Joyce Meyer - He Rewards Those Who Are Diligent - Part 1

All right. We've been working hard on one scripture, Hebrews 11:6. "Without faith, it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to God". So, what pleases God? We always want to please God. We want to believe that he's pleased with us. And we go through all of our different works of the flesh trying to please God with our things that we do, and so on and so forth. But really what he wants is he wants us to believe in him. Matter of fact, there's really four things here that it tells us that he wants. He wants our faith. He wants us to believe that he exists. That he is. That everywhere we go, God is. We're never, ever, ever without God.

I want you to remember that. In your loneliest hour of life, God is right there. Why doesn't he always let us feel his presence? Because if he did that, we would begin to rely on our feelings instead of our faith. And so many times, God won't let us feel that he's there. He won't let us see anything that he's doing because he wants us to have faith. Faith is very important. "Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen". What we have faith for, we don't see, but the faith replaces the seeing. And we see it, but we see it in the spirit. We don't see it in the natural, but in the spirit.

See, there are things that I'm telling you I have never seen Jesus, but he is just as real to me as if I had seen him. And I didn't see the empty tomb, but I know that I know, that I know, that I know, that Jesus died on that cross, and that death couldn't hold him, that he came out of that tomb. I believe that with all my heart. Matter of fact, you realize that we're basing our whole life on something that we've never seen. And I think sometimes about people who don't believe, and they might think that you're foolish for believing something you can't see. But here's the thing I've come to, if perchance I was wrong, at least I didn't lose anything. I still had a nice life. But if they're wrong, they're in big trouble. So, I think if I was going to go one way or the other, I would go with believing that this is true.

So, there's a lot of things, you know, I don't. There's a lot of things we don't understand, but we still believe them. And yet it seems like with God, we always want to understand everything. We want God to give us an explanation for everything. That doesn't seem to make any sense. Well, you know, I don't understand gravity, but I'm enjoying it right now. I don't understand electricity and don't know how it works, but I sure miss mine when it goes off in the house. And so, it's amazing how many things that we believe that we've never seen and that we don't understand. But when it comes to God, sometimes we get off in our head and we want to understand everything. And I know that there may be things going on in your lives or has in the past or will in the future that you just do not understand.

And I just wanna tell ya, I believe one of the secrets of peace is to just not ask so many questions. Amen? "Why, God, why"? "When, God, when"? Well, "In due time". "What is that"? We don't know what that is. At the appointed time. "When is that"? I don't know. "When is that"? It still doesn't tell us anything. You know, it seemed like when I was waiting for my dream of being in ministry to come to pass, I'd always get that word from somebody, "Be not weary in well doing: for in due season you shall reap, if you faint not". And that would excite me and comfort me for a while, and then I realized one day I still didn't know anything. I didn't know what due sea... You know what due season is? Due season is when God knows that you're ready, not when you think you're ready. Not when you think you're ready, but when God knows that you're ready. And at the appointed time, at the due time, God will come through for you. And chances are, he'll do something even much better than what you were believing for. Amen?

"Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And whoever would come near to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder". We kind of ended up with that in the last session. And to me that's very exciting. I love to teach people about God being a rewarder and about the rewards that come in our life. You know, when you work hard all week or maybe you get paid every two weeks, you look forward to payday, don't you? You've worked and you're tired and that payday perks you up. Well, we're gonna have a payday from God, too. And we're not working and serving God and trying to please God to get a payday. Matter of fact, if that's your motive is to get one, you won't have one. But if you just love God, you believe what the word says, and you just stay diligent, we're gonna talk about this afternoon because that's a very important part of this. It says that, "He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek him [out]".

Now, first thing you gotta notice is, it says, "We are to diligently seek him". It didn't say we were to seek something we want. We are to seek him. One of the biggest changes for me in my life was when I realized that my job as a believer wasn't to seek God to get him to give me everything I wanted, but to seek him just because of him. You know, we need to seek God for who he is, not what we want him to do for us. That's so important. I don't even know how to tell you how important that is. And a lot of times as baby Christians, we do come into our walk with God many times because we're having problems, we're hurting, and we've tried everything else and nothing's worked, so we go to God. But we initially go because we want him to fix this thing that's gone wrong in our life. And then if nobody straightens that out for us, we can just keep going that way. And you'll have a frustrating walk with God because you'll never advance beyond that baby stage.

