Cheerful expressions!
Verse for Today: Monday, November 18, 2013
Proverbs 17:22 – A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
We experience physical and emotional ailments as we respond negatively to our situations. When ailments get out of control, we depend on external help in the form of treatment including medicines. But we are also aware of the inadequacy and incompetency of medical science to heal us completely and make us whole. Often when one ailment is suppressed through medicines and therapy, another appears to weaken us. Some ailments disappear to only reappear after some time. Man thus becomes a perennial prey to infirmities. It has been observed that emotional ailments impact our minds, behavior and bodies to cause deep physical ailments which the medicines of the world cannot easily cure. Thus when we allow our spirits to be crushed in the hands of our situations, it affects different organs and parts of our bodies. The panacea for it all is a cheerful heart which only God can give through His Spirit and Word. When we allow the Spirit of God to control us through the infilling, He brings our every thoughts, cares, anxieties and frustrations under His control. Thus we will be able to respond positively to our situations. When we allow our hearts to enjoy His peace and patience in all circumstances and situations, we will have a cheerful heart in spite of circumstances. The confidence and courage we enjoy through the Spirit of God and His promises in His Word, we will experience cheerful emotions and will thus guard our bodies from susceptibility to illnesses. It will help our endocrinological system to work effectively to guard other systems in our bodies to work together to support each other. This is how a cheerful heart becomes the best medicine for our bodies and emotions.
Dear friend, are you suffering from definable and indefinable ailments of various types and are you getting treatment for it all? Are you under the bondage of various medicines and dietary restrictions to keep good health? But these are temporary and unwholesome approaches to healthy living. You and I need a cheerful heart which only God can bring about when we submit ourselves and our circumstances to Him and allow Him to deal in it. When we become God’s children, His Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts to control and manage our intellectual, emotional and volitional realms of life. When we are thus at peace with God and with ourselves, it will permeate our physical systems and will work as best medicine to negate ill-effects of situations. There will still be consequences of sin in our environment in the form of sicknesses of various kinds, but a cheerful heart governed by the joy of the Lord will be our strength to fight physical and emotional battles against all infirmities. When God wants to give us a cheerful heart, it is our responsibility to learn to be under the control of His Spirit to experience it. God also gives us a cheerful heart as we believe on all His promises in His Word. But it is our responsibility to believe on and affirm these promises to our hearts and claim it by faith. When we are at peace with God, we will have very little scope for conflicts in our soul and will develop positive, pragmatic and proactive responses to our situations through the wisdom and patience given to us by God. This is the cheerful heart and life that we have received as part of the heavenly blessings through Jesus Christ. A cheerful heart is available to us today if we claim it by faith and enjoy it. It is our blessed privilege today to express such joyful heart to relate to others and our situations and live cheerfully.
Proverbs 15:13 – A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.
Thought for Today
The coolness of the shadow of the cross makes our hearts cheerful and heals our heartaches.
Prayer for Today
Dear Lord Jesus: Heal my broken heart today through Your Spirit and take full control of my life to make all my expressions delightful. Amen!
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