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Proverbs 14:30; 17:22 - Understanding Emotion.

Proverbs 14:30 (NIV) A heart at peace gives 
life to the body, but envy rots the bones.  

Proverbs 14:30 (CEV) It's healthy to be 
content, but envy can eat you up.  

Proverbs 17:22 (NIV) A cheerful heart is 
good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the 
bones. 

Proverbs 17:22 (NLT) A cheerful heart is 
good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a 
persons strength. 

COMMENTARY PEARL

   The Whole Person. Long before modern 
medicine and psychology, Proverbs taught that 
emotional well-being was connected to physical health 
and well-being. Envy rots the bones but a 
cheerful heart is good medicine. Yet today 
specialization and bureaucratization mean that physician, 
psychiatrist, social worker, and minister often end up 
treating only one isolated aspect of the person, 
without consulting one another or looking at the 
person as a whole. 
   English minister Richard Baxter, even in 
the seventeenth century, knew that depression 
could be rooted in a physiological cause, 
emotional trauma, moral guilt, or spiritual warfare 
with evil forces. Baxter was not trained in 
modern science. He knew this from the Scripture in 
general and the book of Proverbs in particular. 
Godly wisdom refuses to reduce depression, for 
example, to any one cause. It does not have simply a 
chemical or simply a moral or simply a spiritual 
cause. All the dimensions of our nature are usually 
involved. It is foolish to reduce the solution to just 
"take a pill" or to just "repent." 
   Have you ever taken a too-simplistic or 
reductionistic approach to a problem that turned out to be 
complex - physical, emotional, and spiritual all at 
once? 
   Lord, as a modern person I love quick 
solutions for problems that you can access on a short 
YouTube video. But the world you've made has far 
more dimensions than anyone can imagine. Help me 
to be patient, to seek much advice, and to 
depend on you in order to make progress with my 
problems. Amen. [Gods Wisdom for Navigating Life by 
Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller] 

LINKS FOR FURTHER STUDY

Proverbs 14:30 - The Importance of Being You.

https://www.abible.com/devotions/2023/20230209-0849.html 

Proverbs 17:22 - A Cheerful Heart Is Like 
Medicine. 

https://www.abible.com/devotions/2024/20240306-0942.html 

LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT

https://abible.com/links/