Joyce Meyer - Your Life is What You Make It - Part 5

Well, we're talking about "Your life is what you make it," and everybody can have a good life because God is no respecter of persons. He says he's got a good plan for you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and there's nobody left out. The promises of God are for whosoever will. But I will tell you that you have to be determined to have it because the devil will try to steal it from you. So, it's not just a matter of, "Oh, that's nice. I'm just gonna wait here for my good life". You're gonna need to study the word and resist the enemy and stand strong when you're having trials and tribulations and learn how to trust God and how to put him first in everything in your life.

And, you know, our walk with God is a journey, and really life is more about the journey than the destination. We're constantly growing. I'm still growing. You're growing. And, when Jesus comes back to get us, the Bible says that we'll all be "Changed in the twinkling of an eye". So, I like to look at it like this. Whatever's still wrong with us, and we'll be at different places, just like that, he'll fix it all and finish it up. I don't think that God is gonna be upset with anybody if they haven't fully arrived, but what he wants to see us do is continue pressing on. Continue pressing on.

Now, I believe that our attitude has a lot to do with what kind of life we have, because I do believe that God wants everybody to have a good life, and I believe everybody can have a good life no matter how many sins you've committed in the past. God's willing to forgive you. All you have to do is ask. No matter what kind of life you've had, no matter how bad it's been, it can be turned around. There's a couple of little words in the Bible that say, "But God," and I love those words. Joseph's brothers hated him, but God gave him favor. And so, I can say the devil tried to destroy my life, but God got in the middle of it. And you all have a "But God" too. No matter what's happened in the past, but God is for you. The enemy may be against you, but God is for you.

"The righteous man falls seven times and gets up again". That's all you gotta keep doing is just getting up again, and getting up again, and getting up again, and getting up again. Amen? And every bit of effort that you put into your relationship with God brings you a little bit closer to having the fullness of that life that God wants you to have, which, I believe, the Bible says, I think it's Romans 14:17, "The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink", so, it's not about things, but it is righteousness, knowing who you are in Christ, and having a great relationship with him. Do you enjoy God? Are you at peace with God? Are you comfortable with him? Do you realize that he's not mad at you?

My dad was an angry man, and he was always angry about something, and it took me a long time to get it through my head that God wasn't mad at me every time I made a mistake. He didn't stay mad for days and days like my dad did. The moment you ask God to forgive you, actually, all the forgiveness you need has already been paid for. All you need to do is repent of sin, which means to be willing to turn away from it, confess it, and God forgets it and moves it as far as the east is from the west. That's amazing! You know that? There's a scripture. It says that he "Forgives our sins for his own sake". I like that. He doesn't want anything between us, and I think that's why he tells us to forgive other people. It's not for them. It's for us. Because you know, when you're really mad at somebody, you can't be happy and enjoy your life.

So, I think every day that God gives us is a gift, and I believe he wants us to enjoy every day that we have. And some of those days, you're going to have problems, and so you have to learn how to trust God, and that's an attitude we're gonna talk about right now. Just having a trusting attitude. So, where are you putting your trust? Are you putting it in the bank? Are you putting it in your friends? Are you putting it in the government? Are you putting it in yourself? You know, you'll let yourself down. Your friends will let you down. The government will let you down. We never know what's going to happen with the banks and the financial system, but you can put your trust in the Lord. We want to start living with a trusting attitude, and every time you start to worry, open your mouth, and say, "God, I trust you". Say something. Say it out loud. "God, I trust you".

The minute that the devil starts to torment you with worry, you interrupt that thought pattern by saying, "God, I trust you". And if you have to say it a hundred times in a day, just keep it up until he goes away and leaves you alone. Every time that you feel afraid, say, "God, I trust you. I will not fear what man can do unto me. If God be for me, who can be against me? If God is on my side, whom shall I fear"? You know, if you know how to worry, then you know how to meditate. But we're not told to meditate on our problems. We're told to meditate on the Word of God. And so, I'm a firm believer in speaking the Word of God out loud.

And, you know, everybody that's a teacher or a preacher has a little, I think, special assignment from God. And I delight to see people give their life to the Lord. That's the most important thing, but the thing that's always been on my heart from the very beginning when God called me to teach, was that I wanted to help people learn how to really enjoy what Jesus died to give them. To really grow up and mature, and not just go to church, and go home and never change and go to church, and go home and never change, and go to church and go home, and never change. God has changed me. Man, I think Dave's been married to 20, 25 different women over the 57 years, because I just keep changing. How many of you have seen changes in yourself since you've began to walk with God?

