Joyce Meyer - Patient Endurance

Thank you so much for joining me today on, "Enjoying Everyday Life". Now, probably, when I tell you what I'm gonna teach on the day you're gonna groan, but ultimately it will be good for you. I wanna talk today about "Patient endurance". And the word "Endure" literally means that you have the ability to go through difficult things, make it all the way through and come out victorious on the other side. I always like to say that there's a beginning of things and that's usually exciting. We're starting something new and so we're exciting.

And, of course, if you make it to the end, to the finish, that's exciting. But there's also a middle. And sadly, a lot of people give up in the middle. And they spend their whole life just giving up, going back, and starting over. Giving up, going back, and starting over. You know, it might be compared to somebody who goes on a diet on Sunday night after dinner and then Monday afternoon when they get hungry, all of a sudden, they give in. So, it's easy to say we're gonna do something, but it's a little more challenging when it starts to hurt. And I can tell you that endurance will hurt. It's not gonna be comfortable.

So, God gives us the power of patient endurance and supplies encouragement while we're going through the difficult things. Romans 15:4-6. "For whatever was thus written in former days was written for our instruction, that by [our steadfast and patient] Endurance and the encouragement [drawn] From the scriptures we might hold fast to and cherish hope". Now hope is an expectation that something good is going to happen at any moment. And you know, when you're going through hard things, to keep that hope alive, energizes you. Take it one day at a time. If you're going through something hard right now, take it one day at a time and say to yourself and even say out loud, "Something good is going to happen in my life. God is working on my situation and my breakthrough is gonna come at any moment".

You say, "Yeah, well, what if it doesn't"? Well, get up and say the same thing the next day. "Now may the God who gives the power of patient endurance". See, God gives us the power, he doesn't just tell us to patiently endure, but he gives us the power of patient endurance. "(steadfastness) and who supplies encouragement", I love this! God's not just telling us to patiently endure and go through hard things, but he's telling us that he will give us the encouragement that we need while we're going through them. I don't think I've ever seen that as clearly as I'm seeing it right now.

"Who supplies encouragement, may he grant you to live in such mutual harmony and such full sympathy with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may [unanimously] With united hearts and one voice, praise and glorify the God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)". You know what I like to say that endurance is? Endurance is to outlast the devil. You know, when Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted, by the way, he was led out there by the Holy Spirit, Luke 4, to be tempted of the devil 40 days and 40 nights while he fasted and prayed. The devil just threw one thing after another at him. And then, I think it's in verse 11 it says, "And then the devil went away to wait for a more opportune time".

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you might as well settle it for yourself right now that you have an enemy, his name is satan or the devil. He has a lot of little demons that work for him. And if you are doing anything at all to increase the Kingdom of God, if you're doing anything good, he's going to throw fiery darts at you. Matter of fact, I think right now we're living in days where the enemy is shooting fiery darts at just about everybody. And if you don't understand what I'm saying today, that you really already have the victory.

The Bible says in Romans 8 that "We are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us". And when you're in a hard time and maybe right now you are in a very difficult time and you really need this message. God loves you and you may think, "Well, yeah, if he loves me so much, why am I going through such a hard time"? You know, all those why questions need to be replaced with "God, I trust you". In Romans 8:28, it says that "All things work together for good". Not all things are good, but all things work together for good. You know, if I'm baking a cake and I ate a spoonful of flour, that's not gonna be good. But, when all the ingredients get in there and it's all mixed up and all baked and maybe some icing put on it, "Wow, I've got something good".

Well, you know, maybe some of you only have the flour and the raw egg and you're waiting for some of the other ingredients to come. And what you're going through right now may be one of those ingredients. Listen, I've been through a lot in my life. If I started listing 'em, you would be surprised that I'm standing here. And God has brought me through every single one of them. I'm not gonna say that they've been easy. And I started just like everybody does, "Why God, why? When God, when? Why is this happening to me? This isn't fair, this isn't just, I don't understand why you're not delivering me".

And after serving God for 48 years, I've learned to say one thing, "I trust you". Because I have learned by experience, which is so much better than head knowledge, by the way. I've learned by experience that "God does never leave us or forsake us," no matter what you feel like, he is with you right now. And, "You are more than a conqueror through Christ who loves you". And this is my own thought of what a more than a conqueror is. And I think to be more than a conqueror means that you know you've already got the victory before you ever get the problem. And that's great because that puts you in a place where you don't have to be afraid of trouble.

