Good Medicine

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. --Proverbs 17:22

No matter what happens in our lives, we can choose how we are going to deal with it. We can decide to have a positive outlook, and hold onto the hope we have in God, or we can give in to defeat and stop trying. This verse shows us what will happen as a result of either choice.

A good attitude and a cheerful heart will have a healing effect. Being able to have joy comes as a result of trusting God. When we trust Him completely, the Holy Spirit gives us an inexplicable peace. Peace allows us to face any circumstance and deal with it in a positive way. Relying on God will get us through anything, but the choice to remain cheerful in under our control. Being cheerful doesn't necessarily mean being happy. Instead, it is a choice not to let things affect you to the point of putting you in a bad mood.

If we choose to give up and let our spirit become crushed, that's not a good thing. This verse tells us that a crushed spirit dries up your bones, figuratively speaking. If we give up, we are basically turning into dust--dust that could get blown away in even the slightest of breezes. People with crushed spirits are very ill-equipped for withstanding life's storms.

God does not want us to become dried out. In the Holy Spirit, we have living water. Every one of us will, at one time or another, come face to face with a situation that is either unpleasant, challenging, scary or even depressing. Life is naturally filled with ups and downs, good things and bad. In everything though, God is in control, which is comforting during the times that life feels out of control.

When trials start demanding our time and energy, it is tempting to allow ourselves to stop spending time with God. Since he is our source of living water, we risk spiritual dehydration when we don't communicate with him regularly. God doesn't want us to dry up, rather, he wants us to cling to Him and draw on his strength when our own fails us.