WHAT MAKES THE HEART CHEERFUL
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” – Proverbs 17:22
WHAT MAKES THE HEART CHEERFUL
A cheerful heart is a condition of the heart where the person feels optimistic about the turn of event. Even though all evidence prove it will never be possible, a cheerful person sees a possibility. A lady was diagnosed of throat cancer. The doctors who read the medical report to her were more worried than the woman. She kept smiling through the conversation and the doctors thought to themselves that perhaps she doesn’t know the weight of the ailment. She smiled and said, “I will not let this report ruin the remaining years of my life. Even If I have a day to live, I will live with joy and merriment”. The woman went on to live and died at age ninety: thirty more years after the diagnoses. Awesome. A cheerful heart is a sign of the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart that makes the heart cheerful.
“But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law”.- Galatians 5:22-23
When the Holy Spirit dwells in a believer, He gives him peace. This peace is a reflection of the attribute of God; Jehovah Shalom.
“That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?- Mark 4:35-40
Jesus was fast asleep. The panic from the disciples waked him up. There is a kind of peace that only God through the Holy Spirit can give. When God is in our heart, the outside storms can never penetrate into our heart because there is a barricade of grace. Your life may be experiencing a storm now but trust me, trusting Jesus will give you the courage to overcome.
Source: excerpt from my book THE POWER OF JOY (page 3)
