Joyce Meyer - Faith Overcoming Fear - Part 3

TOPICS: Faith, Fear

Well, thank you for joining me today on "Enjoying Everyday Life". You know, we call our TV program that because I believe with all my heart that God does want you to enjoy every single day of your life. But, you know, sometimes, when we're having problems and difficulties, we think it wouldn't even be right to enjoy ourselves while we have a problem. But I've got some good news for you, today. God wants you to enjoy yourself and trust that he's taking care of your problem. Well, you know, when we have a problem, we pray, and we ask God to help us.

One of the things that we have to deal with is the waiting. So, I've called this little teaching today, "How long will I have to wait"? And I'm sure that there's people watching that you've said that to the Lord, possibly even this morning, "God, how long am I gonna have to wait"? Well, you know what? God knows, but he's probably not going to tell you. He wants you to trust him all the way up to the very last second. You remember, Paul was in prison, and they were still singing at midnight. Sometimes, God doesn't come through till that midnight hour. Hang on to your faith and don't quit and give up.

Mark 11:24: "For this reason I'm telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe, (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will get it". Boy, I've gotten so much out of that scripture. He says, you know, in the world we say, "Well, I'll believe it if I see it". But in God's kingdom economy, we have to believe before we get it. We believe before there's any evidence because faith is our evidence. We believe in our heart that it's ours because we believe the promises of God. We live based on the Word of God and the thing that God has promised, rather than what we see. And the Bible says that we "Walk by faith, not by sight".

Well, when you're trying to walk by faith, Satan is going to come against you with fear. I can promise you that. And one of the things that, I mean, if we ask and we got it right away, then there would be no problem. But it says you ask, you believe that you have received it, in the spiritual realm, you believe it's on its way. "I believe it's mine. It's on its way". And the Bible says, "And you will get it". The only thing the scripture doesn't tell us is when we're gonna get it. You know, there's a beginning, there's an end, but there's also a middle. And many of you watching, right now, you're in the middle. You're in the middle of, you've prayed, you've asked God, you've believed, and now, nothing's happening. And you're just waiting, and waiting, and waiting. And that's the testing time, isn't it? That's when we either give up and let fear overtake us, or we stay in faith.

And we say, "No matter how long I have to wait, God, I believe you're faithful, and that you're gonna come through and bring the answer". And you know what? God may not be early, but he's never late. He always comes through just in time. You know, Moses waited 40 years. Abraham waited 20 years. David was anointed to be king 20 years before he wore the crown. And most of those 20 years, he was hiding in caves from a mad king who kept trying to kill him. Saul was jealous of David, and he knew that David was gonna be king after him. And he was constantly trying to kill him. So here, David had this promise from God he'd been anointed to be king. And yet, now, 20 years later, he's still waiting. Waiting, waiting, and waiting. You know, when God called me into the ministry, in my heart, I heard him say, "You're gonna go all over the world and teach my word".

Well, you know, I was a young believer. I didn't know about all this waiting stuff. And I just thought, "Well, it'll happen tomorrow". But you know what? It didn't happen tomorrow, and didn't happen the next day, or the next, or the next day. I had to prove myself faithful. And I taught little home Bible studies for five years. Not five days or five minutes, five years. I taught a home Bible study, every Tuesday night, in my home, to about 25 people. And then, I felt like God told me to lay that down, that he was gonna do a new thing. Well, I thought, boy, here we go. Now we're gonna go to the world. Well, for a whole year, I did absolutely nothing. I felt like God just set me up on a shelf, and I didn't know what was going on. Boy, that was a testing time for me. The devil tried to tell me I was crazy. I just made up all this stuff about being used by God and being in ministry.

And I look back now, and I know what that year was about. God was helping me gain the confidence to be myself and stop trying to be everybody else. You know, God can't do, through you, what he wants to do, through you, if you're trying to be who somebody else is. God has made you special. He's made every one of us special. And we all have different, unique gifts. And we're not even supposed to do everything the same way that everybody else does it. Do you have enough confidence to be yourself? Or you still trying to be like this friend or that friend, or this sibling or that sibling, or somebody else that you know, or some other person that you've seen do something? You have to get rid of all that and you have to be yourself.

