Joyce Meyer - Power Thoughts - Part 1
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Well, thank you for joining me today for "Enjoying Everyday Life". And, you know, I really, really believe that the more of God's word you know, the more you will be able to enjoy your life. Today, I want to talk to you about power thoughts. You might think, "Well, what is a power thought"? Well, it's a thought that you can think that will add power to your life rather than thinking a thought that will decrease power or steal power from your life. You might even look at it in a simple way. Like if you think a positive thought, it's gonna add power to your life. If you think a negative thought, it's gonna drain power from your life.
So, let me start with a question. Have you ever gone to a doctor and told him what your symptoms were, and he examined you and then he says, "It's all in your mind"? Well, you know, that has a tendency to make us mad, but in reality, it is all in your mind. Now, that doesn't mean that the symptoms are not real. They definitely are. The pain is real. But 87% of our physical problems comes from the way we think. And we can change the way we think. A lot of times people think, "Well, I can't help what I think". And for years I made that mistake. I just thought that whatever fell in my head, that was what I had to think. And so, the devil's gonna make sure that he puts a lot of stuff in our minds that's going to steal the joy and the good life that God has planned for us. But you can do your own thinking. The Holy Spirit will begin to remind you or call your attention to the fact that you're thinking wrong things. And you can cast that thought down and you can choose another thought to think on.
Now, Proverbs 23:7 says, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he". So, if you think good things, your life is gonna be good. If you think bad things, it's gonna be bad. We become what we think. Thinking prepares us for action. What we think becomes our words. What we think affects our emotions. It affects our relationships with people. Really what we think, especially if it's something that we think repeatedly, it does affect our lives. So, how do you normally think? Do you believe the best of people or are you suspicious and your mind always goes to the negative? Do you believe that you can do anything that you need to do or are you a person that always says, "I can't do that"? "That's too hard. That's too difficult".
Well, if you're saying the wrong things, you can change it. Yes, I said, you can change it. It's amazing how much power our mind has. You can sit and just think about somebody who really hurt you and treated you unjustly. And you think about it for a little while. It'll only take about 5 minutes and pretty soon you're going to find yourself getting upset. But you can think, "I choose to forgive that person because that's what God tells me to do. And I choose to believe the best. I believe that they didn't intend to hurt me". And, you'll just stay calm and peaceful. So, why not do what's gonna make your life better, more powerful than doing what's gonna drain you of power and leave you weak and worn out and possibly even sick? "Set your mind and keep it set," the Bible says, Colossians 3:2, "And set your minds and keep them set on what is above". That just means good things, positive things, godly things. "(higher things), not things that are on the earth".
We have a wonderful privilege: we can learn to think the way God thinks. And you learn to do that by studying his word. His word is really his thoughts. And the Bible even says that God is a God who "Calls things that do not yet exist, as if they already existed". So, the wonderful thing is that if the Bible promises you something, you can start verbally claiming it and declaring that you have it before you have it. And those words actually go out into the atmosphere and help pull things out of the spiritual realm, into this natural realm where you live. Now, I know for some of you, you may be thinkin', "Lady, you are crazy". Well, it works. I've done it for years and it works. And I know one thing for sure: if you don't want to believe anything else I'm saying all you need to do is take a full day and think nothing but negative thoughts and see how you feel at the end of the day, take a full day and think positive thoughts and see how you feel at the end of the day, then you'll know that what I'm saying is accurate.
Philippians 4:8 tells us things to think on. Think on these things, "Whatever is worthy of reverence, whatever is honorable and seemly", which means right, "Whatever is just, pure, lovely, lovable, kind, winsome, gracious". In other words, as the list goes on, it's basically saying, think all good things. So, you know what? We can do it. Because God never tells us to do something that we can't do. Let me say that again. God never tells us to do something that we cannot do. You know, that was very helpful to me when I finally realized that, because a lot of times we think, "Well, I can't do that". Well, if God told you to do it, you can do it. You can do it with his grace, with his help, with his power. So, any time that you're required to do something, you should always ask God, "Help me. I know that I can do whatever you tell me to do, but I cannot do it without you".
