The Children Smiled

Scripture: Nehemiah 12:43

and on that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced because God had given them great joy, even the women and children rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.

Insights:  You may be familiar with Proverbs 17:22 which states, “A joyful heart is good medicine,” but you may not be as familiar with Proverbs 15:13 which states, “A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.”  I state that because in this forty-third verse we are told four times they people had joy or rejoiced.  When one is full of joy in the Lord, I promise you his/her face will show it.  It reminds me of the children’s song If your happy and you know it.  In all three verses the third line states, “If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it.”  You will never convince me that these women and children that rejoiced in this verse stood at attention with some stoic rock solid face with no expression of the great joy God had given them.  They were extremely exuberant in their expressions of joy.  The Apostle Paul wrote to the church of Corinth in his second letter, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? (14-16).”  Beloved, our great joy in the Lord ought to be manifest to those around us.  It ought to be heard.  It ought to be seen.  It ought to be felt.  And it ought to point them to the One who has given us this great joy, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Questions:

1. Are you one who easily smiles?
2. Do others easily see the joy of the Lord in your life?

Prayer: Father, let my life be so full of Your radiance that others recognize the difference You make in my life.  I want to perpetually be a fragrance of life to those who are saved and to those who will receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Amen.