See. So, you know, Jesus had an attitude, Philippians 2:5 says, "Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] Mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [let him be your example in humility]". Do you know that humility has a lot to do with trusting God? In 1 Peter it says, "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he might exalt you, casting all your care on him, because he cares for you". Now those two scriptures are right together. "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you, casting all your care on him, because he cares for you". So, what does casting your care have to do with humility? Well, as long as I'm worrying, I'm still thinking I can take care of myself and solve my own problem. But when I humble myself unto the mighty hand of God, I'm saying, "I can't do this. I cast my care on you, and I believe you will take care of me".

See, God can't take care of us until we stop trying to take care of ourself. Amen? And, you know, one of the things that has helped me to trust God is really knowing that I know, that I know that I know, that he loves me. In 1 John it says, "Perfect love casts out fear". And that perfect love is the love of God for us. He's the only one that loves perfectly. And if we know how much he loves us, then we know that he will take care of us. He may not do what we want, in our timing, the way we want, but God will not let you down. He will take care of you. And you might say, "Well, wait a minute, God already did let me down because I wanted this, or I asked for this, and it didn't happen". Well, it's not about us getting what we want. You're still here, aren't you? So, God's still working in your life. Amen?

Sometimes we pray for things and ask for things that we think would be the best, but God knows better. And we have to trust that God knows better. How many of you can trust that God is smarter than you are? But in 1 John, I think it's chapter 4 verse 16, in the Amplified Bible, this was actually a life-changing thing for me. You know, there's certain scriptures that you come across at different times that are just like, they just reach out and grab you and it's like, it might not make as much sense to somebody else, but boy, it's a life changer for you. And in the Amplified Bible, it says, "To be conscious and aware of God's love for you". Conscious and aware. And what I got out of that, what God put in my heart was, start watching for my love in your life. I like to catch God loving me. I like to catch him doing something for me that only he knows is in my heart.

There are so many ways that God shows his love and care for you on a regular basis, but we miss it because we think it's just chance or coincidence or we don't know what we think, but it's God reaching out. I've even learned, see, God works through people, and I've learned that when somebody gives me a compliment, I appreciate them letting God use them, but I think it's God speaking through them, encouraging me. You know, I've been through a lot in the last year and a half with the broken leg and the messed-up nerves in the other leg and the blood clot and falling on my back and hurting my back. But you know what? God got me through everything that I needed to do and I'm still here. But my husband said to me the other day, Dave, he came and put his arm around me, he said, "I just want you to know that I'm really proud of you for the good attitude that you've had through everything you've gone through with your back".

Well, I took that as a compliment from God. I appreciate Dave complimenting me, but I believe it was God saying, "Hey, Joyce, I'm proud of you for the good attitude that you had". And the more that you see God working in your life, like that, the closer of a relationship you're gonna have with him, the easier it's gonna be for you to trust him. Not with just little things, but with big things. God's got you covered. Amen? And you know, you might be thinking, "Well, I wish I had a husband that would compliment me like that". Well, you know, that's not a daily event at my house. But let's just say that you're married to somebody who's not even saved, so, you're like, "Well, that would be nice, but I never get a compliment from my husband".

Well, you know what? Don't get bitter about that. Just let God use whoever he wants to. Sometimes we want something from this person and God can't get them to give it to us, but if we trust God to give it to us, come on, now. Instead of trusting you to give it to me or you to give it to me and then getting mad at you because you don't give it to me, I need to trust God to give it to me and trust him to work through whoever he wants to. So, I want you to start watching for God to kind of show up in your life and show out. Amen? I feel like, I work for God. And the Bible says that he will never forget our labor in the Lord. And I believe that whatever I need, God will get it to me. If he can't get it to me through one person, he'll get it to me through something else. But God uses people and, you need to let him use you.

Pay attention to the things that come on your heart. One day last week, I kept thinking about a woman that used to work for me. She had, I mean, it's probably been 10 years ago. And, I kept thinking about her and thinking about her. So, I took that like, "Well, maybe I need to call her". So, I called her, and she didn't answer, and she texted me back and she said, "I'm in the emergency room, I fell this morning and broke both of my wrists". Well, God just wanted to use me to tell her we loved her that I would pray for her. The same as God wants to use other people to minister to you, he wants to use you to minister to other people. I don't know how we think God does things, but you know, he works through people. Amen?

