Bright, positive, optimistic men make the best husbands and fathers. A gloomy, pessimistic person who cannot see the bright side of life is very difficult to live with. Who wants to hang around a person who is always down in the mouth, depressed, and negative about everything? I for one would not like to live a single day around such a person, let alone be married to one.
The children of Israel, having left the great oppression and “doom and gloom” of the slavery of Egypt, could not shake the negative mindset. It had become so ingrained into them over the years of their slavery. They were freed from their physical slave shackles, but were still mentally, emotionally, and spiritually slaves to fear and unbelief. All this negativity and unbelief eventually stopped them from entering into the Promised Land.
God did not want this complaining spirit to enter the Promised Land. This attitude of negativity would never enable them to bring down the giants that inhabited Canaan. The strongholds of Canaan could only be defeated by a people with an optimistic belief that with God nothing is impossible.
Proverbs 15:13, 15: “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. . . . All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.”
The Passion Translation says: “A cheerful heart puts a smile on your face . . . When you CHOOSE TO BE CHEERFUL, every day will bring you more and more joy and fullness.”
It’s your choice.
Be encouraged.
Colin Campbell