Prov 17:22 says ‘A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.’ 1 Thess 5:18 reminds us to ‘give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’ The Bible has much to say about thankfulness and gratitude, but so often, we need to be reminded of the many reasons we have to be cheerful.

The Biblical phrase ‘give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures for ever’ occurs lots of times in the Bible (see 1 Chron 16:34; 2 Chron 5:13; Ps 106:1; Ps 107:1, 8, 15; Ps 118:1, 19, 29; Ps 136:1-3, 26; Jer 33:11.) Ultimately, we can give thanks to God no matter what our circumstances or temperament, because thankfulness is rooted in who God is and what He does, and not in ourselves. We looked at 5 reasons to be cheerful:

  1. God is good (Ps 119:68) and since He never changes, His goodness is there all the time, even through heartache and misery. We know that even when heartache hits like a hurricane (‘Even If’, Kutless), that does not change God’s nature and we can hold on to all we know is true about Him. Rom 8:28 reminds us that God will bring good from every situation.
  2. God loves us unconditionally and nothing can change that! Rom 5:8 reminds us that whilst we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Not only does God love us, but we are assured nothing at all can separate us from that love. (Rom 8:38-39)
  3. God never leaves us (Heb 13:5). No matter what we go through in life, we don’t have to go through it on our own. Jesus said he would not leave us as orphans (John 14:18), but has sent His Spirit to be with us at all times. We find we have life and hope and power to do the right thing when we allow God to live in us, and so we realise we don’t have to be a Christian in our own strength; we have all of God’s strength to help us and we are never alone.
  4. God has a purpose for our lives (Jer 29:11), so our lives are not meaningless. We are called to join in God’s good work by letting other people know of His love, by becoming Christ’s ambassadors. (2 Cor 5:17-21)
  5. That purpose goes beyond our lives on earth. The fact that God raised Jesus from the dead so that He is alive for evermore means that we have a hope beyond this earthly life. Even when our bodies die, that’s not the end of the story. Even if on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where it really counts, God is making new life. (2 Cor 4:16) The fact that Jesus was raised from the dead and is now alive for evermore means we have the hope of resurrection from the dead in the future. Paul says that Jesus is the ‘firstfruits’ of all who have died. (1 Cor 15:20) Jesus’s resurrection is God’s sign to us that there is more to come, that we don’t have to be afraid of death, because Jesus has defeated death.

These reasons to be cheerful are indeed good medicine for our physical, spiritual and emotional health, and will help us to connect with people positively!

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