Joy—we all want it and we all need it, and yet in difficult circumstances we've all felt cut off from it. Joy, however, is central to Christian healing. Could it be that the very thing we feel we can't be—joyful—is what we'll find immensely helpful to our well-being?
To feel joy in the middle of troubles would be an impossibility if it were dependent on external factors. If we view joy as the product of circumstances, it often seems elusive, fleeting, tenuous, beyond our control. But consider the possibility that joy is not a product or an end result, but an inherent quality of our being. Consider it as a starting point for healing. The Bible represents God as saying: "Be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people." Isa. 65:18, 19. Couldn't this be viewed as God's own declaration that He is the creator, and that He creates His children "a joy"—that this is a given fact, the fundamental reality of being, and therefore a good starting place for healing?
Real joy is much deeper than
simply having a "stiff upper lip"
or a positive attitude.