And God loves to do things for us. He loves to give us things. But that's not, he doesn't want us just to seek him for stuff. He wants us to seek his presence, P-R-E-S-E-N-C-E, not his presents, P-R-E-S-E-N-T-S. Amen? And you should try sometime, spending about six months not asking God for one material thing and only just ask God for more of him. It's challenging. God had me do that one time. I came across Psalm 27:4, "One thing have I asked and that will I seek after". Hold up one finger. Okay. How many things are you seeking? "One thing have I asked and that will I seek after. That I might behold your beauty and live in your presence all the days of my life". Well, I have to be honest and tell you that I was a minister, but that was not what I was seeking. I'm being honest with you: I was seeking what I wanted God to do for me.

And I think that everybody goes through that phase. I don't think there's any Christian who doesn't go through that phase. We start out wanting God to do all this stuff for us. And as long as you're in that stage, you'll always be dissatisfied. You're always going to have this level of dissatisfaction in your life and you're not even going to know what it is you're missing, but you just won't feel content, you won't feel satisfied. So, you end up chasing this thing and that thing and some other thing and some other thing. And then even when you get it, you're still not satisfied. And you can't figure out what's wrong. Well, the thing that's wrong is, is that no thing, material thing, is ever going to satisfy you. Do you understand that? No matter how far up you climb the ladder of success. No matter how wealthy you are. Matter of fact, some of the most miserable people on the face of the earth are some of the wealthiest people. Some of the most miserable are the most famous.

Now, all we have to do is study their lives, not all of them, of course, but many people that are very famous and well-known are also some of the ones that end up with very tragic situations in their lives. And so, sometimes, the more you have, the more miserable you become. But what satisfies you is seeking God's presence. And when you seek him and you want him for him, not for what he can do for you, then guess what? He starts giving you the other things. Matthew 6:33 says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all of these other things will be added unto you". Seek God and he'll add whatever it is he thinks is right for you. If we seek him with our whole heart, he'll give us things. But we chase the things and then we end up not having the things or the relationship with God that we want.

And I'm not saying that that will keep you out of heaven, but I am saying it'll keep you miserable. You won't ever really be, see, contentment, Timothy said, "Contentment with Godliness is of great gain". And the apostle Paul said, "I've learned how to be content". And I'm always blessed by the fact that he says he learned it. And I think we all have to learn it. He said, "I've learned how to be content, whether I'm abased and don't have very much, or whether I'm abounding and I have an overflow. I've learned how to be content". And I think that we all have to learn this lesson, that our joy is not in stuff. It's in a close, intimate relationship with God. And so, at that time in my life when God was trying to get me turned around right and get this straight, he told me he didn't want me to pray for anything, until he gave me permission to, except more of him. Whoo.

Well, you know, I'd forget and I'd start to pray and I'd start to ask God for something and then I would just come like, "Oh. Well, never mind God, I just need more of you". How many of you agree, really, that is what we need? Because you see, no matter what kind of problem you have, if you have enough of God's presence in your life that problem's not gonna make one bit of difference to you. And so, you know, if you're single and you've been wanting to get married and wanting to get married and wanting to get married, and that's all you pray about all the time, let me tell you, just stop it. If you want to, you can pray one last prayer and say, "God, I'm asking you one final time and I'm not ever asking you again. If you want me to get married, you give me the right person. If you don't, I'm gonna be happy with you". Amen? Or whatever the case may be.

Maybe there are some certain position you want at your job. You want one of those offices with your name on the door, and that plaque on your desk, private parking place with your name on it outside. We think all that stuff's gonna make us happy and make us feel important. But really, even when you get it, there's still a dissatisfaction there. And we wonder, "What in the world is wrong"? Has anybody been through what I'm talking about? Like, you know, I started wonderin', "What is my deal? I mean, I've a good husband, I've got good kids. We don't have any money problems. I've got a ministry that's growing. Why am I still so unhappy"? Well, there was a couple of things God told me, one was that I had things backwards, I was seeking stuff and not him. And the other one was God told me I just wasn't happy because I was selfish. "Thank you, Lord. That's just what I was hoping to hear". But you see that's another thing that will make you very, very, very unhappy is just to be selfish and always wanting what you want, not caring about other people.

