Choosing to smile authentically, and even bringing a smile to someone else's face, can be a truly good thing, when the time and place are right. It's all about seeing a smile as something positive, a way to lift your own spirits and maybe even help someone else along the way.
Of course, too much of anything isn't good. There's a sweet spot between being overly serious and plastering on a fake smile. It's a balance where wisdom and joy, seriousness and a genuine smile can exist together beautifully. Everything has its time and place.
Laughter is an expression of the freedom Christ gave us through his loving sacrifice. And a heartfelt smile can be incredibly healing, especially for a hurting heart. Smiling through pain and rejoicing in your Creator – that’s what God wants for you, always.
I don't know what you're going through right now, but I want to encourage you to dry your tears, lift your head, and smile again. Because in Jesus, you have so much to be joyful about.
you’ll be able to laugh at destruction and famine. Also you won’t have to fear wild animals,
You make me know the path of life; in your presence is unbounded joy, in your right hand eternal delight.
Our mouths were full of laughter, and our tongues shouted for joy. Among the nations it was said, “Adonai has done great things for them!”
The Torah of Adonai is perfect, restoring the inner person. The instruction of Adonai is sure, making wise the thoughtless.
Adonai is my strength and shield; in him my heart trusted, and I have been helped. Therefore my heart is filled with joy, and I will sing praises to him.
Sarah said, “God has given me good reason to laugh; now everyone who hears about it will laugh with me.”
Always be joyful.Pray regularly.In everything give thanks, for this is what God wants from you who are united with the Messiah Yeshua.
For the laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns burning under a pot; this too is pointless.
I recall, as my feelings well up within me, how I’d go with the crowd to the house of God, with sounds of joy and praise from the throngs observing the festival.
Drive them away as smoke is driven away; like wax melting in the presence of a fire, let the wicked perish in the presence of God.
Come, let’s sing to Adonai! Let’s shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation!For forty years I loathed that generation; I said, ‘This is a people whose hearts go astray, they don’t understand how I do things.’Therefore I swore in my anger that they would not enter my rest.”Let’s come into his presence with thanksgiving; let’s shout for joy to him with songs of praise.
Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart.Rejoice in Adonai, you righteous; and give thanks on recalling his holiness.
Those who sow in tears will reap with cries of joy.He who goes out weeping as he carries his sack of seed will come home with cries of joy as he carries his sheaves of grain.
A song of ascents: How happy is everyone who fears Adonai, who lives by his ways.You will eat what your hands have produced; you will be happy and prosperous.
How happy the people who live in such conditions! How happy the people whose God is Adonai!
What the righteous hope for will end in joy; what the wicked expect will come to nothing.
The light of the righteous [shines] joyfully, but the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished.
For to the man who is good from [God’s] viewpoint he gives wisdom, knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of collecting and accumulating things to leave to him who is good from God’s viewpoint. This too is pointless and feeding on wind.
I know that there is nothing better for them to do than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live.Still, the fact that everyone can eat and drink and enjoy the good that results from all his work, is a gift of God.
So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person to do than take joy in his activities, that that is his allotted portion; for who can enable him to see what will happen after him?
for he will not brood over the fact that his life is short, since God keeps him occupied with what will bring him joy.
When things are going well, enjoy yourself; but when things are going badly, consider that God made the one alongside the other, so that people would learn nothing of their futures.
So go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God has already accepted your deeds.
“See! God is my salvation. I am confident and unafraid; for Yah Adonai is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation!”Then you will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation.
Those ransomed by Adonai will return and come with singing to Tziyon, on their heads will be everlasting joy. They will acquire gladness and joy, while sorrow and sighing will flee.
Those ransomed by Adonai will return and come with singing to Tziyon; on their heads will be everlasting joy. They will acquire gladness and joy, while sorrow and sighing will flee.
Yes, you will go out with joy, you will be led forth in peace. As you come, the mountains and hills will burst out into song, and all the trees in the countryside will clap their hands.
yes, provide for those in Tziyon who mourn, giving them garlands instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a cloak of praise instead of a heavy spirit, so that they will be called oaks of righteousness planted by Adonai, in which he takes pride.
So be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for look! I am making Yerushalayim a joy, and her people a delight.I will rejoice in Yerushalayim and take joy in my people. The sound of weeping will no longer be heard in it, no longer the sound of crying.
When I found your words, I devoured them; your words made me glad, they gave me joy; because, Adonai-Tzva’ot, you had me bear your name.
I will give the cohanim their fill of rich food, and my people will be satisfied with my bounty,” says Adonai.
