“And now I exhort you to be of good cheer...Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer...Then were they all of good cheer…”
(Acts 27:22,25,36)
In my (almost) eighty-six years of life I have never met a more cheerful individual than my late wife, Salle Jo. No matter how dire the circumstances may have been, she was the eternal optimist, this stemming from the fact of the cheerful spirit she possessed.
The setting of the text quoted above was a storm in which Paul exhorted all on board the ship to be cheerful. A storm so bad that the long time professional mariners believed there was no hope for survival. The doctor/historian Luke wrote, “...all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.” (Acts 27:20) But Paul had been alone with God and was filled with cheer in spite of how bleak things looked.
The secret of cheerfulness during those turbulent times in life is a consciousness of the presence of Jesus and believing His Word. In the midst of a violent storm He told His disciples, “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.” (Matt. 14:27) He told them on another occasion that no matter what they may suffer in this world to be of good cheer; for, said He, “I have overcome the world.” And that brings peace along with the cheerfulness!
“Who can cheer the heart like Jesus,
By His presence all divine?
True and tender, pure and precious,
O how blest to call Him mine!”
An Old Disciple
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