A Cheerful Heart
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. Proverbs 17:22
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This verse describes the positive benefits to our physical bodies when the inner person of the heart is happy. It also describes the opposite effect: when we are depressed or sad for an extended length of time, it is detrimental to our physical health and strength. When I pondered this verse on a not-so-happy day, it made me think, “Why am I not cheerful? Where has my joy gone?” Nine times out of ten I have been fretting about circumstances—which may not be all that happy— instead of focusing on my relationship with Jesus. Life isn’t always a feast of pleasant experiences. We can’t control the ways our days unfold or muster up a cheerful heart on our own, but we can pour our energies into knowing and loving Jesus, the source of all joy, and lifting his name high in good times and bad. When he and his kingdom are our focus, he provides what we need in those other situations and circumstances (Matthew 6:33), and he fills us with true cheerfulness, hope, and joy.
Prayers:
LORD, I want to have a cheerful heart, not a broken spirit. Help me to focus today on you and not on the circumstances I see around me. As you help me to do that by your Spirit, I will know and experience your true joy in my heart and life.
Quotes:
Happiness is caused by things that happen around me and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows on through the dark. . . . It is an unceasing fountain bubbling up in the heart.
D. L. Moody (1837–1899)
The One Year Bible Readings for today are: 2 Kings 3:1–4:17; Acts 14:8-28; Psalm 140:1-13 and Proverbs 17:22.