In Romans 12, the Bible says, "Don't be conformed to this world", in other words, don't think like the world thinks. "But be transformed", or completely changed, "By the renewal of your mind". Well, we renew our mind, or we learn to think better, we learn to think right, once again, through the study of God's word. And you can study the word. Don't use the excuse, "I don't understand the Bible". There's too many helpful things now that help you understand the Bible to use that as an excuse. We have many online free Bible studies that will help you understand the Word of God. Ephesians 4:23 says, "Be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind".
So, this is an ongoing thing. It's not something that you learn one time and you never have to pay attention to again. Every day of my life there will be some time during that day when I will catch myself thinking something that is not gonna help me. It's not a good thought. It's gonna be a power draining thought. And I can immediately say, "I'm not going to think that anymore," and I can replace it with a God thought. And sometimes those wrong thoughts are a little stubborn. They'll keep comin' back and comin' back and comin' back. So, sometimes you've gotta fight the good fight of faith. You gotta cast it down and cast it down and cast it down. By the time you stick with somethin' for 30 days and you run it through your mind, you can put signs on your mirrors, you can do whatever you need to do to keep that thought in front of you. Your mind will be renewed in that area, and then you will find that you will just automatically think that way without really even havin' to try to.
So, having said all that, I'm going to start with the first power thought that I'd like to talk to you about today. And here's what it is, "I can do whatever I need to do in life through Christ who is my strength". You know, we never know what a day's gonna bring. Every storm is not in the forecast. You can get up in the morning and have your day planned and one phone call can completely change it. Sometimes we get nice surprises that are pleasant, but then other times we get things, it's like, "Oh, no! Man, I didn't want to have to deal with that today". But you can train yourself to believe that whatever comes along, you can do it through Christ. I love the way the Amplified Bible puts it. Philippians 4:13, "I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me", now, listen to this. "I'm ready for anything, equal to anything through him who infuses inner strength into me: I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency".
I love that. I don't wanna be dreading things. Thinking, "Oh, I can't do that. If that happens, I won't be able to stand it". No, train yourself to believe that you can do whatever, whatever you need to do through Christ who is my strength. I was talkin' to a friend of mine this morning who really does not like going to the dentist. Matter of fact, it's like a big thing in her life. And so, if she will just think on a regular basis, "I'm not afraid of the dentist. I don't mind going to the dentist. Going to the dentist is pleasant". That will change her experience as time goes by. I have applied this in many areas of my life, and I know that I know that I know that it works. And I do believe that I can do whatever I need to do through Christ, not through Joyce, but through Christ. And I fully believe that he will never give me anything to do that I cannot do. I mean, God is good.
Do we really think that he's going to say, "Do this," and then stand back and laugh at us because we can't? But see, even though you can do anything he tells you to do, if you don't believe you can, then you won't be able to. If you believe you can, you'll be able to. If you believe you can't, then you won't be able to. You know, Gideon was a man in the Bible that God called to do something special. But he didn't believe he could do it because he had a bad attitude about himself. He didn't believe about himself what God believed about him. Judges 6 beginning in verse 12 says, "And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, 'the Lord is with you, you mighty man of fearless courage'". That's how God saw him, a mighty man of fearless courage. "And Gideon said, 'o sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all your wondrous works of which our father told us about, saying, "Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and he's giving us into the hand of Midian"'".
Well, he said the opposite of what God said. God called him a mighty man of fearless courage, and he said, "Oh no, God, you're not doin' anything. I'm not seeing your promises come to pass. I haven't really felt your presence in a long time". Well, he was looking at everything in the natural rather than looking at it in the spirit. And if he felt that way about himself, I can guarantee you that had been coming out of his mouth for a long time. So, that's why when God called him a mighty man of fearless courage, all he did was repeat all the things in his life that were wrong. "And Gideon said, 'well, sir, if you're with us, then why have all these bad things befallen us'"? Well, how many people say that? "Well God if you're real, then why did this happen"? "Well, God, if you really love me, then why did this happen"? "Well, surely, if God were real, then this wouldn't happen"?
