Joyce Meyer - Ways to Increase Your Peace - Part 2

TOPICS: Peace

Well, thank you for joining me on, "Enjoying Everyday Life". I'm excited about sharing God's word with you today and I hope you're excited about hearing it. I started yesterday talking about ways to increase your peace. It's so important that we keep the peace and hold on to the peace that Jesus has given us. He bequeathed us peace, but we have to hold it. The Bible says in Exodus 14:14, "Hold your peace and the Lord will fight for you". It's kind of an interesting thought that as long as I'm worried and frustrated and upset, God's not fighting for me. But I have to calm down, which shows that I put my trust in him and then he'll go to work on your behalf and in my behalf.

Let me ask you, are you at peace? Do you have peace most of the time? Or would you say that you're frustrated most of the time? You're worried about something most of the time. Everybody is always excited to get teaching about the mind or about anxiety and that tells me that people deal with that a lot in their life. 1 Peter 3:10 and 11 in the Amplified Bible are some very revealing scriptures. It says, "Let him who wants to enjoy life and see good days [good-whether apparent or not]".

Well, what does that mean? That means if you want to see good days even while you're having a problem, "Let him keep his tongue from evil," very interesting, "And his lips from speaking guile". So, what we say, the words that we speak, have a lot to do with whether or not we're going to enjoy our lives. What have you been talking about? What have you been thinking about? "He must turn away from wickedness and do what is right. He must", now, listen, "Search for peace [with God, with himself, and with other people]".

You know, we often pray for peace, but to be honest, we already have it in our spirit because Jesus said he gave it to us. We'll read the scripture later, but in John 14, he said, "My peace I leave with you". So, stop allowing yourselves to be upset and disturbed. You know, we would love it if God would do everything for us, but we have a responsibility. We're partners with God, he'll give us the grace to do things, he'll show us what to do, but we still have to be active and do the doing, with his grace, with his help, but we have a free will.

And so, we can't just sit back and want God to do everything for us while we do absolutely nothing. Pursue it actively. You can lose your peace through the way you talk. What are your peace stealers? When I finally decided that I wanted to have peace in my life and that I was gonna do whatever I needed to do to have it, God put this thought in my mind of, "What are the things that steal your peace"? That might be something you would want to spend a little time with after the program's over. Just get a piece of paper and sit down with the Holy Spirit and think it through.

What kind of things steal your peace? Well, rushing will steal my peace. If I have to hurry, I mean, I can hurry a little bit, but if I have to hurry too much, I'll end up losing my peace. Being late for an appointment, that puts pressure on everybody. And some people are just historically late. I mean, late is just the way they are. They're late everywhere. They're always in a hurry and always getting there at the last second or being late. And then, sometimes, we put ourselves in a position where we end up maybe not quite telling the truth about why we're late, "Oh, the traffic was bad," or this or that. When the truth is, is we just didn't allow ourselves enough time to get ready. Let me make a suggestion to you that will help you with your peace.

If you don't already do this, start adding a little margin into your life. Just a little margin. You can think about a book. You know, there's a margin on the left side. It makes it much easier to read. You know, if it was just words, words, words, words, it would be more difficult to read. And life is more difficult to live if we leave no margin. Now, building margin into my schedule has been challenging for me because I'm the kind of person I don't like to sit around and wait. I think it's called impatience. And, so I have a tendency to plan everything to get there right at the last minute. And I've had to learn not to do that, to be satisfied to get there and have five minutes to wait rather than take a chance on being late.

Another thing that will steal my peace and probably yours is difficult people. And I think it's safe to say that the world is pretty full of difficult people right now. People are under a lot of stress, financial stress, just stress in the world. A lot of people don't feel good. The stress that they have makes them feel bad and it makes them cranky and hard to get along with. And so, difficult people can get me frustrated. I'm so glad that my husband is easy to get along with. Having too much to do and not enough time to do it, that will really frustrate me. That'll steal my peace.

So, part of that is in our planning. We need to not plan too much to do in the amount of time that we have to do it. Unexpected problems. Now, we all have unexpected problems, so what's the best way to handle those? Well, I have found out when I have an unexpected problem, like I say, not every storm is in the forecast. When I have an unexpected problem, I do what I call talk myself off the ledge. You know, if you've seen a movie where somebody is standing on the ledge of a building and they're threatening to jump off and a negotiator is sent out to talk them off the ledge, they're talking to 'em and talking to 'em.

Well, I've learned that I can talk myself off the ledge of a full-blown case of worry and anxiety and losing my peace by just saying, "Okay, Joyce, everybody has to deal with stuff in life. You're no different than anybody else. Jesus said 'in the world you will have tribulation. Cheer up. I've overcome the world'. Just calm down. God will help you with this if you will just be peaceful and trust him to give you the answers that you need". Why talking to yourself instead of just flying off the handle and going with your emotions? We all have emotions, but we're gonna get in deep trouble if we follow them. We have to seek peace and be willing to make whatever changes need to be made in order to have that peace.

