This was taken from The Real Faith for Healing by Dr. Charles S. Price, who had one of the most miraculous healing ministries in this century. The book is published by Bridge-Logos Publishers, copyright © 1997.

Some years ago I was a speaker in a camp-meeting in an area where many the people were poverty-stricken.  One night before the service, I went for a drive to get away from people so I could meditate awhile before preaching.  About five miles from the camp, I saw a man and woman with four children come out of the woods and start up the road.  They were all barefoot, and carrying their shoes—those who had them—the four youngest children did not.  I stopped my car and hailed them.  Smiling but bashful, they accepted my offer of a ride.

 They were on their way to the camp meeting.  At the gates of the camp, the father and mother and oldest child put on their shoes.  They were so grateful and humble about having been given a ride, that I managed to be at the woods to meet them every night for the rest of the camp meeting.

 After the strangeness and bashfulness wore off, every night on the way to the service they would testify and sing, and sing and testify.  Their joy was so abundant that it was a tonic to my soul.  It helped me to preach better.  From our talks, I learned that they carried their shoes to save the leather from wearing out on the concrete road, and that they were poorer than any people I had ever known, and that they lived many miles back in the mountains.  I also learned that they were richer by far than many who lived in great houses, and who had more than enough of the possessions of this fleeting world. 

 One night, toward the end of the camp, I said to the father, "Perhaps, my brother, the day will come, when the Lord will give you a better and larger home.  You know that he often prospers us temporally as well as spiritually.  The Bible says that . . ."

 The brother interrupted me.  A smile of happiness came across his face and he started singing:

 A tent or a cottage, why should I care?
They're building a Palace for me over there;
Though exiled from home, yet still I may sing,
All glory to God, I'm a child of the King.

The little folks helped him sing it, and his good wife sang it, too.  When he finished, he said, "Brother Price, you never need to tell me that I got to have a big house to make me happy.  If the Lord gives it to me, then I will thank Him, but I have something in my heart I wouldn't sell for all the money in the world.  It's the joy of the Lord."

 That's what I mean.  You cannot get up in the morning and say, "This is the day in which I will be full of joy.  I'm going to be very happy today, for I have made up my mind to have lots of joy."  Either you have it, or you don't.  The worldly person can have the synthetic joy that's the plaything of environment and the slave of circumstance.  But Christians can have imparted joy by the Lord, and have it flow through them no matter what the conditions of life are like.  Such joy isn't dependent upon surroundings, nor is it the slave of circumstances—it's the gift of God!

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