Well, in God's economy, we don't wait to see a manifestation of something and then believe it. We believe first in our heart, fully, wholeheartedly believe that God is good and that he is trustworthy and that he is faithful, and that what he says will come to pass. Maybe it hasn't come to pass yet, but it will. But we have to believe it. I'm realizing that more and more all the time, no matter what God wants to do for you, no matter what he wants to do for me, if I don't believe it, then I will lose it. And if you don't believe it, then you will lose it. God has a good plan for your life. Well, maybe all you've had in the past are one problem after another. But if that's been the case, and you don't understand what I'm teaching today, chances are you spend your life just waiting for the next problem to come along.
And you probably say all the time, "All I ever have is problems. All I have is problems. One thing after another, problems, problems". Well, don't say that anymore. Get up every day and say, "Something good is gonna happen to me today. God has a good plan for my life and something good is gonna happen to me. My life is gonna turn out good". What I'm telling you is the truth. And I can back it up in scripture and you are gonna feel so much better. Your joy is going to increase, your peace is going to increase. And not only that, people will enjoy being around you much more if you say good things than if you're always saying bad things. Well, finally, Gideon put God to the test, and he asked him for some signs to confirm to him that he really wanted him to do this. And God did. He gave him a sign. And then that wasn't good enough for Gideon, he wanted another sign.
And so, God was good enough to give him another sign. And I'm not gonna read the whole story because I'm really just tryin' to get a point across here today. The point is, is he finally did step out in faith and do what God told him to do. And sure enough, it worked. God is faithful and true and what he says always works. There's another example in numbers 13, and I'm just gonna tell you this story. The Israelites had been traveling through the wilderness for 40 years and God had been telling them about the Promised Land, a land called Canaan that was full of good things. And when they came close to the border of Canaan, God instructed Moses to send in 12 men to spy out the land to see if it was indeed good like he had said. Now, God already knew it was good. He didn't, you know, I'm sure he would have rather not had to prove himself to people.
And I think Moses already trusted him and knew that it was good. But some of the people had to see to believe. And so, they sent in 12 men. And when they came back out, they said, "Yes, the fruit is abundant. It's a good land". Matter of fact, they took one cluster of grapes that was so abundant that they had to put it on a pole and two men had to carry it on their shoulders. Now that's a big bunch of grapes. And so, Caleb and Joshua, the two men who were really full of faith, "Said, 'let us go up at once and possess it: we are well able to conquer it'". Ooh, I love that attitude. "I can do that. Let us go up at once and do it. God is with us. He'll make us able". But the other ten, "Said, 'we are not able'". There's always people like that, the naysayers. I say, "I can do it". And they say, "Oh, no, you can't do that".
You know, you can't listen to what other people say. You have to listen to the Word of God and what God says to you. "'we're not able because those people are stronger than us'. And so, they brought to the Israelites", the Bible says, "An evil report". Now, verse 33 is the answer. "'in there in that land, we saw the giants and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. And so, we became in their sight'". I love that. You know, it's what they thought of themselves that defeated them. And if you have a bad, weak, "I can't do it, I'm not able, I'm not gifted, I'm not talented," attitude about yourself, then you won't be able to do anything. And I promise you, you will have a lousy life. But if you begin to think like God thinks, you see, there were 12 men that went in and all 12 saw the giants, but only two of them saw God. And God is greater than any giant in your life. I said, God is greater than any giant in your life.
So, you spend 30 days thinking, "I can do whatever I need to do through Christ". And even say it out loud, "I'm strong, I'm able, I'm capable. God is living in me, and he helps me do everything that I need to do". Now, you don't have to go around saying that all day, but, you know, a few times every day when you think about it, or like I said, put but a few signs up different places. You're literally brainwashing yourself in the right way. You're washing the old junk out of your mind and you're replacing it with good stuff. "I can do whatever I need to do through Christ". And I believe that, I don't know what all's gonna happen the rest of my life. I don't know how things are gonna play out in these latter years of my life. But I believe it's going to be good and I do know that whatever God wants me to do, I will be able to do it. I said, whatever God wants you to do, you can do it. Get a new mindset.
