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Friday... But our wants are not always for the best.


3 John 1:13-14 (NLT), "I have so much more to say to you, but I don't want to write it with pen and ink. For I hope to see you soon and then we'll talk face to face."

Friday... But our wants are not always for the best.

I am reading in the Psalms and in the Proverbs. And the Proverbs are all about wisdom, the importance of being wise. Proverbs 2:2 (NLT) says, "Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding." Yes, it is so important to have wisdom and understanding and we can carry that over into our wants.


I am also reading the three letters of John. It is important to see that John wrote these while he was at the church of Ephesus where he lived and was ministering. Now John is the only Apostle who died a natural death but he also was a prisoner on the Isle of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation.

Now John was wise and I know he had understanding. He had walked with Jesus and he was known as the beloved but here in this last letter he writes, 3 John 1:13-14, "I have so much more to say to you, but I don't want to write it with pen and ink. For I hope to see you soon and then we'll talk face to face."

Notice the word want. Now Paul the writer of many letters in the New Testament wrote many of them while he was in prison and he also said what he wanted. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthian church writes in 16:7, "This time I don't want to make a short visit and then go right on. I want to come and stay awhile, if the Lord will let me."

John and Paul were two of the greatest Christians who have ever lived and we would think their wants had power. Now if you go to the Garden of Gethsemane you will see in Jesus prayer that he wasn't really excited about what he was about to go through but he also said to God his Father, not my will but yours be done.

Yes, we may have a lot of wants in our lives in 2026 but the key is that God knows best. Yes, he will give us some of those wants but not all of them.

Paul and John had wants but God knew best. Think of this, if John would have gotten his want then we wouldn't have been able to read his letters and the same for Paul. They both were the writers of a big portion of the New Testament and of course Jesus wouldn't have died for our sins and then been resurrected. God knows what he is doing. And he knows what he is doing and will do in our lives in 2026 if we do what he wants.

Yes, as a father I want to give to my kids and grandkids all they want but their wants aren't always for their good.

John wrote, "I have so much more to say to you, but I don't want to write it with pen and ink. For I hope to see you soon and then we'll talk face to face." If he would have gotten his want then we wouldn't have been able to read what he wrote. God knows what is best. Yes, we can go ahead and ask for our wants but we also need to trust him to give us what is best for us and for his will. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning 

 

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