Joyce Meyer - The Fall of Joyce Meyer, Literally - Part 2
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Ginger Stache: Hi, everyone. Welcome to "Enjoying Everyday Life". We are so happy to have you with us today. Last year, Joyce went through a surgery which led to complications, and then, she fell and broke her leg. One problem after the next. The injury forced her to take a break from teaching. But, "God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose," that's what the word promises us. Well, Joyce opened up about the entire experience on the talk it out podcast to share what happened, and how the Lord was with her every moment along the way. And I think it will encourage you in whatever circumstance you may be in as well. So, come on in and join us.
Joyce Meyer: There's no point in trying to get answers to questions that only God has that he's probably not gonna tell you.
Erin Cluley: Yeah, oh, there's so much wisdom in that.
Joyce Meyer: I mean, there's so much, people, you drive yourself crazy trying to figure stuff out, you know.
Erin Cluley: Mm-hmm.
Joyce Meyer: I mean, I wrote a book during this time when I was down, it's called, "Don't overthink it". And it won't be out for a couple of years, but we just, we think about stuff and think about it, and think about it, and think about it. And we get ourselves so confused. And so, I found that just not thinking about it and just dealing with whatever I had to deal with each day.
Ginger Stache: Day by day.
Joyce Meyer: I mean, there's details to this that, you know, wouldn't be proper for me to tell on tv, but just, I mean, even like, I went through these different stages of how I could get to the bathroom. And I mean, everything from sliding out of bed on a sliding board to sliding into a wheelchair, to sliding onto the toilet, to sliding back. I mean, it was like it was an ordeal just to have to go to the bathroom. And, but I just took each thing as it came. And I slept good at night, which I was thankful for. And they brought my coffee pot up and I was thankful for that. I had my coffee every morning.
Ginger Stache: So, finding those things to be grateful for in the midst.
Joyce Meyer: I still got up like I do at home, four or five o'clock in the morning, had my time with God, and, we don't really have, we make ourselves miserable when we have trouble.
Erin Cluley: We do.
Joyce Meyer: It's not really the trouble that makes us miserable. It's the way we look at it that makes us miserable. And, you know, the devil is gonna try to take advantage of you anytime you're down. That's when he attacks. And you just have to really watch your thinking. And, you know, one really humorous thing was the last conference I did before this all happened, I prayed, I said, "God, I would love to have a three-month break". Well, the next time I ask for a three-month break, I'm going to be very specific that I don't want a broken leg.
Ginger Stache: Not that kind of a break.
Joyce Meyer: Wasn't exactly, but my family said, which may be true, they said, "That's probably the only way that you would have actually taken three months off and been still". And it has been good for me. It's...
Ginger Stache: That says a lot that you can say that.
Joyce Meyer: 'cause that's the first time, in 40 years, that I've ever been still that long. Ladies: yeah.
Erin Cluley: When you said a little bit earlier when you had all this quiet time and you would sit and be still, what struck out to me is that... Or stood out to me, was that you weren't taking that time, "Okay, well, I'm going to think about this since I have nothing else to do". It wasn't trying to be very spiritual or trying to accomplish anything. You really just sat in the stillness. And I think that's hard for us to do.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, it is.
Erin Cluley: But that's beautiful.
Joyce Meyer: "Be still and know that I am God".
Erin Cluley: Could you always feel him with you in those moments? Like, did you have crazy...
Joyce Meyer: You know, I don't get into the feeling thing. I know God's with me. So, I don't even really get into, "I feel God," or, "I don't feel God". You know, sometimes I do, most of the time I don't. But I know. And you know, knowing is a lot better than feeling. Because feelings come and go, but when you know, that you know, that you know, then you don't have to get into all that.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, that's really good. You know, I would check-in and get updates on what was going on. And I was, just to be a witness, always amazed at your attitude. I mean, it was just always positive, honest. It's not like you have to hide what's really happening.
Erin Cluley: Yeah.
Ginger Stache: But trusting God. And I remember you called me when you had the fall where you broke your leg. And you could tell, obviously, this is not something that anybody wants to go through. But, you know, it was still like, "God's gonna take care of this". And, "Can you believe I hurt," my bad leg, or "Hurt my good leg"? But still, and then, even talking with your family, talking with all of your kids, they're like, they said they never saw you have a bad attitude or really downtime through the entire experience. That's God.
Joyce Meyer: And I believe, I really believe that was all the prayers that people were praying for me. I don't think we even begin to comprehend how powerful prayer is. I mean, there was, could have been millions of people praying for me.
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Erin Cluley: There were.
