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 make known to me the path of life. Abundance of joys are in Your presence, eternal pleasures at Your right hand.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with a song of joy. Then they said among the nations, “Adonai has done great things for them.”
The Torah of Adonai is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of Adonai is trustworthy, making the simple wise.
Adonai is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts in Him, and I was helped. Therefore my heart leaps for joy, and I will praise Him with my song.
Rejoice always,pray constantly,in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Messiah Yeshua.
For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is vapor.
These things I remember as I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng, walking with them to the House of God, with a voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a festival.
As smoke is blown away, may You blow them away. As wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God.
Satisfy us in the morning with Your love, so we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
O come, let us sing for joy to Adonai. Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.For forty years I loathed that generation. So I said: ‘It is a people whose heart goes astray, who do not know My ways.’Therefore I swore in My anger, ‘They shall never enter into My rest.’”Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to Him with songs.
Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart.Rejoice in Adonai, you righteous ones, and praise His holy Name.
Those who sow in tears will reap with a song of joy.Whoever keeps going out weeping, carrying his bag of seed, will surely come back with a song of joy, carrying his sheaves.
A Song of Ascents. Happy is everyone in awe of Adonai, who walks in His ways,for you will eat the labor of your hands. You will be blessed and it will be good for you.
For to the one who pleases Him, He gives wisdom, knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and accumulating wealth to give it to one who pleases God. This also is only vapor and striving after the wind.
I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy themselves in their lifetime.Also when anyone eats and drinks, and finds satisfaction in all of his labor, it is the gift of God.
So I perceived that nothing is better than for man to enjoy his works, because that is his portion. For who can bring him back to see what will be in the future?
For he will not often consider the days of his life, since God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.
In a time of prosperity, prosper! But in a time of adversity, consider: God has made one as well as the other. Therefore man cannot discover anything about his future.
Go! Eat your bread with gladness and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already accepted your deeds.
Behold, God is my salvation! I will trust and will not be afraid. For the Lord Adonai is my strength and my song. He also has become my salvation.”With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
The ransomed of Adonai will return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Now the ransomed of Adonai will return, and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy will be upon their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
“Yes, you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth before you singing, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands!
to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of Adonai, that He may be glorified.
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating. For behold, I am creating Jerusalem for rejoicing, and her people for joy.Then I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people. No longer will the voice of weeping or the voice of crying be heard in her.
Your words were found, so I ate them. Your words were a delight to me and the joy of my heart. For I am called by Your Name, Adonai-Elohei-Tzva’ot.
I will fill the soul of the kohanim with fatness and My people will be satisfied with My goodness.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
Adonai your God is in your midst— a mighty Savior! He will delight over you with joy. He will quiet you with His love. He will dance for joy over you with singing.’
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great! For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
“And whenever you fast, do not become sad-faced like the hypocrites, for they neglect their faces to make their fasting evident to men. Amen, I tell you, they have their reward in full!But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,so that your fasting won’t be evident to men, but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
Just then, some people brought to Him a paralyzed man lying on a cot. And seeing their faith, Yeshua said to the paralyzed man, “Take courage, son! Your sins are forgiven.”
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful with a little, so I’ll put you in charge of much. Enter into your master’s joy!’
They quickly left the tomb, with fear yet with great joy, and ran to bring news to His disciples.
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names have been written in the heavens.”
I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one repenting sinner than over the ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.”
In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Amen, amen I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will celebrate. You will be filled with sorrow, but your sorrow will turn to joy!
So also you have sorrow now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you!
“But now I am coming to You. I say these words while I am still in the world, so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
Through Him we also have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and boast in the hope of God’s glory.Now the Torah came in so that transgression might increase. But where sin increased, grace overflowed even more—so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness, to eternal life through Messiah Yeshua our Lord.And not only that, but we also boast in suffering—knowing that suffering produces perseverance;
for the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking, but righteousness and shalom and joy in the Ruach ha-Kodesh.
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and shalom in trusting, so you may overflow with hope in the power of the Ruach ha-Kodesh.
Great is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. I have been filled with encouragement. I overflow with joy in all our troubles.
But the fruit of the Ruach is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control—against such things there is no law.
Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! To keep writing the same things to you is not troublesome for me—but for you it is a safeguard.
And the shalom of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Messiah Yeshua.
We pray that you may be strengthened with all the power that comes from His glorious might, for you to have all kinds of patience and steadfastness. With joy
Let the word of Messiah dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratitude in your hearts to God.
You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having accepted the message in much tribulation, with the joy of the Ruach ha-Kodesh.
focusing on Yeshua, the initiator and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame; and He has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,for human anger doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.So put away all moral filth and excess of evil and receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror—for once he looks at himself and goes away, he immediately forgets what sort of person he was.But the one who looks intently into the perfect Torah, the Torah that gives freedom, and continues in it, not becoming a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts—he shall be blessed in what he does.If anyone thinks he is religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is futile.Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And even though you don’t see Him now, you trust Him and are filled with a joy that is glorious beyond words,
Instead, rejoice insofar as you share in the sufferings of Messiah, so that at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice and be glad.
Declare them guilty, O God! Let them fall by their own schemes. Banish them because of their many transgressions— for they have rebelled against You.
Be glad in Adonai and rejoice, you righteous, and shout for joy, all who are upright in heart.
So I recommend enjoyment, because there is nothing better for humanity under the sun except to eat, drink and enjoy it. So this joy will accompany him in his labor all the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.
For You will break the burdensome yoke and the rod on his shoulder— the war-club of his oppressor— as in the day of Midian.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any virtue and if there is anything worthy of praise—dwell on these things.