Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”
Our Bible verse for today: “A joyful heart makes a face cheerful, but a sad heart produces a broken spirit.” Proverbs 15:13 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “The glass is half-full”
“Is the glass half-full or half-empty?” The answer of course is “yes”. It is both half-full and half-empty. It’s all a matter of how you choose to look at it. Typically the person with an optimistic personality will say it is half-full and the pessimistic person will conclude it is half-empty. The glass contains the same volume of liquid for both of them; the difference is in how they choose to think about it.
A joyful heart is a matter of choice too. It’s a matter of how you choose to view and think about the circumstances of your life, and it’s a matter of where your sense of joy comes from. Where does your source of joy come from?
Many people believe the source of joy is external and works its way into the heart. Therefore their joy is dependent on circumstances and people. If the circumstances of life are pleasant, if they have lots of money and nice things, and if the people around them are cooperative and kind, then they are joyful. But if circumstances are not to their liking, and if people do not behave in the way they want them to, then they’re not joyful. Such a person is allowing external influences to reach into their heart and control them.
The Bible teaches that true joy is actually internal and works its way out. In Galatians 5:22-23 the Apostle Paul taught that true joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit who lives inside the heart of the follower of Christ. That being the case, joy then originates inside, bubbles up, and flows out. A person like that is not under the control of external circumstances or other people. Instead, they’re under the control of the Holy Spirit.
Ok, now let’s consider the issue of choice. Can you really choose to experience joy or not? Yes you can. First, you must make a choice to cultivate the joy that is within you. You do that by growing in your Christian faith and allowing the Holy Spirit to have greater and greater control over your heart. The more you do that, the more the spiritual fruit of joy becomes a deep-seated part of who you are as a person.
Second, you can also train yourself to be optimistic instead of pessimistic. You don’t have to see the glass as being half-empty. You can train your thoughts to consider things from an optimistic point of view. I know this to be true because I had to do it myself. By nature I used to be a pessimist. For me the glass was always half-empty. But I didn’t want to go through life thinking like that and so I embarked on a training program to change my way of thinking.
In addition to diligent Bible study, especially of the book of Philippians, I also studied books like “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale; “Life is Tremendous” by Charlie Jones; “How to be Happy” by Andrew Matthews; and of course, “The Traveler’s Gift”, “The Noticer”, and “The Butterfly Effect” all by Andy Andrews. All of those books are Christian and extremely helpful.
In Proverbs 17:22 Solomon comes back to this theme of joy when he writes, “A joyful heart is good medicine.” It’s true! On average, joyful optimistic people tend to live longer and they have a better quality of life. If you’re not seeing your glass as half-full I encourage you to take the steps and do the work to cultivate a joyful heart.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 