FEAST OR FAMINE?
Proverbs 15:15 NKJV
15 All the days of the afflicted are evil,
But he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.
When people use the phrase feast or famine, it usually means things are really good or really bad. And, in our verse for today, it has a similar meaning but with one catch. The feast or the famine is our choice.
All the days of the afflicted are evil. But the merry heart has a continual feast. The implication here is that afflicted or merry is our choice. No one is born with a merry heart. A merry heart is the result of a healthy perspective. And so many things impact our perspective. By the same token, an afflicted perspective is often the result of wrong thinking and believing. This is much more of an encouragement to believe and trust God and His word than it is an indictment on those who are negative thinkers.
But think with me for a moment. When you have had some difficult times and bad days, you can begin to expect more bad things to come. And if you focus on the bad there will almost always be something bad to look at. Looking at what we don’t have, can’t do and don’t know leads us down a dark path. And when our attitude goes dark everything coming to us is viewed through that dark window.
But when we are happy and in a good frame of mind, the window looks brighter. And even the negatives aren’t quite as bad. Think of how we handle things before going on vacation. We are in a good frame of mind thinking of days off and a change in location. So, we tend to handle challenges faster and less hassled because we see a brighter day ahead.
To get to this brighter, merry-hearted perspective, we’ll have to monitor how we think and what we believe. The choice to have a merry heart can be made in a moment but walking it out is a process. I find that when I spend quality time with the Lord without just rushing into my day, my perspective is better. This is not a whistling through the graveyard perspective. This is a God-influenced perspective. The more conscious we are of Him and what He is saying to us, and who He is to us, the brighter things appear. This is why God told Joshua to not let the word of God depart from his mouth and to keep it on his mind. If you are leading a couple of million former slaves into conquering the land God had promised, you’d best have a merry heart.
Another merry heart builder is having a grateful heart. It’s very difficult to be grateful and oppressed at the same time. Looking for things to be thankful for is not a trait we are naturally born with. But being born again we have the capacity to develop a grateful perspective. This is an area I still have to work on. I can quickly find the problem and set about getting it fixed. But I have to remind myself to be grateful. I believe the more we realize how powerful being grateful is, the more we will be even more intentional on developing gratitude.
Things in life will never be perfect. But we still have a choice as to how we will perceive life. Factoring God into our everyday life is a sure ticket to a merry heart and a continual feast instead of famine.
PRAYER
Lord, thank You that I can be joyful and grateful on the inside regardless of what is taking place on the outside. I want to be known as a person with a merry heart feasting all the time.