Adonai your God is right there with you, as a mighty savior. He will rejoice over you and be glad, he will be silent in his love, he will shout over you with joy.”
Rejoice, be glad, because your reward in heaven is great — they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way.
“Now when you fast, don’t go around looking miserable, like the hypocrites. They make sour faces so that people will know they are fasting. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already!But you, when you fast, wash your face and groom yourself,so that no one will know you are fasting — except your Father, who is with you in secret. Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Some people brought him a paralyzed man lying on a mattress. When Yeshua saw their trust, he said to the paralyzed man, “Courage, son! Your sins are forgiven.”
His master said to him, ‘Excellent! You are a good and trustworthy servant. You have been faithful with a small amount, so I will put you in charge of a large amount. Come and join in your master’s happiness!’
So they left the tomb quickly, frightened yet filled with joy; and they ran to give the news to his talmidim.
“How blessed are you who are hungry! for you will be filled. “How blessed are you who are crying now! for you will laugh.
Nevertheless, don’t be glad that the spirits submit to you; be glad that your names have been recorded in heaven.”
I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who turns to God from his sins than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.
Yes, it’s true. I tell you that you will sob and mourn, and the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
So you do indeed feel grief now, but I am going to see you again. Then your hearts will be full of joy, and no one will take your joy away from you.
But now, I am coming to you; and I say these things while I am still in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.
Also through him and on the ground of our trust, we have gained access to this grace in which we stand; so let us boast about the hope of experiencing God’s glory.And the Torah came into the picture so that the offence would proliferate; but where sin proliferated, grace proliferated even more.All this happened so that just as sin ruled by means of death, so also grace might rule through causing people to be considered righteous, so that they might have eternal life, through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord.But not only that, let us also boast in our troubles; because we know that trouble produces endurance,
for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, shalom and joy in the Ruach HaKodesh.
May God, the source of hope, fill you completely with joy and shalom as you continue trusting, so that by the power of the Ruach HaKodesh you may overflow with hope.
that I am very confident in you; that I am very proud of you; that you have filled me with encouragement; and that in spite of all our troubles, I am overflowing with joy.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.
In conclusion, my brothers: rejoice in union with the Lord. It is no trouble for me to repeat what I have written you before, and for you it will be a safeguard:
Then God’s shalom, passing all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with the Messiah Yeshua.
We pray that you will be continually strengthened with all the power that comes from his glorious might; so that you will be able to persevere and be patient in any situation, joyfully
let the Word of the Messiah, in all its richness, live in you, as you teach and counsel each other in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude to God in your hearts.
You, indeed, became imitators of us and of the Lord; so that even though you were going through severe troubles, you received the Word with joy from the Ruach HaKodesh.
I am reminded of your tears, and I long to see you, so that I might be filled with joy.
looking away to the Initiator and Completer of that trusting, Yeshua — who, in exchange for obtaining the joy set before him, endured execution on a stake as a criminal, scorning the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Regard it all as joy, my brothers, when you face various kinds of temptations;for a person’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness!So rid yourselves of all vulgarity and obvious evil, and receive meekly the Word implanted in you that can save your lives.Don’t deceive yourselves by only hearing what the Word says, but do it!For whoever hears the Word but doesn’t do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror,who looks at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.But if a person looks closely into the perfect Torah, which gives freedom, and continues, becoming not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work it requires, then he will be blessed in what he does.Anyone who thinks he is religiously observant but does not control his tongue is deceiving himself, and his observance counts for nothing.The religious observance that God the Father considers pure and faultless is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being contaminated by the world.for you know that the testing of your trust produces perseverance.
Is someone among you in trouble? He should pray. Is someone feeling good? He should sing songs of praise.
Without having seen him, you love him. Without seeing him now, but trusting in him, you continue to be full of joy that is glorious beyond words.
Rather, to the extent that you share the fellowship of the Messiah’s sufferings, rejoice; so that you will rejoice even more when his Sh’khinah is revealed.
God, declare them guilty! Let them fall through their own intrigues, For their many crimes, throw them down; since they have rebelled against you.
So I recommend enjoyment — a person can do nothing better under the sun than eat, drink and enjoy himself; this is what should accompany him as he does his work for as long as God gives him to live under the sun.
For the yoke that weighed them down, the bar across their shoulders, and their driver’s goad you have broken as on the day of Midyan[’s defeat].
In conclusion, brothers, focus your thoughts on what is true, noble, righteous, pure, lovable or admirable, on some virtue or on something praiseworthy.