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Proverbs 15:15

A wonderful life is a choice - choosing to have a godly and joyful heart. An evil life - filled with trouble, pain, and misery - is also a choice. For negative and discontented people choose to let circumstances and foolish feelings destroy their lives.

Here is one of the greatest proverbs. Read it again. Think about its words. Read it again. Consider its value. It teaches the difference between a miserable life and a wonderful life. What more could you want? And the Preacher gave it to us in 20 precious words of beauty and rhythm. No wonder David said God's word was more valuable than gold, sweeter than honey, and brings great reward (Ps 19:10-11)!

Context, not often significant in Proverbs, gives inside wisdom from the wisest king and the only wise God (15:16-17). After spending his life and fortune trying everything to find happiness and purpose in life, Solomon contrasts and ranks meals and lives. A continual feast is within the reach of every reader! It is your choice to avoid the pain, darkness, and sorrow of the hopeless life (Eccl 5:10-20)!

Evil in this proverb is not sin: it is trouble, without peace or pleasure. An evil life in this sense is hard, painful, and miserable. Scripture uses the word evil this way (Job 2:10; Is 45:7; Amos 3:6). It is how Jacob described his troubled life (Gen 47:9). His brother and father-in-law hated him; his four wives were envious; he had a perpetual limp; his sons were liars, incestuous, envious, and murderers; his favorite wife died in childbirth; and his favorite son was supposedly killed by wild beasts.

Afflictions - trouble, difficulties, and disappointments - occur in a sinful world. David said the righteous have many afflictions, though the Lord does deliver them (Ps 34:19). How you look at them makes all the difference in the world! Do you think about them, talk about them, focus on them, and imagine a few extra? Do you let the devil drag your spirit down to the hell of depression and a defeated life? God forbid!

If we totally let down our guard and choose the negative outlook of a discontented complainer, we can list a thousand "afflictions." But 99% of them are insignificant and of no consequence, and the other 1% is totally overshadowed by numberless blessings God has graciously given. Don't let down your guard! Lift up your heart!

You know complainers and murmurers. When you see them, they have a new negative story, begging for your pity. They have a hangnail; they need more sleep; they're short on money; their car needs brakes; they had to work overtime; their wife is nagging about a leaking roof; their husband works too many hours; she spent too much on groceries; he spent too much on hunting; the kids have colds; the government doesn't use tax money right; no one in the church loves them; their parents haven't sent money in two years; their ungrateful brother wants help moving a piano; their sister is always complaining; they're overweight; they have gas; you forgot their birthday; and the Lord ... doesn't answer prayer fast enough!

All the days of the afflicted are evil! They think they are modern Jobs; but they never had his character, cannot even imagine his trials, and wouldn't know worship from warship. If you ask these miscreants what they are thankful for, they develop instant lockjaw! What profanity! These wretches should comfort the earth by hanging themselves! How does God deal with such people? He destroys them (I Cor 10:10; Deut 28:47-48)! Thank you, Lord!

All the bad events that happen to the righteous are for only four reasons: the glory of God, the perfection of their faith, the chastening of their sins, or the consequences of their foolishness. Wisely considered, these are all good events! God's glory should be our constant goal; growth in faith is a great blessing; chastening is proof of God's love, and for our profit; and consequences drive us to wisdom. Thank you, Lord.

A wise Christian only has good events in his life! Lift up your heart! Paul took pleasure in afflictions (II Cor 12:9-10); and James told us to count them all joy (Jas 1:2-4)! Paul told us to rejoice always (Phil 4:4; I Thess 5:16), so the Hebrew Christians rejoiced in losing their assets (Heb 10:34)! Can you glory in tribulations (Rom 5:3-5)?

The man with a merry heart hardly knows he has afflictions. All he sees is God's glory, the blessings of life, and the hope of heaven! He can and will list a thousand things for which he is undeserving and very thankful! Oh, Lord, let us ever be such men!

If your priorities are right, saltines and spinach are a two-course feast (15:17; 17:1)! If you look to eternity's weight of glory, earth's afflictions grow strangely light (II Cor 4:17-18)! Godliness with contentment is great gain, regardless of afflictions (I Tim 6:6)! If you know Jesus Christ, what else in the world could you want (Heb 13:5; Ps 73:25-26)! If you are contented, you can be full without a meal (Phil 4:11-13)! If Jesus is having supper with you, who cares what's on the table (Rev 3:20)!

Consider the six-fold economic affliction Habakkuk described (Hab 3:17-19). Here is total financial ruin, but the response of a merry heart says, "Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments."

Turn on the music, and dance! And you better dance with light feet, like the female deer! The LORD is going to bring you back to your high places. Believe it, before you faint in the hopelessness of afflictions (Ps 27:13-14)!

Christian, if you are guilty of a negative outlook, repent of your wickedness, accept the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, and choose to be joyful in the Lord and thankful for your blessings. Your pastor will happily give you ten things for which you can give thanks. Joy is a command, not an option; it is a duty, not a circumstance.

God expects us to have glad hearts for the abundance of all things, and no people or nation has even imagined the prosperity we enjoy every day (Deut 28:47). To whom much is given, much shall be required, which brings our duty of choosing a merry heart to a very high priority! The Spirit is warning us.

Jesus Christ came to give His children the abundant life (John 10:10)! This life is full of joy in fellowship with the Father and the Son (I John 1:3-4)! How can you have it? Simple! Walk in the light of His holiness and confess your sins (I John 1:5-10)! The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom 14:17)! Hope is the life-spring of joy, and believing saints are full of hope (II Thess 2:16; I Pet 1:3).

Take no thought for tomorrow; He will take care of it (Matt 6:34). Don't be anxious, worried, or fearful. Turn your needs over to the Lord, with thanksgiving, and He will give you peace that passes human understanding (Phil 4:6-7). Your life is good now, if you are looking in the right direction; and it is only going to get better!

Dear reader, what is wrong in your life? Don't answer that question! Don't even think about it (other than sober and limited self-examination in the Spirit). Look at the infinite God, Who loves you as His dearly adopted child, and Who is preparing a new home for you to move to very soon! Count your blessings! Name them one by one!

What should we do with the murmurers, who want to live an afflicted life full of misery? If they are temporarily cast down or weak in the faith, we comfort and support them; but if they are unruly in their complaining, we warn and rebuke them (I Thess 5:14). If they are our children, we crush their ungrateful and negative spirits (Eph 6:4). And though we might be basking in prosperity ourselves, we rejoice with trembling, for our prosperity may not continue (Ps 2:11).

For the very few who have found the full riches of Jesus Christ, they partake of a continual feast in this life that will extend uninterrupted into eternal glory and the marriage supper of the Lamb. The water at His banquet quenches thirst forever; the bread provides eternal life; and His blood is everlasting nourishment. Seek Him today, Christian reader, and do not end your search until you find Him. There you will find fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore (Ps 16:11).

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