I had to build some margin into my life if I wanted to have peace. I have to leave enough time so I'm not rushing all the time if I want to have peace. I have to learn that there are difficult people in the world, and I have to realize that they're being difficult because they have a problem in their life. And instead of being so concerned about what they're doing to me, maybe I need to be more concerned about what they're doing to themselves and pray for them.

Psalm 34:14: "Depart from evil and do good: seek, inquire for, and crave peace and pursue (and go after) it". Wow. Have you ever craved something to eat and you wanted it so bad that you ended up getting in the car and going to the store and getting it? Well, I usually don't go myself, I talk to Dave into goin', but I have done it. So, when you think about craving, it says crave peace. Don't just, "Well, I'd like to have some peace," or "God, give me some peace," but want it enough that you're willing to make whatever changes you need to make in your life in order to have it. You know, who are you worried about right now? I just get a sensing that there's some people watching, and you're really, really worried right now about somebody that you love.

Can I tell you the best thing you can do for people that you love that are in trouble is to pray because God can do more in one second than you can do in a lifetime. And when you pray for other people, their will is involved. Everybody has a free choice, and nobody is gonna change unless they want to change. And if you're concerned about someone who's not walking with God, keep in mind that you can't make anybody love Jesus. So just pray for them to have a desire or for God to put the perfect laborer in their path that can speak a word in due season to them. But don't take a false sense of responsibility and make it your job to be their Savior. You can't do that.

John 14:27, we can't teach on peace without sharing this scripture, Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you: my [own] Peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you", so, it's not the kind of peace the world gives which operates, the world can be peaceful when everything is going the way it wants it to. But Jesus is offering us a different kind of peace, a peace that operates in the storm. "Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid".

Now listen to this. "[stop allowing yourselves]", this is what the Amplified Bible says, "[stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed: and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled]". Wow. So, this is telling me I have a responsibility to take that peace that Jesus has given me and when I have something that can be upsetting, instead of letting it upset me, I need to stay calm and peaceful and not allow myself to get frustrated. We have peace but we have to hold on to it. Another way to increase your peace is to not follow the emotion of anger.

Now, James 1:20 says, "A man's anger does not promote the righteousness that God desires". So, anger is not the right way to handle situations. Now, when we're being mistreated, when somebody hurts us, our natural human response is to get angry. But the Bible says, "When you're angry, do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your anger". I always jokingly say it's much better if you get angry in the morning than right before you go to bed because you have longer to work it out.

Ecclesiastes 7:9, "Do not be quick in spirit to be angry or vexed, for anger and vexation lodge in the bosom of fools". Well, I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a fool because fools end up not having a very good life. Ephesians 4:26 and 27, "When you're angry", so, pretty much that's saying everybody's gonna get angry at some time, "When you're angry, don't sin". So, apparently, it's not that feeling of anger that's a sin because like I said if somebody mistreats you, you know, anger is a pretty normal response but when we feel that we're not to sin, we're not to stay angry, we're not to take that anger out on other people or retaliate or wanna get people back. "Don't ever let your wrath (your exasperation, your fury or indignation) last until the sun goes down".

Wow. You know if you go to bed angry, you're gonna wake up angry. "Leave no [such] Room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him]". So, obviously, from this scripture when we hang on to anger, it opens a door for the enemy and gives him room to come into our lives. What makes us angry? People who hurt us or won't do what we want 'em to do, circumstances we don't like, we may even become angry with ourselves because we do things that we know we shouldn't do and we don't even want to do and we end up doing 'em anyway. We're like the apostle Paul said he was in Romans 7. He said, "The thing I wanna do I can't do and the thing I don't wanna do I always end up doing".

You know, I can lay in bed in the morning and make great plans for holiness and it lasts until I get out of bed and put my feet on the floor and it's usually not long until I do something or act in some way that I shouldn't and it's usually when the people get up. I can be pretty peaceful when nobody's home, it's just when the people come home. We can't control people. We can't make them act the way we want them to act. Mark 11 tells us that if we hang on to anger and unforgiveness that it's gonna really not just hurt but pretty much shut down the hope of answered prayer.

Mark 11:25: "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone". Anything against anyone. Come on, I'm asking you who are you mad at? You think, "Well you don't know what they did to me". It's not justified. We are not justified in hanging on to anger because God tells us not to. And anything that God tells us not to do, we're never justified in doing it. "If you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop (leave it and let it go), in order that your father who is in heaven may also forgive your [own] Failings and shortcomings and let them drop". You know it's so much easier to forgive other people if we keep in mind how much God forgives us.