And I can tell you, if you're gonna be yourself, you will be different than a lot of other people. It takes a lot of boldness and courage to be different. Because when you're different, people usually talk about you, and they judge you critically. People thought I was crazy because I felt like God had called me to be in ministry. You know, that was 45 years ago. Yes, I said, 45 years ago. And probably, only in the last maybe, 15 to 20 years, am I doing what I felt like God showed me that day that he put it in my heart, that I was gonna go around the world and preach the gospel. Well, today, that's the case. But I waited and I waited. And I had to be faithful. And I had to do a lot of little things. And I had to do a lot of things that I didn't even really wanna do. And boy, it was hard to hold on to that dream sometimes.

The enemy would tell me I was crazy, but God just would not let me go. And I just kept believing and kept believing and kept believing. And I saw a little progress, a little bit at a time, a little bit at a time. You know, God won't let you go under. Just about the time you think you're gonna give up. He'll do some little something that will encourage you. But I can tell you today, I don't know how long you're gonna have to wait. But I can tell you that waiting on God is better than anything else that you're ever gonna get. Because when you're waiting on God, something good is bound to happen sooner or later. God doesn't tell us what the waiting time is. He wants us just to trust him.

Don't worry about how long you're gonna have to wait. Don't occupy yourself with all of this, "Why, God, why? And when, God, when"? But just start obeying God and being a blessing everywhere you go. Do you hear what I'm telling you? You've got your faith out for something, you're trusting God. You're believing him to do something, to change something, to give you a breakthrough. You've done your part, you've prayed, you're believing that you've received, now you're waiting. You're waiting. And probably most of the people watching, right now, are people that are waiting on something. And you know what? You need to learn how to wait well, because you're gonna spend more time in your life waiting than you are receiving. Because you know what's gonna happen.

Whatever you're waiting on, right now, it will eventually come, it maybe tomorrow, it maybe five years from now, I don't know, but it will eventually come, and you'll be so happy and so relieved, and you'll be so joyous, and you'll be telling everybody how God came through for you. But you know what? It won't be very long and you're gonna put your faith out there for something else because God doesn't let us just sit still. He always wants us moving forward. So, you'll pray about something else, and you'll believe that God's working, and then you'll go into another time of waiting. So, if you cannot enjoy life while you're waiting, you're gonna miss a lot of what could be great days. And you know, if you're waiting on God, right now, maybe you're a single woman and you wanna be married so bad and you're waiting on God to bring the right man into your life.

Well, you know what? While you're waiting, serve God, be good to other people. Don't just think all the time about this man that you wanna marry. Or if you're a man, this woman that you wanna marry. "Seek first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness: and all of these other things will be added unto you". Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart". While you're waiting on God, while you're waiting on God, c'mon, I know you're waiting on God, be good to somebody else. Make somebody else happy. Put a smile on somebody else's face. And just tell God, "I'm trusting you, and I believe that your time is gonna be just right". The Bible says, "My times are in your hands," and God wants us to believe that. While you're waiting, enjoy the journey.

Hebrews 10:35 and 36: "Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it Carries a great and a glorious compensation of reward". You have a reward coming. "But you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and then receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what has been promised". You know what? If I were to read that backwards, I would say, "You're gonna get what God has promised when you have fully accomplished his will and you have developed patience and endurance". God's gonna come through for you. I want you to listen to me today. God is going to come through for you, but he wants to find you in faith.

In Luke 18:1-8, there's a story that brings this point across really good. "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not ever give up". Be constant in prayer, be steadfast in prayer. And prayer doesn't always have to be asking God for the same thing over, and over, and over. How 'bout a whole bunch of prayers of thanksgiving? "Thank you, God, that you're working on my situation. Thank you, Lord, that your time is gonna be perfect in my life. What can I do for you today, Lord? I cast my care on you. I'm not gonna worry about my problem all day, today. I wanna serve you". We don't have to just pray prayers of petition. Matter of fact, our prayers of gratitude and thanksgiving should far outweigh our prayers of petition.

