I often look at the countenance of a friend or acquaintance before I start a conversation. Our face often gives away what is going on inside us. The Hebrew understanding of ‘the heart’ included the emotions, the mind, the conscience, and the will. 


Some people’s faces radiate love and joy while others have more sour expressions. Our face often reflects our heart. In Proverbs 15:13 we read, “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.” Even when we manage to hide our heart from those around us, God can still see it. He is interested in our heart and desires that our face reflect the love and joy we put in our heart to bring encouragement to those we encounter.


Joy comes from the heart and is not necessarily connected with our outward circumstances or appearance. In Acts 14:8-28 we read how Paul was filled with joy and making a huge difference in the world even though he faced many difficulties. Paul was conducting the first deliberate evangelistic campaign into the Gentile world. Outwardly, the odds were stacked against him in that his unimpressive appearance could tend to cause people not to listen to his words much less be led to Christianity. A second-century document described him as ‘a man of little stature, thin haired upon the head, crooked in the legs, of good state of body, with eyebrows joining, and nose somewhat hooked, full of grace: for sometimes he appeared as a man, and sometimes he had the face of an angel.’ Besides suffering from some physical illness, Paul’s body likely had been battered and bruised by all the physical persecution he had suffered.
Despite all his physical suffering, Paul’s heart was full of joy and God worked through him. This heartfelt joy is one of a variety of different kinds of hearts we see in the Acts 14 passage. In Lystra, Paul met a man who was ‘impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who had never walked’ (v.8).  As Paul looked at him, he saw his heart ‘and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked’ (v.v.9b-10).


Upon seeing the man healed, the crowd began treating Paul and Barnabas as gods. However, Paul and Barnabas pushed back vehemently saying, “we are also men of like passion with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein” (v.15). The hearts of the crowd were fickle, however, and were persuaded by certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium to discredit Paul’s teaching and then attempted to stone him to death. Paul later returned to this same region to strengthen and encourage the disciples to persevere even in the face of adversity.


Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God will inevitably go through hard times. Jesus did not come to make life easy; He came to make people great. God can use us greatly in spite of our weaknesses and mistakes when our hearts are turned toward him. As we boldly share our faith with others may our countenance reflect a heart full of joy because of Jesus’ saving grace, even in difficult circumstances.