it is well with my soul

Proverbs 17:22  A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

 

My Grandmother passed away last week, my mother in laws cancer is back, and my father in law looks to need open heart surgery to say that I have had less than a cheerful heart is an understatement. Things left unsaid, and undone over the period of 41 years, the “I should haves”, the “I could haves”, and all of the things that should have happened but never did. All of the things that you want to do, but now might not be able to. Reflecting on those moments  proves less than desirable. So it is no surprise that I opened my Bible this morning to this verse. You see, I have found myself in unfamiliar territory this week. I have felt my Spirit being crushed. The Joy slipping away, and remorse, and sorrow setting in. Funny enough, to describe myself as drying out, would be pretty accurate.  

 

So I find myself staring at this verse. A cheerful heart is good medicine. You know what, sometimes that is pretty hard to hear, and even harder to believe. However, having a cheerful heart is not just simply lying to yourself, and saying you are happy until you believe it. If it was as easy as that, I fear that it would only be a short lived reprieve, and we would find ourselves right back in a slump as soon as reality set it, or the next hardship reared its ugly head. No having a cheerful heart is having a heart that is full of the love of our sweet Savior Jesus Christ. Having a cheerful heart does not just make you feel better, the scripture tells us it is medicine. It heals, it repairs, it makes us better than we were. That does not come from a simple lie repeated over and over. It comes from the realization that in Christ we can find not just shelter, but actual joy in every situation. It is the realization that my loss is not my loss, but Christ’s gain. My Grandmother loved the Lord, and as of last week she joined Him in paradise. The trials, and the injustices I have seen are not barriers to keep me chained down, but opportunities to rely on my faith to free me.

 

I am reminded of the sinner that hung next to Christ in His final hours. Talk about turning a negative situation into a positive. How sweet it must have been for that sinner, whom in his dying moments turned to the Lord, to find that this is not the end, but only the beginning. How about Christ himself, if you want a picture of potential gloom and doom, how about knowing that you will be killed, it will be painful, and that even after such a sacrifice, many will still refuse to believe. Yet, after reading the Bible, and studying many other texts from Christian and non-Christian writers of the time, I have yet to read where Christ had a crushed Spirit. He did not walk around full of sorrow, He did not lead His life muttering under His breath “why me”.  No He had a cheerful heart. A heart full of His Fathers love. A heart that was bound and determined to live out His Father’s will every day, no matter what those that can only destroy the flesh might have in store. That is living with a cheerful heart!

 

I have to admit, I lost sight of that. I caved in, and listened to that liar that comes in to all of our lives. The liar that tells us all is lost, things will only get worse, and that only a fool believes in a better tomorrow. It has been a long week, and I know that there is more to come…..but I choose to praise the Lord in this time of struggle, I will praise Him for His blessings, and I will praise Him for the hardships. For it is through this struggle, and the ones to come that I will see and understand that His will is perfect, His timing is just, His plan is in progress, and as the old hymn reminds me….. it is well with my soul. I, and I encourage each of you today to live with a cheerful heart.

 

 

God Bless,

Brian Thetford

<((((><

 

The Ridge Fellowship

 

Psalm22

 

 

God Bless,

Brian Thetford

<((((><

 

The Ridge Fellowship

 

Psalm22