And then, he told them a story. "He said: 'in a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with this plea, "Grant me justice against my adversary". And for some time, this judge refused. But finally, he said to himself, "Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, and then she won't eventually come and attack me."'" You know, I've actually said to God, sometimes, "I don't intend to give up on this. You're gonna hear me talking to you about it until my breakthrough comes. I'm gonna be like that widow. I'm not gonna leave you alone, God, until I see my breakthrough". That's the way we need to be.

"God, I'm not gonna give up". "And the Lord said, 'listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off'"? If this woman could wear out this unjust judge, and he finally gave her what she wanted, he said, "What can we expect our good God to do for those who love him and those that he loves"? "'i tell you, they will get justice and quickly'". But now, listen. "'however, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth'"? So, that's my question to you, today. No matter how long you wait, when Jesus comes back, are you gonna still be in faith?

See, I made my mind up about that. I believe God for a lot of things that I have not seen come to pass, yet. But I see them in the Bible. And if I see them in the Bible, then I'm gonna keep believing. And when Jesus comes back, I want him to find me in faith, not in doubt and unbelief. Even if I don't get what I'm believing God for until I'm in heaven, I'm going to get it, sooner or later. Because God is not a man that he should lie. And if he promised, then he's gonna come through. You know, you need to be eternity minded. You're a person that's eternal. If you're born-again, you are going to live forever. And that's not just these few years that you have here. It's eternity, forever and ever and ever.

So, even if you don't get what you want right here, trust God that you will get it. Just let him find you in faith when he comes back. Psalm 31:14 and 15, "But I trust in you, Lord: I say, 'you are my God'". Boy, I love that. "God, I trust you. 'you are my God'. My times are in your hands: deliver me from the hands of my enemies, and from those who pursue me". Do you ever think about this? You know, when God asked Noah to get in that ark and the flood was coming, do you know that he did not equip that ark with a sail nor a rudder. When Noah got in the ark, he had to give himself to the wind. Whichever way the wind blew, that's the way the ark went.

And you know, the Holy Spirit is referred to many times as wind. And so, you might say, when you're trusting God, you have to just turn it all over to the Holy Spirit, and say, "However you wanna do this, whenever you wanna do this, it's not my concern how you do it or when you do it. My only concern is, is to keep believing you, to keep trusting you". I believe that, that's the way God wants us to be. 1 Peter 5:6 says, "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he might exalt you". What is due time? Due time is the time when God knows it's right. And you know, we always all think we're ready. "Oh, God, I'm ready. I'm ready". But you know what? When you're really ready, when the time is really right, then it will happen. Because God is never wrong about what he does, and he's never wrong about his timing.

Habakkuk, in the Bible, chapter 3 verses 1-3, he said, "Oh, I know, I've been rash to talk out plainly this way to God! I will in my thinking stand upon my post of observation and station myself on the tower or the fortress, and I will watch to see what he will say within me". So, he said, "I'm gonna be still here and I'm gonna watch, I'm gonna see what God's gonna say to me about this situation. And what answer I will make as his mouthpiece to the perplexities of my complaint against him".

He had a complaint, but you know what else he had? He had a vision. And, you know, a lot of people just have a complaint, but they don't have any kind of vision to fix it. They just want somebody else to do everything it needs to be done. "And the Lord answered me and said, 'write your vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes by may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly]. For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end fulfillment'".

Now, listen, "'it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry'", which mean waits, "'wait earnestly for it, because it will surely come: it will not be late on its appointed day'". Wow. Well, I'm gonna clap for that. I hope you're somewhere where you can clap, too. There's so many great scriptures. Proverbs 3:5 and 6 says, "Trust in Lord with all your heart, and mind, and don't lean on your own understanding". Don't try to figure out what God's doing. Just trust him that he's doing the right thing and that your breakthrough will come at the right time. "In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths".

Verse 7 says, "Don't be wise in your own eyes". And what I feel like God has shown me that, that means is don't even think you're smart enough to run your own life. You know, have you ever tried to give God advice? I have. "Well, God, you know, you could do this". "Well, God, you could do that". Well, how foolish are we to think that God needs our advice? He knows what he's doing. And he will do the right thing at the right time. You know, in acts 1:13, when the 120 were waiting in the upper room for the promise of the father, which was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, I love the Amplified Bible, it says when the 120 waited in the upper room for the promise of the father, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they didn't even know what they were waiting for.