Joyce Meyer: And that, I think that's the only way that I could have had the attitude that I had during that time.
Ginger Stache: And if I can say this completely out of love, it's not because you're the most patient person in the world, naturally.
Joyce Meyer: I'm glad you said that in love.
Ginger Stache: Because I would say it about myself, and I have a story that goes along with it.
Joyce Meyer: No, I'm not the most patient person in the world.
Ginger Stache: So, that's when you really see God working. 'cause I had a time, several years ago, that I broke a bone in my foot and had to wear the boot for a while. And it, you know, it was not a terrible thing. It was an annoyance. And, for a while, I looked at it as an annoyance. I'd get, all I could see was that boot. Like, the ugly boot was just huge.
Joyce Meyer: I was sleeping, and it was so much fun.
Ginger Stache: Oh, my goodness, yes. And it kind of became like this representation of all that was wrong in the world.
Erin Cluley: Whoa. That was a heavy boot.
Ginger Stache: "I can no longer do the things that I like to do. I'm not even myself anymore because I can't do these things". And then you realize how messed up that whole thought process is.
Joyce Meyer: I had on pajamas for two months and you guys know how I like my clothes. I even went one day to get my nails done in my pajamas.
Erin Cluley: That is desperation for a nail appointment.
Ginger Stache: And dedication to your nails.
Joyce Meyer: That's right.
Erin Cluley: But I'll bet they were cute.
Joyce Meyer: They were. You couldn't really tell they were pajamas.
Erin Cluley: No, no.
Ginger Stache: But it is easy to let that problem become the biggest thing in our life. And God really had to come to terms with me and say, "Listen," you know, "You need to change the way that you're looking at this, or it's not going to go as well as I want it to for you". So, I had to adjust my thinking and my attitude through all of it.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, and I wanna stress again, for the viewers today and the listeners, that you've gotta watch your thinking.
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: And you know, you don't have to think whatever the devil dumps in your head. I like to say, "Don't let the devil use your mind as a garbage dump". You know, you just think on the things that you've been taught. "God is good. He loves me. This will pass". Everything comes to an end eventually. You know, there's gonna be a conclusion. I don't know exactly what it will be, but I know God loves me and whatever it is, he's gonna take care of me. And I didn't have any concern about the ministry because I know that we've got a lot of brilliant people here that keep things going. And, you know, I was still on television every day and... I didn't like canceling the conferences, but, you know, we have things in life that we don't like. Thank God I've got conferences to go back to.
Ginger Stache: What things will you do differently now, after this experience?
Joyce Meyer: Well, I hope and pray that I will be a little more careful. I can't be guaranteed because I know how I am.
Erin Cluley: It's good to have a goal though.
Joyce Meyer: But, you know, I have a goal, you know, to try to be more careful. You know, I don't know that it changed me, but I hope it slows me down a little bit, you know. I say, "I hope" because I know how I am. But I hope it does slow me down a little bit 'cause I've certainly had to go slower, you know, for a while. And it's amazing the things that we appreciate when you've been through something like that. You know, just being able to get up and walk to the bathroom. You know, 'cause I would have to wake up in the middle of the night and then after they finally let me not, I could sleep without the boot. Then when I would get up to go to the bathroom, I had to get up and put the boot on before I could go to the bathroom.
Erin Cluley: That's a lot of work.
Joyce Meyer: A lot of work. And so, there's a lot of things that i, I'm a pretty thankful person anyway, but I hope that I remember. And I think also it gives you more compassion for people that are going through things, you know. Everybody goes through stuff. There's nobody that doesn't go through stuff and that won't be the last thing that I'll go through. And that's not a negative statement, it's just a fact. In the world, you will have tribulation. But let me repeat again what I started with. You never know what's gonna happen. So, don't wait to get strong until you have a problem. Stay strong because the "Strong spirit of a man will sustain him in bodily pain and trouble".
Ginger Stache: So, how do we get there now? What are the steps we should take to be ready for whatever comes?
Joyce Meyer: Well, you know the answer. Spend time with God, regular time with God. Study the word. And I like to stress "Study" because we hear so much, "Read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible". But I really think the only way you get the most out of it is if you dig a little deeper than just a quick read. I think you need to study. And there's so many Bible studies available and we have a lot of them, you can buy 'em in bookstores. And you need to, you know, I wish that when people even like, come to my conferences and hear sermons, or even like watching the TV program, that they would write down the scriptures, and then when the program's over, just get your Bible and look them up. You know, everything has become so convenient for us, today. You know, you can ask the computer to give you a scripture and it pops right up, but I think there's something to digging through the Bible and finding it for yourself and actually, looking at it and reading it instead of always having somebody spoon feed it to you. But regular time with God, believing the word, being good to other people, I think that nothing makes the devil madder than when you're having trouble and you continue being good to other people. That just, I love Acts 10:38. It says, "See how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power, who went about doing good". And I thought, "Surely we can all do that. We can all 'went about doing good'". I mean, really, if you just get up every day and have the purpose of just being kind to people and giving people compliments and helping people wherever you can, you'll be way far ahead of where a lot of Christians are. We don't have a relationship with God just to see what all we can get. But we want to serve him. And serving him means serving people and helping them.
