can either be a challenge or a blessing depending on how we handle our emotions. Unless we choose to practise the truth, however, we won’t get to see the effect of holistic blessings in our lives.
The state of our well-being is dependent on whether we have a close relationship with God because everything in our lives, including our thoughts and behaviour, is an outflow of our theological conviction or the lack thereof. This becomes apparent when we are under pressure because it forces our true selves to be revealed, like how the wind and the storm beating against a house will eventually reveal what sort of foundation it has underneath. We will either yield to the prompting of the Holy Spirit or to the flesh that desires to live independent from God. However, it is never too late to work on our well-being by allowing the Word to take root in our hearts and act on the truth.
There is a direct correlation between our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with the people around us. If our relationship with God is good, our horizontal relationships will likely be as well, but if our horizontal relationships are not good, especially with our spouse, it may reflect the fact that our vertical relationship with God also needs improvement. You may ask how can this be? It is possible while we are religiously practising Christian disciplines, we are lacking the real life with God, or we are refusing to yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit to do the right thing when we are faced with the infringement of our rights, privileges, or entitlements as an individual. In other words, we may have the outward appearance of a religious person, while denying the power within us which is given by the Holy Spirit to walk in love, grace, and forgiveness. However, believers who walk with God and are close to Him will naturally yield to His commands and the Holy Spirit’s promptings, because what He thinks and desires for us truly matter to them.
Godliness is living from the inside out knowing that we are a new creation, have the nature of God in us, and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to overcome temptations to yield to the flesh. God wants us to prosper in every aspect of our lives, but we also have a responsibility walk out the truth and take hold of what belongs to us.
Sermon Series: Work on Your Well Being
