Bible Verses
My friends and I wondered whether anyone would actually look up the verse if we wrote one in a card.
3 John 1:1-14
Reference: v.2 Dear friends, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. (NIV Bible)
Explore: There was a common trend a little while ago that people would write a Bible verse at the end of a greeting card. There are lots of nice verses that people would refer to and it wouldn't surprise me if 3 John 1:2 was one of them. Often people would just write the reference rather than writing out the whole verse. My friends and I wondered whether anyone would actually look up the verse if we wrote one in a card. So instead of choosing a verse with thought and meaning, when we wrote cards to each other we would write a really random Bible verse to see if the other person would look it up. One of the favourites was Proverbs 26:11. (I'm not going to write out the whole verse, you'll have to dig in to your Bibles to find out what it is!)
Application: Recently I dedicated some time for prayer and fasting for my local congregation and started my time by reading Ephesians chapter 1. Within that chapter of encouragement I read the verse: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better (v.17). As I prayed for each person individually I would finish off my prayer with this verse. It was nice to be able to use words that had been written for someone else but that I also believed for the people I was praying for. Sometimes there are other people that say it better, and its nice to use other people's words to say what we are meaning. This second verse of 3 John is another example. I could see that being written in a card or prayed over loved ones. While I often find when I read the Bible I am searching for guidance for myself, it's also a great resource of words and phrases that we can hope for others too. I'm not sure I'm quite at the stage of writing a Bible verse in a greeting card, but I am open to seeing how I can use the verses of the Bible when thinking of others.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the scriptures. They enrich our lives and give us the words to pray for each other. Amen.
How does reading the Bible enrich your life?
This article was written by Linda Bailey
Linda started theological studies in 1999 in Australia. After working for ten years in various church ministries, she now works as the breakfast producer at 89.9 LightFM - the Christian radio station in Melbourne, Australia. She writes blogs every day about passages she is currently reading in the Bible. Follow her on Google Plus +Linda Bailey or Facebook by clicking the like button on the right of this page.