Erin Cluley: I love what she's saying. It makes me think of the word "Intentionality," because everything you're saying, if I'm going to prepare now, I have to do it on purpose. And I have to think about helping other people during the day, and not just wait for things to come happen to me, and just, one day, "Woe is me". But I have to, I need to leave this room on purpose and do whatever, I need to study my Bible, and I need to go where God's calling me to go on the offense, not the defense.
Ginger Stache: And make the time. Find the time. Find it. It's not gonna happen. You have to make the time.
Joyce Meyer: Right, it's an appointment.
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: Just like, you know, any appointment that you have that's really important to you, you'll keep it. And the most important appointment that we should have every day is our appointment with God. And yet, people seem to find it very easy to break that or put it off to another time. And you don't have to be legalistic about it. But in some way, shape, or form, we need to get the word in us every day. I was thinking, this morning, when I got up, Jeremiah said, "I found your words and I did eat them. And they were the joy and the rejoicing of my heart". And the Word of God is literally the food that we need for our spirit. And so, if you look at it like that, I mean, you eat breakfast because you're hungry, and you wanna be strong during the day. You know, you go very many days without eating and you start getting weak. Well, if people go very many days without feeding their spirit the word, they start getting weak in faith and weak spiritually, and then the enemy sees that and he attacks. And so, it's really very practical to look at the Word of God as the food you need to keep your spirit strong.
Ginger Stache: That's good.
Joyce Meyer: And there's so many ways to get it today. I mean, you can listen to it, you can watch it, you can, there's so many different ways. You got all the Twitters and the tweeters and the Facebook and all the different things, podcasts, and there's no excuse for anybody today not to listen to the word. You can listen when you're driving to work, you can listen when you're driving home. You know, anytime you have downtime, you can listen to the Bible on tape. There's a lot of different ways to get the word in you.
Ginger Stache: A great thing to pray too is that, that word becomes such a part of who we are that it pours out of us when we need it. Because like you're talking about being prepared, you don't know what's coming around any corner. And for that to be your go-to well is such a valuable thing. So, praying that, I've found to be really beneficial.
Joyce Meyer: This may sound strange, but it actually was good for me see that I really believe what I preach.
Erin Cluley: Yeah. I'll bet it was.
Joyce Meyer: It was just like, "Yeah, I really believe this". Because you don't really know what you believe until it's put to the test.
Ginger Stache: That's true, yeah.
Joyce Meyer: You know, no matter how much you underline in your Bible or how many seminars you go to, you really don't know what you believe until it's put to the test.
Erin Cluley: That's true.
Joyce Meyer: And so, you don't know if you're a positive person until you have a problem and then you see if you're gonna get negative or stay positive. And all I can say is I've come a long way in 40 years, 'cause I sure didn't start out that way. If this would have happened to me 40 years ago, man, you could have heard the complaining around the world. So, God's ways are the right way.
Ginger Stache: Yeah. I had a wonderful friend and mentor who was much older than I was. I was in my 20s and 30s, and she was in her 70s and 80s and beyond a little bit. And she was always very active and always doing so much, and helping people, and sharing the word. And then she got to the point in her life where she could not do those things anymore. And she was, you know, shut in. And I just remember talking to her and her saying what a difficult transition it was, but working through that, realizing that her prayer ministry would never stop. You know, she could do that no matter what was going on in her life. That God always has something for us, whatever condition we're in, whatever stage we're in. And so, just seeing her walk that out like you're talking about, because that had been her life for so long. And seeing how, yes, you know, God, he reminds us, he's consistent, he stays with us, and he helps us. We have to see what we need to do and make the choices and be that disciplined person to be able to carry it out.
Joyce Meyer: Right.
Ginger Stache: It's inspiring.
Erin Cluley: It is.
Joyce Meyer: People get so upset when things change that they don't want to change. But it's like fighting a losing battle. You know, it's like, if something has changed, then the next thing you need to do is change your mind about the change.
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: So...