God did not create us for in reach. He created us for outreach. He wants us to be letting what he gives us flow through us to other people. So, he says her, and it's important and i, probably most people miss that part of this scripture that he wants us to know that, "He is the rewarder those who earnestly and diligent seek him [out]". So, if you wanna see God's reward in your life, quit chasing stuff and chase God. Amen? Now, I'm a very firm believer in spending time with God as soon as you get up in the morning. And I know a lot of people say, "Well, I'm not a morning person". Or "I've got seven kids, I can't do that". You know, I don't care who you are even if it's 3 minutes, you can go hide in the bathroom and say, "Good morning" to God. Amen?

My life is arranged to where I can do whatever I want to in the morning. At least most days, sometimes when I'm traveling, I can't spend as much time as I'd like. But I spend the first part of my morning seeking God. And for me that means different things. I don't have a big plan, I'm not all tied up in knots about reading so many chapters of the Bible every day and praying for so long. I just kind of enjoy God in the mornings. And I talk to him, and I write in my journal, and I read a few chapters in the Bible. And some days I don't read the Bible at all. Can you believe that? Some days you might want to read a Joyce Meyer book, I don't know. And I find the less laws I lay on myself about what I have to do, the more I enjoy that time. See, a lot of times you get too many rules and regulations for yourself, about what you think you have to do in spending time with God, and so it becomes a burden and you enjoy it less and less and less.

It doesn't matter, some mornings you might just sit there and look out the window and just tell the Lord you love him 25 times. Just kind of chill about, "What do you want me to do God? What do you want me to do"? Just enjoy God. And he tells us to do that diligently. Diligently is an important word, and it's attached to many promises in the Word of God. There are many, many things in the Bible that says that they will come to us if we are diligent. And diligent means to keep doing it over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over. You never quit. I will seek God as long as I'm alive. Because we're never gonna have too much of God in our life. I will always spend time in the word because, I learn new things out of the word all the time, all the time. Diligence affects our finances. The Bible has a lot of things to say about how diligence affects our finances.

And let me tell you first what the word diligent means, because you may not like it. It means, "Steady application in business and a constant effort or exertion to accomplish what is undertaken". So, if you've undertaken to do something, there's going to be a steady effort that you're going to need to make and a constant exertion toward that thing. Ecclesiastes says, "A dream comes to pass with much business and painful effort". And I wouldn't even begin to know how to tell you what it's taken these 45 years to get from the mess that I was to where I am now. We have angel music playing. I mean, after being abused for that many years and then marrying the first guy that came along because I thought nobody would ever want me. And then him running around with other people, other women.

And I mean, I was a mess. I just, I didn't know how to have a relationship with anybody. I didn't know how to receive any kind of love. I didn't even really know what it was. And even when Dave and I got married and he was so loving and he tried to love me, but I didn't know how to receive love because anybody that had ever told me they loved me, they ended up hurting me. So, then, God calls me into ministry. And i, for the life of me, I don't know what he wanted with me because I was certainly a big mess. But I think because I have a natural diligence, I've always been a hard worker and I think God knew that if he gave me something to do, I'd go after it like a dog with a bone. And I mean, when God calls you to do something, he puts a desire in you, and you can't get rid of it even if you want to. Amen?

So, I worked so hard and a lot of that was stuff I didn't need to do because I was trying to change myself and I was trying to make my ministry grow, and I, I, I, I. And I had to learn all these lessons that I teach you before I could teach 'em. And it was a lot of hard work and a lot of not giving up and a lot of going through a lot of things. But now, I mean, my walk with God is easier now than it's ever been in my whole life, because to be honest, the more you go through, the easier it gets. You may not think it's that way, but it is. You're going through hard things and you think they're going to kill you, but really, they're setting you free. Amen?

Proverbs 21:5 says, "The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty". So, we're in a hurry about everything and God's in a hurry about nothing. We always want God to hurry up. And I'll just tell you that, most everything takes a lot longer than you thought it would. Amen? And even some of you that maybe are praying you want to get married, well, maybe God's not giving you anybody yet because to be honest, you're not ready to be married yet. Maybe you got some stuff that needs to get straightened out in you, before you get somebody else that's messed up and you just mess each other up. Amen?

'Cause you know, people that are messed up usually marry other people that are messed up and then they give each other trouble. So, we need to slow down. I'm just going to tell you ahead of time, whatever it is that you are hoping that God will do for you someday, the first thing you gotta do is get to know him, forget the thing, and get to know him, and then, when the time is right, God will give it to you. But it is going to take longer than you think. And if you're not ready to be diligent, then you might as well just forget it, now.