“A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.”
– Proverbs 15:13
I recently worked a number of days for a young man who was going through a time of crisis, struggling with some pretty tough decisions, and coping with some experiences that could be viewed as quite negative. In addition, the people he had hoped he could lean on were already experiencing their own crises and he could not ask them for support. Even so, he was continually upbeat and happy. He was seldom without a smile.
I finally asked him what it was that gave him the ability to be so happy and almost carefree with all the things that were happening. He told me that a few years before he had discovered something that created a miracle in his life. He found that if he read the Bible and prayed every day, negative things, bad experiences and major crises could not create heartache. He went on to explain that he had stumbled across a Bible verse from Jeremiah that said the Lord has plans for us to prosper, have hope and a future. To fulfill those plans, Jeremiah said, we only need to pray to the Lord with all our heart. My friend started reading that Bible verse every day in addition to other scripture, and it didn’t take long before he realized there was nothing that could diminish his happiness. After all, he reasoned, if the Lord had such plans for him and his future, how could he possibly not be happy?
So again, I asked, tell me how I can always have a happy heart and avoid heartaches. Well, as my new friend stated. “Pray and seek the Lord with all your heart and the heartaches of life cannot change your happiness”.
Your Friend in Christ,
Roberta Hamdorf