Erin Cluley: 'cause it's happening.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, it's happening. Whether I want it to or not, it's happening. And so, you know, we can make a decision here at the ministry and I don't care what decision you make, not everybody's gonna like it. But if it's gonna be that way, then they have to just change their mind about the change, and say, "It'll work out," you know. "It may not be what I prefer, but it'll work out and I'm gonna have a good attitude about it". Attitude really is so important. It's just like your attitude makes you or breaks you. And it really does determine how far you go in life and how successful you are. I'd rather have somebody that's a little less intelligent with a good attitude than somebody that's really brilliant with a bad attitude working with me.
Ginger Stache: You also talked about the importance of putting on the full armor of God, that being spiritually prepared in that way. Tell us a little bit more about that and why that's so important.
Joyce Meyer: Well, it's interesting that you think about armor and, you know, we think about fighting the devil and we think it's all this... You know, you got to be really, get after him, but it's just the opposite. Peace fights the devil. You put on the shoes of peace. You put on the breastplate of righteousness knowing who you are in Christ. So, I didn't go down the route of what did I do that caused, you know, that opened the door for this to happen. Now, I did say, "God, if I did anything to open the door for this, then show me what it is". But if God doesn't show me something, I'm not going on a digging expedition trying to come up with something just, you know, so I have something to feel guilty about. We are the righteousness of God in Christ, and the Bible says "To put on that righteousness" and "To put on the shoes of peace". And so, often it's like we have all these things, but we're not wearing them. We're not, and wearing them, you know, "Put on" is an action word. Like you said, "Intentionality". It's like, I stayed who I was in Christ. I was peaceful. "Wear the helmet of salvation". And to me, that just simply means to think like a Christian. You know, don't think like somebody that doesn't have God in your life, but think, "God is with me and he's gonna help me in this". "Wield the two-edged sword," which is the Word of God. And so, I would speak the word to people. And I made sure that, you know, when people talked to me that I would tell them, "God's gonna take care of this, it's gonna be all right". And so, it really was even an opportunity to witness to other people. Ladies: yeah.
Ginger Stache: Well, it is time to walk it out. So...
Erin Cluley: Whoo, let's walk it out.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, Joyce, thank you very much for sharing about your fall.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, thank you.
Ginger Stache: We appreciate it so much. And there is so much to learn...
Erin Cluley: Absolutely.
Ginger Stache: Through other people's experiences, hopefully through our own experiences. And like you said, just to pray, "God, whatever it is you wanna show me, I've got an open heart, help me to see it". And if not, you know, if you don't get that, "I'm gonna trust you in the meantime". I don't know if you guys have seen the last season of "The chosen," but there was one scene.
Joyce Meyer: I did see the last season.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, there was one scene with one of the disciples who wanted healing. And just that conversation, may not be exactly scriptural, but that conversation was really powerful. It was: we don't always get the answer that we want, but Jesus was telling him, you know, "I can work through this for my good and for yours". That's what trust is all about. I thought that was really powerful when I saw that.
Joyce Meyer: I did not go down the road of, "Why did this happen to me"?
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: "Why, why, why"? You know, like you said, had to cancel the conferences. "Why, why"? I just, "Don't go that way. Just, I trust you".
Erin Cluley: That's really good.
Ginger Stache: Yeah. Well, we are going to, as we said, at the end of all of our podcasts, give you something to hold onto to really pray about and to write down some scriptures so that you can walk it out. I don't know what trial you're going through in your life. You know, maybe it's something physical, like Joyce has been talking about. Maybe it's something else. Maybe it's something in a relationship that is difficult. We all have those trials, like Joyce was saying. We are guaranteed that there are going to be times in life that are a little bit more difficult than others. So, here are some scriptures for you to walk it out with this time. Write them down. We're also going to have them on our website, joycemeyer.Org/talkitout with the episode. You can find them there. But Proverbs 18:14. This is a great one. It says, "The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can bear a crushed spirit"? So, it just, it goes on to talk about exactly what Joyce was saying, that you need to focus, we all do, right now, on doing the right things in Christ, knowing who you are, knowing what his word says to be ready for whatever comes. And then another one, Ephesians 6:10, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil". That devil's a wily one. So, we've got to be ready. Joyce, would you mind just praying for people as we close out today?
Joyce Meyer: No, I would love to. Father, I pray for everybody watching that is going through something. I pray that you would help them be peaceful and content, and to know that their problem does have an end and that it will end well, and that something good will come out of it. God, you're so amazing. You take bad things, and you work good out of them. And so, I pray that everybody watching would know that and have that peace that passes all understanding. And I ask it in Jesus' name, amen.