Joyce Meyer - Ways to Increase Your Joy - Part 2

Well, thank you for joining me today on, "Enjoying Everyday Life," where I will be teaching you the Word of God. One of the most important things that you can know is the word. You know, every time you hear the word, it helps renew your mind. And the more you learn to think like God thinks, which is thinking according to the Word of God, the more of his plan for your life you're going to have. Our mind is so, so, so important. Our mind affects our emotions. It affects what we say. And it affects how we act and behave. So, you need to go back to basics and think about what you're thinking about and make sure that your thoughts are lining up with what you really want to have in your life.

I've started yesterday talking about ways to increase your joy. And the first thing I talked about was to start your day with God. That's so important. And then have a goal for each day, have a dream. Make sure that you're productive and that you accomplish something. And then the third thing was make a decision to help other people. It's so important that we get our mind off of ourselves and on to being a blessing to other people. The next thing I want to talk to you about is to reexamine your expectations. You know, a lot of times we set ourselves up for a miserable day because we're expecting somebody to do something for us and they don't even know we're expecting it.

"Well, I expected you to call me". "Well, I expected you to email me". Well, you get all disappointed because you've got your expectations in people. We need to put our expectations in God. People, I'm sorry, but they will always disappoint you. That doesn't mean not to trust people. It doesn't mean not to love and enjoy people. But if you are expecting the people in your life to never hurt you and never disappoint you, you have already set yourself up to be disappointed. The Bible tells us that we are to "Wait and hope for and expect the Lord". Psalm 27:14, "Wait and hope for and expect the Lord: be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord".

Are your expectations in God or are they in people? You know, there was a long time in my life where I expected Dave to keep me happy. And one day God finally gave me a Revelation. He said, "Stop giving Dave the responsibility for your joy". Now, you know, there's somebody watching today that could learn a lot from that. Maybe you're all mad because you're expecting somebody else to make you happy and they're not doing it. Well, maybe you need to change your expectation from expecting that person to do it to asking God to do it. And God may choose to do it through that person, but he may choose to do it through some source that you wouldn't even think of. Or he might just choose to do it supernaturally. We need to put our trust in God.

And I love the way David says that in the Psalm, "I will put my trust in God". You can put your trust in the bank. You can put your trust in people. You can put your trust wherever you want to. You can put it in yourself. But all of those things can disappoint you. God, however, will not disappoint you. He may not always give you exactly what you think that you want, but he will always give you the thing that is the best for you. You know, if you're watching right now and you don't have a personal relationship with God, I feel inclined to take just a moment and tell you that God loves you and he sent his only son, Jesus, to die for you, to pay for your sins on the cross. He died and he rose from the dead.

And he is now seated at the right hand of God, waiting for the time when he brings us all home to be with him. And through the Holy Spirit, he wants to come and live inside you and help you with everything that you do. He'll forgive your sins, write your name in the lamb's book of life. And all you have to do is admit that you're a sinner, that you want God in your life. Invite him to come in, receive him by faith, and then begin to learn how to live as a child of God. And that's gonna require learning the Word of God. And one of the best ways to do that is to get into a good Bible-based church, where you can hear good teachings and go to good Bible studies, get good Christian books and read 'em, and read your Bible.

There's many translations of the Bible, so don't use the excuse, "I can't understand the Bible". Get a children's Bible if you need to. I started out with a children's storybook and learned a lot of the stories in the Bible by doing that. If you want to talk to somebody further about this, you can call the number on your screen and one of our operators will be happy to talk to you. And pray with you about receiving Christ as your Savior. Put your expectations in God. He has got a good plan for your life. And you need to expect good things. Maybe you are expecting somebody else to give you a sense of self-worth or a sense of value. You know, only God can do that. Many times, we're expecting people to do what only God can do.

What are you expecting from people and are you disappointed because they're not giving it to you? Well, maybe you need to pray more and get your eyes off people less. Go to God and ask for what you want and need and trust him to give it to you. Refuse to expect the worst. Don't dread things. Don't be afraid of things that haven't even happened yet. Don't worry about all the bad things that might happen. "Well, I'm worried I might lose my job," or "I'm worried my child's gonna get mixed up with the wrong crowd of people". Oh, the devil just loves it when we worry about stuff that we don't even know is going to happen. Keep a positive outlook. Positivity is powerful.

You know, I had a lot of bad things happen to me in my life. I mean, a lot. I was abused. I married the first guy that came along because I thought nobody would ever want me. Five more years of a nightmare, he ran around with other women, didn't work, was a petty thief. Just my life had been just one disappointment after another, after another, after another. And I just developed a bad outlook on life. I got to the point where I thought, "Well, if you don't expect anything good to happen, then you won't be disappointed when it doesn't". I thought I was protecting myself by actually just figuring something bad was gonna happen. And one morning I was getting dressed and I could feel, I was in the bathroom doing my hair, and I could feel like this threatening feeling in the atmosphere around me.

