Ellis
Proverbs remind us that a cheerful look brings joy to the heart and that a cheerful heart is good medicine (Proverbs 15:13-15; 17:22). We all know what medicine is and what medicine is supposed to do. When there is an illness of some kind; when there is a sickness, a disease of some kind, medicine is supposed to treat, and in some cases cure the sickness or disease. It is supposed to make you feel better and offer relief.
I guess we can define anything that makes you feel good as medicine and a smile plays a major role in making that happen. A smile, is a small thing, but can do wonders for our personality and can be therapeutic for others and ourselves as well. There is nothing like a beautiful smile; there is nothing like a happy face; it radiates the atmosphere; and I wonder, why we don’t do it more; why don’t we smile more and put on a happy face?
We say that “Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to us!” So why don’t we smile more? it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t cost us anything, and it could be what somebody needs to see. See, we don’t think of smiling as a ministry, but, actually, it is because what a smile says is that something good is going on in our lives. People don’t usually smile for no reason. There is something within or without behind the reason for them smiling.
Community, there is nothing like a cheerful heart.
In Proverbs, we are reminded that a “cheerful look brings JOY to the heart” and is good medicine.”
For the Christian our smile stems from the supernatural joy we possess by virtue of our relationship with Jesus Christ; not because everything is going well all the time; not because our circumstances is perfect and ok; or because we feel good all the time; not because we think that we are getting a fourth stimulus check. This joy comes from the fact that our sins have been forgiven, we have eternal life beyond this life; the fact that Jesus has gone away to prepare a mansion for us; that he will come again and receive us unto himself that where he is there we will be also (John 14:2-3); that these bodies that we now live in will be exchanged for new glorified resurrected bodies that will never know sickness or pain; the fact that he is with us all the time and all the benefits that comes with being a Christian causes JOY to well up in our hearts and it causes us to smile; the fact that it won’t be this way, and trouble won’t last always gives us hope and a reason to smile; smile community, lighten up! Let’s don’t be so tight!
Christians ought to be joyful. Nobody wants to look at a stumpy grumpy face; a frowned up face turn people off. It causes children to cry when they look at it; dogs can pick up on it when they see it and even they will hide. Joy is our spiritual birthright; and when we smile it is a window of hope reflecting God’s love and the light of his presence in our lives; when we allow joy to work in our lives it overflows to those all around us; it’s contagious. Smile and somebody will smile back at us; and it will lift somebody out of a dark place; do me a favor this morning. If you are at home and you are sitting beside somebody or across from them just look at them and give them a big smile
Come on now, maybe your face needed that. A cheerful heart is a gift from God that regularly spills out and it encourages people who are carrying heavy burdens; and let me tell you something else too; a cheerful heart is good for our physical healtht It relieves tension and contributes to your physical well-being; didn’t know that did you? Your blood pressure doesn’t get so high, your body don’t ache so bad, you feel better when you have a cheerful heart and we become magnets to the unchurched world around us. Some will ask “why do you smile all the time, what makes you so happy, especially with all the chaos going on in the world?” It’s an opportunity for us to tell them of the blessed hope that we have and about our blessed savior, and a “cheerful look brings joy to the heart and a cheerful heart is good medicine; in other words if you be cheerful more your body chemicals will not be out of balance; our stress level will come down; and folk won’t mind being around us; our emotional health contributes to our physical well-being; hear me this morning when I say that it is healthy to be cheerful.
Try it and see; it has so many benefits; and it’s a choice; you can choose to be joyful; and if you are a Christian, you have every right to be; hear me when I say if you want to be lifted up out of some stuff this morning, be joyful, have some joy; if you want to make the devil mad, and put him under your feet have some JOY; if you just want to feel better and enjoy life to the fullest then be joyful; Community, “the joy of the Lord is our strength (Neh. 8:10).” Friends let’s choose to smile and have a cheerful heart.