Gospel Reflections #340: A Joyful Heart

Proverbs 17:22 “A joyful heart nourishes the body, / but a spirit that is downcast withers to the bone."

I am sure you have experienced that joy causes a positive spiral and discouragement causes a negative spiral.

We often speak of positive and negative personalities, etc. Living in this world, we are continually influenced by negativity, and we gradually become more and more negative.

At such times, those of us who know God look to His promises and choose His direction, saying those promises over and over again. In this way, we can have our confidence in God strengthened by looking to God's promises, uttering His promises, and praying for His promises, even if we have only uncertain feelings about God at first.

As our confidence in God grows stronger, our gratitude and joy will increase.

God, who transforms us from the inside out, also has that effect on our bodies.

Every cell in our body radiates energy as if it is pleasing to God.

God's ways are wonderful.

God transforms us, not by what we do or how hard we try or what we endure, but by what we believe in Him, surrender to Him, and choose Him.

It is said that illness is caused by our mindset, and that mindset is our choice.

We may learn who we really are by becoming aware of our tendency to make choices. But we are led by it to look up to God and seek Him, so let us rejoice that we have been made aware of it, rather than lamenting our true nature. Then let us take it to God. There, joy and hope await us.

This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San who lives in Hiroshima, Japan. She is a devoted student of the Bible who passionately embraces the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on the Gospels as a way to reach out to others and spread the message of God's true love through the Christ-centered approach of Biblical Reflections. We're sharing her message here so that you too can experience the joy that comes from knowing and understanding the true Gospel