The power of joy cannot be overestimated in aiding one to overcome suffering. To anyone seeking healing, joy can be a real help. So often the simple reaching out for joy can be the turning point in a deep and testing experience. Joy uplifts thought and can bring relief from fear, pain, and misery.
To anyone battling with pain or unhappiness the suggestion that he express joy may evoke the rebellious retort, "Well, how can I be joyous?" But we can know that everyone has the God-given ability to realize, or become conscious of, this attribute of Soul. Spiritual joy is not found outside of oneself or in material ways and means. Joy is a spiritually mental experience. Its source is in God, divine Love, the creator of the universe and man. Therefore joy is inherent in man, the image and likeness of God, and when this fact is recognized, it can more easily be expressed.
Sometimes it takes persistent effort on one's part to claim the joy and satisfaction one is legitimately entitled to and, in truth, already possesses as the child of God. But the very fact that divine Love is man's strength and power, and is all-presence, blessing every right endeavor, will encourage and spur one on to triumph over whatever is resisting Truth. Suffering of any kind is not a material condition but a false mental state. It is healed by bringing to light the fact of man's spiritual perfection, which completely reverses the lie of mortal imperfection.