Trust God, put your trust in God. Make a decision to put your trust in God. And don't forget, casting your care shows humility. It shows that you know that you can't do it, but you believe that God can. Jesus certainly had a trusting attitude in Luke 22:42-43. He was in the Garden of Gethsemane and, it's very interesting. I really noticed this a lot last year, that three times he asked God to remove the cup from him. Not once, not twice, three times. And so, he didn't want to go to the cross, in his natural, Son of Man side of him, he didn't want to go through that. But here's the thing, he wanted to obey God more than he wanted to get what he wanted. Now, we're gonna be talking a little bit more about having an obedient attitude in a few minutes, but the thing I wanna get out of this is that he said, "Father, if you can remove this cup from me, nevertheless, your will be done and not mine". So, what's he saying? "I don't wanna do this, but I'll trust you, whatever you decide, I'm okay with that".

Can we get like that? Can we get to the point where we say, "God, this is what I want or this is what I don't want, but if it doesn't happen that way, I trust you to take care of me". Do you know how nice your life will get if you trust God to take care of you? You stop having to get mad at everybody else because they're not doing, "Well, my boss should be paying me more, I deserve a raise and I'm mad at him, so I'm gonna spend every lunch hour gossiping about what a bad place this is to work". Well, you're just shutting yourself off from ever being blessed. You pray that God will give you favor and let me tell you something, if he can't get your boss to do what he should do, he'll get you a better job somewhere else or he'll get rid of that boss and get you another boss that, God never runs out of ways to get your blessings to you.

You know, it took me a while because of the way I grew up and never really having anybody to do anything for me. I always, I had started having to take care of myself when I was pretty young, and I especially didn't trust men because I'd been hurt by men. And I married the first guy that came along when I was 18 and that was a 5-year nightmare on top of an already 18-year nightmare. And he ran around with other women all the time and was a petty thief and a con man. I ended up finally divorcing him. I had a miscarriage and then I had a baby right at the end and he was living with another woman just a couple of blocks from where I lived and telling everybody the baby wasn't his. It was just very hard for me to trust men because, even when Dave asked me to marry him, I mean we only had five dates and he asked me to marry him.

So, I don't highly recommend it, but it worked for us. And I always tell him that he had to marry me real quick before he found out what he was gettin', 'cause I was pretty messed up. I tell this story often but it's just, Dave was 26: I was 23. He was a spirit-filled Christian, loved God and he was praying for a wife. And he believed that faith without works was dead, so he was dating three different women when he met me. He wasn't just sitting around waiting for God to throw somebody in his lap. He got out there shopping around. And he prayed a prayer that had to be a Holy Ghost led prayer. Surely, he didn't really know what he was doing. But when he asked God to give him a wife, he said, "Make it somebody that needs help". Now, have any of you that want to get married ever prayed that God would give you somebody that needs help? No, I'm sure you prayed for the perfect specimen. Amen?

And so, we'd been married three weeks and he looked at me and said, "What's wrong with you"? I thought, "What do you mean, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with you"? And we were married in 1967 and in 1976, I was filled with the spirit back in the... they call it the charismatic outpouring. I started learning the word and when I came across that women were supposed to be submissive to their husbands, I thought, "H-uh... We're in deep trouble here". And I remember Dave saying to me, one time, "Why do you always act like I'm your enemy"? And I guess, kind of in the back of my mind, men were my enemy. And when Dave asked me to marry him, and he told me he loved me, I couldn't even say it back because I didn't know what love was. Anybody who had ever said they loved me had hurt me. And a lot of you know exactly what I'm talking about. You've been hurt. I'm not the lone ranger, here, in the room. There's a lot of you that know exactly what I'm talking about.

So sometimes when you've been hurt a lot, you tend to not trust, and especially not trust people. And we got to talk about that a little bit too because living your life being suspicious of everybody is miserable. Just miserable. And I remember Dave wanting me to do something one time and I didn't want to do it and God was dealing with me to trust him and to be submissive. And I just said to the Lord, "How can you expect me to trust him after what I've been through"? And what the Lord put in my heart was, "I'm not asking you to trust him, I'm asking you to trust me with him". Now, I'm not gonna tell you if you open your heart to people that you won't get hurt. But I will tell you that if you do, the healer lives inside you.