Now, the second power thought that I'll talk to you about today is God loves me unconditionally and I've been made right with God through Jesus Christ. Wow. Ephesians 1:4 says, "Even as [in his love] he chose us, [actually picked us out for himself as his own]". I love that. God picked you out to be his own. He chose you. You are chosen. You are precious. God loves you. Don't think about all the people that don't love you. Think about the fact that God does love you and if he loves you, then you don't have to be afraid. And if he loves you, then he's gonna take care of you. And if he loves you, then you don't have to worry about things because God is on your side. Knowing, not just in your head, but deep in your spirit that God loves you is a powerful, powerful thing. We can't earn it. We can't deserve it. It's a free gift to be received or rejected.
Right now, today, you can start saying, "God loves me". You know, it took me a year to renew my mind in that area. I had been abused in my childhood and I always felt like something was wrong with me. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me"? I didn't feel right with God. I always felt guilty. Even when I wasn't guilty, I felt guilty. I always say, "If I didn't feel wrong, I didn't feel right," that was just natural for me to feel unloved and rejected and like I was always doing something wrong. And when you've thought the wrong way for a long time, it doesn't just change overnight. And so, it took a year of me studying the love of God, reading any book I could get my hands on that talked to me about God loving me, looking up every scripture I could find that said God loved me, writing them down.
Sometimes I would go and stand and look at myself in a mirror and say, "God loves you". I'd just stand there for a minute, and let it soak in, "God loves you". And you know, I don't remember exactly how long it took. I think it took somewhere around a year and all of a sudden one day that dropped from my head to my heart. And nobody's ever going to convince me that God doesn't love me. No matter what happens in my life, I know that God loves me. Thirty-two, thirty-three years ago, I had breast cancer. And, you know, that's a scary diagnosis. And we're so tempted to say, "Oh, I'm so afraid". "Well, what if I die"? "What if," you know, "I have this operation and it goes away for a while, but then it comes back"?
You know, the devil's gonna fill your head full of "What if, what if, what if". But God told me, just to keep saying over and over, "God, I trust you. I know you love me. And all things work out for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose". Now, you know, I didn't understand it. I was a woman that was teaching faith, teaching that God heals us. And here I had breast cancer, had to have a mastectomy on one side. Yes, it was a challenging time. It wasn't easy. But you know what? I've had 32 years of clear mammograms ever since. And so, God is still taking good care of me. It might have been different if I would have been saying negative things all along, but I always say, "It's never coming back. It's never coming back". Believe that God loves you and it will solve a lot of your problems.
Psalm 27:10 says, "Although my mother and father have forsaken me, the Lord will take me up and [adopt me as his own child]". It doesn't matter who on this earth doesn't love you, God does love you. And he loves you unconditionally. Allow yourself to believe that God loves you. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, such a powerful scripture, it says, "He that knew no sin", that's Jesus, "He that knew no sin became sin". He was made sin for us. "That we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ".
How wonderful it is to believe that God is not mad at you. That when you sin, you can repent and ask God to forgive you and he will instantly forgive you, remove your sins as far as the east is from the west, won't think about them anymore. God loves you. And any time you do something wrong, all you have to do is confess it to God. Talk to him about it. Tell him you're sorry, if you really are, which I would imagine you are. And it's taken care of. You don't have to spend the next 25 days being miserable. You take that thought and you think on that for the next 30 days and you meditate on that. Meditate means to roll something over and over in your mind.
Why not fall asleep at night thinking, "God loves me, and his angels are right here in this room watching over me tonight as I sleep"? Sometimes I like to lay in bed and just think about what heaven may be like. Is God gonna send an angel to get me? Is Jesus gonna come himself? I don't know. But I'm looking forward to it. I'm not afraid of death. I'm looking forward to what happens when this life is over. Thank you so much for watching us today. And I'm going to continue this tomorrow, so be sure you join us tomorrow when we'll start with power thought number three. Thank you.