Cutting-edge scientific research tells us that our emotions play a greater role in our physical health than any other factor. Strong emotions have the capacity to alter our physical functions by bringing about hormonal imbalance and causing our bodies to release endorphins. Other research indicates that strong emotions can also alter how the very cells in our body function.
Stress, for example, which is our emotional response to negative situations, is known to change the way the cells metabolize food, leading to diabetes and a number of life-threatening diseases. Stress also affects the hormones released into our system, which influences our metabolism, energy, and weight. This can cause us to lose our energy.
Emotions are such an important part of life that God dedicated hundreds of scriptures to their health. One of the most important things that we can ever learn about emotions, and especially feelings of happiness, is that they can be obtained regardless of external factors. They are well within our reach!
Proverbs 15:15 says, All the days of the afflicted are evil, But he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast. That word, afflicted could be translated as depressed. All the days of the depressed are chaotic, frustrating, and discouraging, but it’s the internal problem that creates the chaos, not the chaos that creates the internal problem.
Likewise, it is a merry heart that brings ultimate happiness, not some external factor. We have been programmed to believe that the external controls the internal, but that’s just the opposite of what is actually happening!