And I asked the Lord, "What is this? I've had this most of my life". And I heard in my spirit that they were evil forebodings. To be honest, I didn't even know what that was. And then a little bit later, God led me to Proverbs 15:15. It could have been even a few days later, I don't remember. And this scripture says, "All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil [by anxious thoughts and forebodings]". You know what that is? That's an expectation of something bad, an expectation that something is not gonna work out good. You know, people often dread things. You know what that is? That's an expectation that you cannot enjoy something that you have to do or that you're going to do. We should not dread things and fear things, but always have faith.

God can make anything good if you put your trust in him. Regardless of the pain that you've been through in the past, refuse to live in dread. Come on, I'm talking to somebody. Refuse to live in dread. How many people say, "I dread doing the laundry". "I dread going to the grocery store". "I dread mowing the grass". "I dread driving in traffic to get to work today". Well, don't dread things. Say, "I'm gonna enjoy my drive. I'm gonna enjoy", you know, if you go to the grocery store believing that God is with you, you can go through the store, chat with him in your inner man while you're doing it, and smile at people and be friendly, and you can make it a pleasant trip.

Psalm 23:4 says, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for you are with me: your rod [protects me] And your staff [guides me], they comfort me". Believe you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Get a positive outlook and put your expectations in God, not in people. The next thing that we can do that will increase our joy is refuse to be mediocre. You know, mediocre is halfway between good and bad. It's halfway between success and failure. So, you end up being neither one. You're just kinda in limbo somewhere. And God wants us to be successful in what we do. He wants us to be people of excellence. I love to teach on excellence.

When we started our ministry 40 years ago, I've been teaching 45 years, but we started this ministry, I worked at a church for five years, and then we started Joyce Meyer Ministries 35 years ago. And God told us, put in our heart, "Always do what you do with excellence. Be people of integrity and keep the strife out of your life, and I'll bless your ministry". And those are still foundational principles that we teach our employees all the time, and I love to teach on excellence. God is an excellent God. I'm sure every one of you would agree with that, that God is excellent. And we're called to be like him.

So, therefore, we can't be mediocre. To be excellent doesn't mean to be perfect. It just means to take what you have to work with and do the very best you can with it. You might have an old automobile, but you can keep it clean, keep the trash out of it. You might not have 50 outfits in your closet, but you can keep the ones that you do have clean and don't let them sit in the dryer all night and then get up the next morning and put them on. Keep 'em neat. You can have five outfits and several things that, different scarves or Jewelry, and you can make 'em look like 20 outfits. Be thankful for what you have and not grumpy about what you don't have, and then God can give you more.

You know, the Lord put in my heart one time, "If you're already complaining about what you have, why should I give you more to complain about"? Are you a thankful person? That's part of being an excellent person. You know, the Bible says, "Go the extra mile". That's part of excellence. We're called to be excellent. 2 Peter 1:3, "For his divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] To life and Godliness, through the [full, personal] Knowledge of him". We need to know him. We need to know him for ourself. "Who has called us", now, here's the call on our life, "To his own glory and excellence".

God wants us to be excellent people. We're not created to be mediocre, so, you will never be happy if that's the way you are. You're always gonna feel like, you're just gonna not be contented because in your spirit you're gonna know that you're not doing what you should be doing. Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Can I say that again? Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Always exceed people's expectations. Anytime I go somewhere to speak, I always wanna do a little better job than what they thought I would do. I wanna be a little bit kinder and nicer than what they expected me to be. Always have the attitude of doing more than you have to. Don't do the least you can get by with but do the most you possibly can do.

What if... let's just play the "What if" game. What if you gave God your all? What if you confronted problems instead of running away from them? What if you demanded the best from yourself instead of settling for average? And what if you did today what you could put off until tomorrow? You know, have an attitude of excellence. The next thing you can do that will increase the joy in your life is invest in yourself. I don't know if you know how wonderful and precious and valuable you are. God created you with his own hand in your mother's womb. The Amplified Bible says, "Carefully and intricately, he created you". He has a plan for your life, and he says, "It's a good plan".

God has a good plan for your life. And no, you haven't messed it up to the point where it can't be redeemed. God is a redeemer. He sent Jesus to buy us back from the enemy with his blood. He shed his blood for you. You are so valuable that God sent his son to die for you, and if you would've been the only person on earth, he would've still done it. If you made a list of things that you love, how long would it take for you to put yourself on that list? You say, "Well, I shouldn't love myself". Well, yes, you should. The Bible says you should "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength," and you should "Love your neighbor even as you love yourself".

I like to look at it like this: I can't give away something that I don't have. If I don't have love in me, I can't love you. And, you know, if you don't like yourself, you're not gonna like other people. If you're angry at yourself, you're gonna end up being angry with other people. Invest in yourself. What do I mean by that? Well, do some things that you enjoy. Make an investment in your health. Spend a little bit more money on yourself and eat good quality food. Maybe work a little bit less, and make sure you get a really good night's sleep. Drink plenty of water. They say that you should drink one ounce of water for every pound of weight.

