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From:  Mary Padgett Ministries, Inc.
A Word In Due Season
A MERRY HEART

Scripture:  Proverbs 17:22  "A merry heart does good like a medicine."

King Solomon teaches that a merry heart brings health to your body.  Yet if you allow it, stress, hatred, rage, malice, grief, anxiety, and a host of many other negative emotions can ruin your health.  Proverbs 12:25 says, "Heaviness in the heart of man makes his heart stoop."  In other words, anxiety of any kind causes depression, which allows negative forces to work and cause havoc in your physical body.  However, it is a medical fact that chemicals called endorphins are released in your body when you exercise physically or laugh.  Zig Ziglar says, "Laughter is like internal jogging."  When you begin to laugh and be merry, you are telling your physical body that the stressful circumstances you are facing are no big deal.  Your laughter will regenerate your body and joy will bring you strength.

Isaiah 12:3 declares that you can "draw from the wells of salvation with joy."  In order to draw water from a well in the natural, you must use a bucket.  In the spiritual, you have access to the wells of salvation that contain all the benefits that God provides, but the scripture says you must use joy to draw from these wells.  Joy is your spiritual bucket.  Being angry never fixes an adverse and ugly situation, but rejoicing in God, seeking Him, and drawing from His wells of salvation will give insight and the solution to the problem.  Grief and sorrow can never bring your loved ones back, but finding a place of joy in the presence of God's Holy Spirit will give you comfort and courage to move forward.  Dealing with angry and spiteful people is never pleasant, but by drawing from God's well of salvation you can give a soft answer which will turn away their wrath (Proverbs 15:1).  Reacting in positive ways and maintaining positive attitudes will dispel the negative forces in your life that can cause illness and even death.  Jesus tells us plainly in the sixth chapter of Matthew not to be anxious about anything, but to seek first His kingdom, which is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17).
 
We go to great efforts to maintain our health and make changes in our habits if they are harmful to our natural body.  Shouldn't we also make adjustments in our attitudes and take control of our emotions that could cause problems in our health?  As we begin to cultivate a sense of righteousness with God, allowing His peace to reign in our life and the joy in the Holy Ghost to fill our souls, we will find our health being restored.  Remember, laughter does good like a medicine and it has no ill side effects so endeavor to keep a merry heart. +++



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