S41P6 – The joy of the Lord: healing

Pro. 17:22

A happy heart is good medicine and a joyful mind causes healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Two sisters, twins, grew up in the same home and in the same way.  In their youth, they were very close and very similar. Unfortunately, life was not always kind.  Their lives were full of ups and downs just like everyone else, but they experienced a terrible family tragedy at an early age.  As they grew older, the sisters eventually grew apart and became very different people, but there was a reason for this.  One sister was able to emerge from their hardship with joy at being able to survive with victory.  The other sister simply dwelled on their loss and never moved past it.  The difference between these two sisters is that one of them allowed joy to enter in and heal her wounds.  The other allowed her wounds to grow deeper and more painful over time.

Today’s verse tells us that joy is like a healing balm.  The joy of the Lord is the cure that comes from our great physician.  Whether it is physically, spiritually, or emotionally, God can heal us.  The question is whether we choose to allow him to do so.  When we suffer deep emotional hurts, it can be difficult to move past them.  If we dwell on the pain and withhold forgiveness, what we end up doing is making ourselves sicker and sicker.  If we concentrate on the fact that we have survived these things and give thanks to God for that area of victory, then we can choose to be joyous.  That is when our healing begins.  The joy of the Lord can mend the deepest wounds and cure that which ails us spiritually and emotionally.  It is a state of mind that we must choose, but it is available to us every day.

There are many of us who are walking around this world sick and in pain.  We live in a culture in which it is common to treat the symptom instead of the disease.  This is why someone with a headache is quick to take a pill for the pain instead of getting to the root of that pain.  If this is simply an issue of nervous system reaction, then perhaps aspirin would suffice.  If, however, the headache is indicative of a much more severe issue, there is not enough aspirin in the world to bring healing.  Our common problem is that we try to treat our emotional and spiritual illnesses by focusing on the symptom and not the cause.  Let us ask God to fill us with the joy of the Lord and heal our pain at the root.  Father, thank You for the healing power of your joy, and teach us to tap into that power daily.