The Choice Of A Strong Or Weak Spirit

The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can bear a crushed spirit? [Proverbs 18.14]

Check the definition of "endure" here. 

When we are sick or diseased is not the time to give up. It is the time for medicine but perhaps not in our conventional understanding of the word!

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. [Proverbs 17.22]

Here is the question of the day: Where or how do we get a cheerful heart? Actually, the Proverbs give numerous ways and means to a cheerful heart. Today's OYCB reading points out just a few of those.

The gist of Proverbs 17-19 (today's reading) is that we face and make good or bad choices every day. The outcome of good choices yields a cheerful heart. Bad choices, on the other hand, are what crush or break the human spirit.

We are presented the information from Proverbs then to evaluate our own lives for a strong spirit or a crushed spirit.

Here is what we need to understand: Every one of us is solely responsible for our own spirit. The choices that the Proverbs present to us are ours to make. Our spirits are either crushed or enduring based on our own choices. 

If our spirit is crushed, it is no one's fault but our own. Likewise, if our spirit is strong and enduring, it is because we have obediently chosen to do right according to wisdom. These choices are accumulative too. In other words, good or bad choices are a practice more than an event. Unfortunately, bad choices require little or no effort as selfishness is every humans' default sinful way. Good choices, in contrast, require discipline and obedience. Good choices most often look further than the present considering the ultimate outcome according to wisdom's instruction.

So strong can the human spirit be that it can endure sickness and disease. That's a big deal. That is good reason to do everything we can to strengthen our spirit by choice.

No amount of positivity and self-help can compare to the strength available in and through God's Word. In fact, most everything positivity and self-help teachings promote can be found in the Bible plus more! God has provided more than we need in His Word. Why would we even search elsewhere?

Father, may I understand that You are speaking to me through Your Word as I discipline myself to read it every day. Thank You!