Welcome to the feminine podcast. This is Nancy Wilson. Thanks so much for joining me today.

The topic today is just one of the many principles from Proverbs and it's

Proverbs 1722. A merry heart doeth

good the medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

All right, first, what is a merry heart?

Well, it's not giddy and silly, but it is a heart that's full of cheerfulness, happiness, gladness and our

hearts will always be full of something so we might as well learn how to make a choice about that. Jesus

said in Luke 645 a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth

forth that which is good and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil,

for of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. So whatever is in our hearts is going to come out our mouths and whatever's in our hearts are going to be what we're meditating on throughout the day. Now a heart that is

Mary will work like good medicine. That's what this proverb says, but a broken

spirit will have the opposite effect. It will dry up your bones and

drain you of your strength to press on. And a broken spirit is discouraged, defeated,

ready to give up. And that's what it's meditating on all the time.

And the last thing a broken spirit wants to do is to be cheerful. And yet by God's grace that is the very thing that is needed.

This is counterintuitive like many of God's commands are. It's not what our feelings naturally gravitate to. For instance, in James 1, 2 through 8, that whole section, he says,

my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing

of your faith produces patience and let patients have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.

All right, counting at joy when you're in trials.

In Romans 5, 3 through 5, and not only that but we glory in tribulations.

Knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope,

now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has

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