Some of you might be thinking, right now, "Well, if I did that, I would drown". Well, I can assure you that you won't. Get some exercise. Take time to go for a 10-minute walk. Take a little mini vacation. Get, you know, you don't have to just work all the time to be worth something. I had that mistaken idea, because when I was a kid, it seemed like as long as I was working, doing homework, or working around the house, that I didn't get in trouble. But I can remember getting in trouble for laughing and having fun. My dad was such a sour, mean person, he would say, "Well, what are you laughing at"? And it took me a long time to learn how to enjoy my life. I didn't really know how to enjoy my life, and I almost felt guilty if I was enjoying myself. And God had to teach me that my thinking was wrong. I thought I didn't deserve to enjoy myself. But you do. You're valuable.

Do something that you like to do. Take a day off. Celebrate your birthday. Celebrate every little victory that you have in your life. Instead of just thinking about everything you fail at, think about all the things that you are good at. Instead of just thinking about how far you have to go, think about how far you've come in your walk with God. Come on, I want you to have a better attitude about yourself than what you have. Do some things for yourself. I'm not talking about being selfish and self-centered, and I'm not talking about being in love with yourself, where you just dote on yourself all the time, and you talk about yourself all the time, and you just do whatever you want to do. But I'm talking about having balance. We wanna do for other people, but if you don't take care of yourself, there's not gonna be enough of you left to do anything for anybody else.

So, before I pass on beyond this point, I want to tell you again, you are valuable. I don't know how you feel about yourself, but I believe that there are people watching me right now that you think you're no good. You have a bad attitude toward yourself because you've done some things that are wrong in your life. And I'm here to tell you that Jesus is here to forgive you. He has already paid for every sin that you have ever committed or ever will commit. He died for sins, not sin, for sins once and for all. Completely forgiven. All you need to do is admit that you've sinned, confess it, receive God's forgiveness, don't let the devil pile a bunch of condemnation and guilt on you, and get about living the life that God wants you to live.

The Bible says that God knows every thought we're gonna think before we think it, and every word we're gonna speak before we speak it. You are no surprise to God. He knew every wrong thing you would do before you did it, and he loves you anyway. God loves you unconditionally. The next thing I would recommend if you wanna enjoy your life is get a little bit of adventure in it. Helen Keller said, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all". Some of you are not happy because you're just plain bored. You do the exact same thing every day, and you have for 20 years. And so, you just don't like your life because you're just bored with your life, and you know, sometimes you just need to do something different.

Do something you've never done before but always wanted to do. Color your hair. Get botox. And don't write me a letter and tell me you don't think that's right. If you got a wrinkle, you wanna get rid of it, get rid of it. I don't like wrinkles. I plan to not have too many. Go to a new restaurant. Try a food that you've never tried before. That's hard for me because I wanna make sure I like what I eat. Dave will order some of the strangest things, and I'll taste his, but I don't want to mess my meal up by ordering something different. Be a little more daring. Drive a different way to work.

"Oh, my gosh, what if I get lost"? Well, what if you find something new you wanna do? You know, I was being adventurous when I went on television at the age of 50. I didn't go on TV until I was 50, and I've been on TV this month 31 years. Yes, I'm 81, and I'm still trying to have adventure. You know, I was being adventurous the first time I stood in front of a crowd in India of several hundred thousand people and had to preach through an interpreter because I had never done that before. I would preach in English, and he would interpret it in the Indian language, the dialect for that particular area. Choose to be bold and unafraid to fail. You are not a failure just because you fail at something.

I think we have to fail our way to success. I think one of the ways we find out what not to do is by doing things that don't work out, and then if you have a good positive faith-filled attitude, you can say, "Well, I know not to do that again". I've made many mistakes in my life. Somebody asked a great man of God, "How did you learn how to hear from God"? He said, "By making a lot of mistakes". You can learn from your mistakes just as much as you can learn from your successes. Choose to be bold and unafraid.

2 Timothy 1:7, "For God did not give us a spirit of fear: but of power, and love, and a sound mind". Or it says, "Self-control". Uh-oh, you can't say anymore, "I don't have any self-control," because you have the fruit of self-control. Maybe if you believe that you have self-control, you'll see it manifested in your life. And beware of all the what-ifs. "Well, what if I step out and make a mistake? What if I miss God"? If you miss God, he'll find you. "What if I fail"? The righteous man falls down seven times and gets up again. If you fail, you get up again, and you try again.

"Well, what if I don't enjoy it"? Well, then don't do it again. "What will people think"? Well, that's a big one. We let "They" run our life, and we don't even know who "They" are. Who cares what they think? You only need to be concerned about what God thinks. Follow the Spirit of God and let him lead you to a life of tremendous joy. You know, our goals in life as believers are totally different. We're called out, separated, set apart for a special purpose. And I love that the Bible says that we are his personal representatives in the earth. When we do that, we also find joy, peace, and happiness. Live to represent him.