They didn't know it was gonna be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Jesus just said to them, "Go wait in the upper room until you receive the promise of the father from on high". They didn't know what it was gonna be, but Jesus said to wait. So, they waited and in acts 1:13 it says this, and they went there to wait "Indefinitely," until the promise came. Now, that word "Indefinitely" is only in the Amplified translation. But I love that. Have you made your mind up that you're gonna wait indefinitely? Or have you tried to put some kind of a time limit on God?

Have you tried to say, "Well, God, if you don't come through in the next week, I don't think I can stand this anymore"? "If you don't come through this month, God, I'm gonna quit and give up". No, don't talk to God like that. He's to be respected and revered. And we need to say to him, "God, I don't understand what you're doing in my life, but I know you do. And I know that no matter what, I think that your ways are right". His ways are above our ways. His thoughts are above our thoughts. And you know what? No matter how upset you get, God's not gonna change his mind. You know what? If you don't like mystery you're not going to like hanging out with God.

I love mysteries. I love to watch mysteries. I think that's part of the excitement of life, is that we don't know everything, and we have to wait. And the Bible talks about the mysteries of God. It says, "The mystery of the ages is Christ in you, the hope of glory". Well, think about that. How mysterious is that? That God comes to live in us? When you're born-again, God comes to live on the inside of your spirit. You become the home, the house of God. Who can figure that out? Why in the world would God wanna live in somebody like me or somebody like you? But they say it's "The mystery of the ages, Christ in you, the hope of glory". We can't understand God. His ways are past finding out. But God is good.

Oh, let me tell you today, if you have not made your mind up about it yet, God is good. And he is good always, all the time. And whatever God does in your life, it will be the best thing that you could ever have. Let me tell you something. Your worst day with Jesus will be better than your best day ever was without him. Trust God. Believe, you're gonna be happier when you believe. When you're full of doubt and questions and you're always trying to figure something out, it's just gonna make you miserable. You know why? All your reasoning is not gonna get you an answer. There are many things that are hidden in God, and he will reveal them at the exact right time. Isaiah 30:18, I love this scripture, in the Amplified Bible. "Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you", and that word gracious means good.

So, let me read it like that, therefore, the Lord waits to be good to you, "And therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice", that means he always makes wrong things right, "Blessed are all those who wait for him". Well, no one enjoys waiting on anything. We don't like to wait in the grocery store. We don't like to wait in the doctor's office. We don't like to wait in traffic. We don't like to wait for our prayers to be answered. But everyone does wait. How we wait is the key to whether or not we can be happy during the waiting. Here's how you can be happy. You wait in hope. You wait expecting something good to happen at any moment. You know what? Where I'm at right now, teaching, it's almost one o'clock in the afternoon, and I don't know what's gonna happen the rest of the day, but I'm expecting good things.

You say, "Well, Joyce, what if you expect something good and you have a problem, or some trouble comes along"? Well, then, I'm gonna expect God to take care of that. I've had enough of doubt, and unbelief, and misery, and worry, and fear. I've lived long enough to be done with all that. Even if it doesn't make any sense to my mind, I am going to believe God. Because I believe that he is not a man that he would lie. God will come through for you. I'm trying to build your faith up today. Now, listen to this. If you wanna make your wait longer, you can just take matters into your own hands and try to make things happen yourself. But if you want your wait to go quicker, then you need to wait on him with the attitude, "God is gonna come through for me".

God is waiting to be good to those who are waiting for him to be good to them. That's the fullness of that scripture. God is waiting to be good to those who are waiting for him to be good to them. Are you waiting for God to do something good in your life? Thank you for being with us today. We really do love you. I know that, you know, you're seeing me, right now, I'm not seeing you, but I appreciate you listening to me teach. And we do care about you. We want every person on the whole earth to know Jesus and to have a great life. You have a great rest of the day. God bless you.