10/06/2026
Proverbs 15:13
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
The ancient Hebrew word for heart is “Labe”, meaning your will, intellect, knowledge, or rational thought. A merry, joyful, gleeful understanding makes one’s countenance cheerful. Your mindset really does affect your physical expression, from the way you carry yourself to the way you think or speak. Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.
There really is power in perception. The Word declares in the closing of Jeremiah 29:11 that God will bring us to an expected end. We should always begin with the end in mind. Might I ask,what is your expected outcome of the day, situation, or conditionyou are in?
Recently, I was crunching some numbers involving fixing a piece of equipment our church owns. In the course of conversation, I was feeling the pressure of the numbers, seeing it was not really what we wanted to spend the money on. The response of the other party was, “How cool is it that there was a day when you would have never thought you would be in theposition to discuss numbers like this, much less write a check for it. ‘Nuff said. It really does matter the condition of your heart, labe, or mindset.
Things really are affected by our intellectual approach. Either God is able to do exceeding abundantly more than we can think, or He is not God at all. None of us can keep life from coming at us. However, we can change the way we view life. Just because you are aging does not mean you lose touch with the age. True enough, you may not jump as high as you used to, but at least you are still getting off the ground. No, you may not be as fast as you used to be, but you are still in the race.
Our prayer for you this week: May you come to realize the power of a merry heart.