3 John 1:2 "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers."

Some would use this verse as proof that God wants you to prosper in all things and that you should always have good health. They tell you to claim His promises. However, this verse doesn’t contain a promise from God that you will prosper or have good health it is the desire of John towards Gaius if one reads the context of the verses that come before and after. If you don’t know the context it is easy to read a manmade belief into the text.

If you want to understand the Word of God then remember to read things in their context, know the historical context, what did the original readers think, what did the original writer mean. Also consider the text within the broader text of the whole Bible.

Lets look at another promise in James 5:14-16, "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

Some read this and believe that if you have faith or the person who prays has faith the sick will automatically be healed. Is that what it states though? It says the sick will be saved and they will be raised up. When? The next part demonstrates that our sickness can and often are the result of sin but they can also be as a result of having sinners around you passing on the sickness but if it was because of sin you can be fully confident that God will forgive you. God’s forgiveness enables one to be raised up and saved when Christ returns. That is a promise. A physical healing is not guaranteed as the next sentence clearly states "that you may be healed". Meaning that you might not be.

In the broader context of the Bible, God promises a spiritual healing but does not promise us eternal life as a physical creature. He has limited our lives. We shall all die once regardless how faithful we are.

Hebrews 9:27-28 "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."

In this context we realize that when Paul suffered it was not because he had no faith or God was mad at him but he eventually thought it was for his good.

When we suffer for doing good we are supposed to glory in it.

1 Peter 3:14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed.

Now before you have too dim a view of a Christian’s lot in life I would like to present to you the personal benefits of following God’s commandments. There are many benefits and also many curses if you don’t follow them.

If you hate and murder it will bring problems upon you. If you are instead kind and forgiving then you are well liked by most.

If you commit sexual immorality you are likely to suffer disease, emotional difficulties and confusion from truth and lies. It increase your odds of depression and suicide. For instance greater homosexual practices has increased many diseases and created other new ones that are a curse on society. It is a much greater health threat then smoking. Since that is factually the case, you would think that the government would respond like they did with smoking but:

• Why aren't all schoolchildren being taught that there are special health risks associated with homosexual behaviour and that they should "just say no" to homosexuality?
• Why won't the news media make the common-sense connection between these frequent stories about (male) homosexual behaviour and disease – to the idea that perhaps its probably not smart for society and pop culture to celebrate homosexuality and bisexuality?;
• Why isn't there a concerted government effort – akin to the current anti-smoking campaigns – to reign in homosexual promiscuity – beginning with closing down all sex businesses (bathhouses) that facilitate homosexual perversion?

Our government followed Pierre Trudeau and towards man’s rights and away from being founded on Biblical or God’s laws.

These are obvious personal benefits of following God’s commandments and living single or in a heterosexual monogamous relationship to each individual, their spouse and children.

There are many other great blessings in making the Word of God come alive in your life.