Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad. Proverbs 12:25 KJV
Heaviness or anxiety is a real thing, yet it is very difficult to define. As we look at recent events around the world, with the raging virus, economic turmoil and moral decadence all around us, it is not difficult to imagine where the sources of anxiety or heaviness are. It would seem that anxiety is a part of the human psyche, which must have been the reason why Jesus very clearly spoke about it during the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6) when he charged his followers not to be anxious about anything. Easier said than done!
We have seen above what the many possible external causes of anxiety are, but what then is the cure to anxiety? I believe first of all, it is not to allow the events and stories of the world get into your heart. Check again what today's extract says: Heaviness IN the heart of man. As long as I do not allow the drama outside impact my inside, I will be fine. The devil tries to bulldoze through our defences and touch our hearts, because he knows that once he holds the heart, he holds the life. No wonder also that the wisest king that lived on earth, Solomon, also warned: Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life. The secret is to fill the heart up with all of God and his Word so that heaviness or anxiety has no space to fill. If there is room, the devil will find it. If there is no room now, he will keep hanging around, hoping that one day, the storms will rise up enough to get into your boat. By God's grace and help, you must not let him.
But then, when the heaviness comes and the heart is weighed down, what is the antidote or solution? Today's extract refers to 'a good word'. Did you notice that it does not refer to word in the plural, just in the singular. Pray, how does a single word make an anxious heart glad? It has to do with its source, inspiration, purpose and impact. It does not always have to be spoken by the mouth, but it could be the result of an action, maybe a quiet visit to just sit and console, it could be a quiet word of prayer that no one else hears except God, it could be just helping around the house to lift other kinds of weights around the house. There are so many ways my life can speak without the use of words, and it is also possible that God may send me to use actual words. Whatever it is that I have been sent to do, it is important that I do it as God directs and leads, so it can have the desired result. The heart is God's creation, and it is He who knows what it needs per time. So when He sends me to a life, I had better listen for His direction so I do not become a weight to the person I have been sent to help.
Guess the question then is: How's my life speaking? What is it saying? What kind of word(s) is my life producing and is it meeting the need around me? Am I an additional burden to people around me, or am I a solution to the heaviness the devil and the world are promoting? The answers to these questions will address my impact down here on earth and will speak into eternity. I better make sure my life is the right kind that God can use. His time of favour is here.
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