"But if you don't forgive, neither will your father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings". Let's learn how to maintain a quiet and a peaceful heart that God can delight in. Now, Paul told Timothy, and this is the Amplified translation, he was giving him some instructions for his future as a minister and in 2 Timothy 4:5 he says, "As for you, be calm, cool and steady, accept and suffer unflinchingly every hardship", wow. Come on, are we paying attention to this? I'm a minister: I need to pay attention to this. "Accept and suffer unflinchingly," in other words, when you have hardships don't let them change you. You stay the same and trust God to take care of the problem. "Be calm and cool and steady".

Some of the other translations say, "Keep your head". Which is an interesting way to put it. "Do the work of an evangelist, fully perform the duties of your ministry". You know, Paul knew that a lack of stability would hurt Timothy's witness. It would hurt his anointing he wouldn't be able to sense God's presence. You know when you're angry you have a very difficult time hearing from God. We're not sensitive to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit whispers he doesn't yell. And if we wanna hear from him and be led by the spirit, we must maintain a quiet, a peaceful, and a gentle heart.

I'll admit that hasn't been the easiest thing for me. I've got a pretty fiery personality and my natural impulse when somebody fires off something at me is to fire something back. But I've learned I was a slow learner in this area but I have learned, not that I ever make a mistake, but I would say that 97 percent of the time I am peaceful, and I love peace. It's the most wonderful thing to be at peace. To hear from God, we must maintain an inner silence. When we're upset, we make bad decisions. We say things that cause trouble. It affects our health adversely. There's so many disadvantages to being upset. No wonder Jesus said, "In the world you will have tribulation. Cheer up. I have overcome the world". The Amplified says, "I have deprived it of the power to harm you".

You know, there's always things that we can worry about, be anxious about, or be upset about. I mean, I had something happen in the last 24 hours that I wasn't expecting, and I needed to come and preach today. I needed to stay peaceful. And it's something I can't do anything about it anyway. It's gonna be the way it is and so when those kind of things happen, we might as well stay happy hold our peace and trust God. Trust God, trust him, trust him, trust him, trust him. The Psalmist David said quite often, "I will put my trust in the Lord". And I say that a lot of times in my morning prayers, "God I put my trust in you today. I put my hope in you".

My trust is not in the stock market it could go down at any time. I hope it doesn't but it could. My trust is not in the bank. I mean, I hope it doesn't but it could fail. You certainly can't put your trust in people because people sure disappoint you. And you can't even really put your trust in yourself because we are human flesh and blood and sometimes we do things that we think I can't even believe I did that. So, we put our trust in God. 1 Peter 5:6 and 7, "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you".

So, in God's economy down is up. You have to be willing to go down and lower yourself in your own estimation. Make yourself a servant. Be willing to do whatever God asks you to do. Treat people well, even when they're not treating you so great and God will exalt you and lift you up in due time at the right time. "Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] On him, for he cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully".

Now, maybe you've never realized it but 5 and 6 definitely go together. Verse 6 says to "Humble yourself" and verse 7 says to "Cast your care on the Lord". Well casting our care on God is a way of showing humility because as long as I have a problem that I'm trying to figure out and fix then I'm in a spirit of pride because I'm thinking that I can solve my own problem. So, casting your care on God is an act of humility. "God, I can't solve this, I can't take care of this so I cast it on you".

Cast means to pitch or throw. Why don't you just throw your problems away right now and trust God to take care of them. Don't worry, be thankful. Matthew 6 tells us not to worry about anything. But God knows what we need before we even ask him. He takes care of the birds, he takes care of the flowers, he takes care of the grass and you're much more important than any of those. Every day provides enough worries of its own, so, we don't need to spend today worrying about tomorrow. God will take care of you if you will let him.

Verse 31 says, "Therefore don't worry and be anxious saying, 'what are we going to do, what are we going to eat? What are we going to wear'"? "What about me, what's gonna happen"? We just need to say God, "I trust you. I don't have the answers but I trust you". It says, "The heathen wish for and crave diligently and seek all these things", but I love this verse 33, what a great place to end the teaching today, "But seek first of all the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things will be added unto you".

You know I don't know about you, but I would much rather seek God and have him add the things than to chase the things and miss out on my relationship with God. You know, God has a good plan for your life, and I want to really encourage you to not just read the word but obey the word. If there's anything that God is dealing with you about that you need to do or stop doing just go ahead and obey him today because he's not gonna change his mind. Thank you for being with us today and I pray for you that the rest of your day will be absolutely glorious. Hope you join us again tomorrow when I'm gonna talk about how to have peace with yourself.