WHEN YOU ARE HEAVY-HEARTED
PROVERBS 12:25
PROVERBS 12:25 NKJ
25 Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression,
But a good word makes it glad.
OBSERVATION:
This is a fascinating scripture that gives us insight into inner health.
I am using the term inner health because I believe mental health is too limiting. Inner health will certainly involve mental health but will also include the emotions and the human spirit.
In this verse, the word anxiety in the New King James version is also translated heaviness, worry, and care. It implies a dread that exists because of apprehension of what is coming.
The NKJ says this anxiety causes depression. That word is also translated to weigh down. So the idea of anxiety causing depression is certainly not a stretch. When we are weighed down on the inside, heavy-hearted, we are down.
When I have been heavy-hearted, anxious, and worried, I was not uplifted; I was down. Worry weighs us down on the inside. No one has ever come through a season of heaviness and worry and found it to be refreshing. It was draining.
But thankfully, the scriptures do not leave us in a state of heaviness and being down. The scriptures come at us from a spiritual perspective. That realm is so much more powerful and so unlimited.
Instead of leaving us stuck with a heavy heart, the scriptures give us the cure. A good word makes it glad. We could also say a good word in our heart makes us glad.
The Bible is a book filled with good words from God. Words that promise us His help. Words of hope. Words that tell us what Jesus did for us on the cross and through His resurrection. Words that tell us of how strong and how loved we are.
The key is we need to take some of these good words and put them in our hearts. Instead of thinking and talking about the negatives we see and feel around us, we focus on His good words. We talk about these good words. We practice these good words, and we believe these good words. The more good words in our heart, the gladder we become.
PRAYER:
Thank You, Father, for Your good words. I choose to put Your words in my heart, and I see gladness, not heaviness, in my path.