Proverbs 17:22 (Amp) A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Have you been in a hospital lately?  Have you noticed all the sanitizer dispensers everywhere?  Maybe there is something infection there!   A cough, sniffle or maybe something even worse might be present and the sanitizer dispensers encourage people to keep their hands clean.

Proverbs 17:22 in the KJV uses the word “merry” heart.  Webster says this is “gay and noisy; jovial’ exhilarated to laughter.”  Laugher is infection!  I read recently about a party where most of the people ended up around one particular table… and why?  Because everyone what laughing …being jovial.  Laughter is infection!  Laughter triggers your immune system, boosts energy, lowers pain & relieves stress!   Why wouldn’t people want to laugh?

Isn’t it simply amazing God knows a merry…happy …jovial heart is good medicine?  The Hebrew word can be translated joyful, merry or glad!  The 2^nd half of this verse tells us a broken spirit dries up the bones.  A broken spirit is the opposite of a jovial heart.  I like the Amplified “A happy heart is good medicine & a cheerful mind works healing….” 

I wonder how we could do it….put “happy heart and cheerful mind dispensers” all around in the places we go in life?

The reality is we are to be the dispensers of God’s goodness!  The people you and I come in contact with may be infected with a “broken spirit.”   We can dispense to them the hope we have inside, the hope of God’s goodness, His forgiveness and grace!

Prayer: Lord, I know I am infection…help it to be with a merry heart and a cheerful mind.  Sometimes I feel like I need to push the button on the dispenser and get some sanitizer for my own heart…You know how I feel and what I am going through.  Thank you for people who dispense joy, hope and happiness into my life.  Help me to sow the same into others… I know I will reap what I plant. I have decided to sow a happy heart and cheerful mind…make my life a medicine for others and for myself.  I ask this in Jesus mighty Name!

Blessings and goodness for you!

Pastor Duke