A happy heart makes the face cheerful. (Proverbs 15:13a)
A cheerful heart is good medicine. (Proverbs 17:22a)
Someone has said, “Everybody lights up a room—some by entering and others by leaving.” One would think that Christians, of all people, would light up a room by entering. Yet a friend of mine is convinced that some Christians are so dour they must have had special surgery—a “humor bypass.”
Amazing, isn’t it, the impression we leave everywhere we go just by the “affect” we display? Think over the list of people you really like or really like to see. Now give some thought to those you dread seeing. I’ll bet the difference is largely a matter of the “joy factor.” Everybody likes to be around authentically joyful people, smiley people, fun people, positive people.
Proverbs affirms the source of all of the above—a “joyful heart.” You see, it’s not laughter that is the good medicine; it’s a cheerful, joy-filled heart. I heard a successful Christian filmmaker say that all laughter is divine. He’s wrong. In Los Angeles, some gang members put a bullet in a little boy’s head and laughed. In Hollywood, comedians commit suicide. In Vegas, on Broadway, and in most bars, people laugh at really vile, wicked things. Only true joy is divine.
Principle: Laughter that flows from any place other than a pure heart has a polluted source and a poisonous effect.
As most commonly used in the Scriptures, the “heart” is the seat of the affections, the center of spirit, will, and emotions. It’s where God lives in the believer. It’s not all that inaccurate for us to ask children to “ask Jesus into your heart.” When He resides there, all of His character traits reside there as well.
Principle: The one who is indwelt by the Spirit of Christ has His joy in his spirit; the first, telltale mark of sin’s entrance is loss of joy.
A visiting song leader to some revival meetings I attended as a kid surveyed the dour, straight-laced fundamentalists in my church, stopped the singing, and said, “If anybody here has the joy of the Lord in your heart, will you tell your heart to notify your face!” The writers of Proverbs knew there was an inviolable link between the two. “A happy face means a glad heart.”
Principle: As the pupil of the eye is the window to the world, So the countenance of the face is the window to the soul; it reveals the condition of the heart.
Cheer up! If you can’t, let Him fill you with His joy.
[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]