A Heavy Heart and a Good Word (Proverbs 12:25)
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Proverbs 12:25
Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down,
but a good word makes him glad.
This is one of those verses that, to me at least, hits the heart right away because it's so relatable and easy to grasp. There’s no need to dig for gold here – there isn’t some deeply hidden meaning with an ox or some other botanical reference. Nah.
‘Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down,
but a good word makes him glad.’
You all know the feeling, and maybe some of you know it right now – that feeling when your heart is heavy. Like you are walking around with a backpack full of bricks. The bricks that are the pains of life, the uncertainties, the anxieties, all the things that weigh your heart down. This varies, of course, from person to person, but it could be the struggles of school, the uncertainties of the future, the anxieties that come with relationships, you name it. There are so many things that can easily wear and weigh our hearts down, but ‘a good word makes (us) glad’.
That reminds me of Proverbs 15:23, which we covered in week one this year:
‘To make an apt answer is a joy to a man,
and a word in season, how good it is!’
Encouragement from a brother or sister in the right moment is so, so sweet. It makes us glad.
But there’s a kind of word that is even more encouraging than that which can come from a friend or family member.
It’s the Good Word itself. The Word of God. This is the power that the gospel speaks – it speaks a GOOD Word.
Think of what might be weighing you down this very moment.
Is it distress over your life or your sin?
Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden; and I will give you rest.”
Is it the pressure of affliction?
How good is the word that Jesus speaks in John 16:33, ‘In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.’ Or how about Psalm 34:19, ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.’
Maybe you feel like you’re losing strength?
2 Corinthians 4:16-17 reminds us that ‘Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison..’ (Romans 8:18)
This is the Good Word. And the beauty is we could keep going and going. This is the power of the gospel. It is.
The Word of God is the best encourager.
And I hope and pray that we all would run to it and run to the Author of it again and again and again whenever our spirits are low.
The Psalmist in Psalm 119 knew the power present in the Word, saying in verse 28, ‘My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!’
May God strengthen us all according to His Word. May He do that through our own reading of it, and may we also speak it over each other.
There’s a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, where he said something to this effect in his book ‘Life Together’:
‘The Word of God is stronger in the mouth of your brother and sister than it is in your own heart’.
That’s so good. ‘The Word of God is stronger in the mouth of your brother and sister than it is in your own heart’.
May we encourage each other with the gospel and the Word of God, because it has such a deep and profound impact, oftentimes more impactful than if we just tried to encourage and strengthen ourselves in the Word.
So that said, who in your life needs to hear a word from the Good Word today?
Think of one person, in reflecting on this verse, who you think the Lord could be leading you to encourage today with the power of the Good Word.
And then why don’t you text them, call them, and share the Scripture on your heart. God’s Word never returns void, and you may find that God’s Word through the vessel of your mouth might make a brother or sister’s heart not heavy, but glad.
Let’s pray.