I remember a time in my life when I always had this feeling in my atmosphere that the next bad thing was gonna happen. It's called "Evil forebodings" in Proverbs 15:15. And we don't have to live with that feeling that something bad's gonna happen because even if it does, we have already got the victory. We've already read the end of the book and we get the victory. No matter what we have to go through here on this earth. And I will admit some people seem to have a harder time than others do. But if you are having a harder time than somebody else, then guess what else you have? You have more grace than somebody else. You have more encouragement from God than somebody else. He doesn't leave us alone in our problems. He's with us all the time. And you can outlast the devil. How 'bout patience and joy?

You know, a person who is impatient is just absolutely miserable all the time. But the Bible says, "By your steadfastness", this is Luke 21:19 "By your steadfastness and patient endurance you shall win the true life of your souls". Well, what is that true life? Well, the true life is the life that God wants us to live. It's the life that he wants us to have. And we only have that through patient endurance, enduring things, going through things that are hard and difficult and being patient. Which patience, it's not the ability to wait, it's how you behave while you're waiting.

I believe that you can have a problem, and nobody even know it but you and God. He can give you such stability in your life that you can go right on as if nothing was happening because you already know that you have the victory. You can have the peace that passes understanding and joy unspeakable and full of glory. The devil doesn't want you to be joyful. You know why? Because, "The joy of the Lord is your strength".

I heard one man say one time, "The devil's not after your stuff, he's after your joy". The impatient person will never have the true life that Jesus died to give them because, as I said before, they are always upset about something. And I will tell you that impatience is probably still one of my greatest weaknesses. I'm not impatient with stuff like I'm talking about you today because I've learned, but I get impatient if I have a doctor's appointment and 45 minutes I'm still waiting for the appointment and things like that. But I'm growing, praise God.

I'm not where I need to be but I'm not where I used to be. I'm okay and I'm on my way and so are you. The impatient person will never receive the fulfillment of their prayers because we inherit the promises of God, the Bible says, "Through faith and patience". Faith and patience, not just faith but faith and patience. You know, faith is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't always produce a result, just like that. After you get the manifestation, you don't need faith anymore. Faith is what we have while we're waiting for the breakthrough. And "Faith is the evidence of things not seen".

We don't see them in the natural, but we see them in the spirit. "It's the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". Faith is a real living thing. It's a power. And God gives you faith. Hebrews 10:35-37, "Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it Carries a great and a glorious compensation of reward". What are you waiting for right now? Don't give up. Don't stop praying. Luke 18:8 says, "Who will Jesus find in faith when he comes back"? Faith never has an end.

Somebody asked the question recently, "How long should I believe for something before I give up"? Faith has no end. Unless God shows you, you're believing for something that is outside of his will, you never give up. Hebrews 11 is the chapter in the Bible that's about, they call it the "Great hall of fame of those who walked in faith". And I mean they were eaten by lions and sawn in half and all kinds of stuff. And you know Sarah, by faith, received a child. There were people who through their faith they did receive but there were many, many who died never having received and the Bible calls them "Men of whom the world was not worthy". They were considered great in God's sight.

Do you know if you die with your faith still intact, never having received what you believed for, you're a great person? Don't ever give up on God. Faith has no end. Don't miss your reward because you're impatient. "For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus by that receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] What is promised". Don't give up your reward. Don't give up your hope. Don't give up your faith. Don't stop believing. Keep praying, keep trusting God and keep saying, "My breakthrough is on its way".

My breakthrough is on its way. You know our words are powerful. The Bible says that "The power of life and death is in the tongue," and I believe that. If you're gonna say something, say something good. And if you can't say something good then don't say anything at all. Listen to yourself and speak things that are gonna produce life for you. Don't miss your reward. Verse 37 says, "For still a little while, [a very little while] And the coming one will come and he will not delay".

Jesus is coming back. When? Well, this says, "In a very little while". Well, I will admit that God's little while and my little while are sometimes two different things. To me, a little while would be maybe an hour or two. To him, it could be 10 or 20 years. But remember, "He gives us the power of patient endurance and the encouragement that we need while we're waiting". I love that. You know, encourage means, to fill you full of courage, to keep you going. Sometimes when you feel like you're just about to give up, God will send somebody along to encourage you and all of a sudden you just feel like, "Okay, maybe I can make it after all".

James 1:4. "But let endurance", that word just keeps coming up over and over and over in the Bible. "But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] Perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing". When we are fully patient, the Bible says, "We lack nothing". We lack absolutely nothing. Wow! People who are impatient always find a way to avoid or eliminate suffering and discomfort. They run from things. They hide from things. But it will always be waiting for them somewhere else. We never get away from it. They never fully develop and never come to the end of things.

Like I said earlier, to get from the beginning to the end, you have to go through the middle. And impatient people don't want to go through anything. You know, Moses was a great man of God, made some mistakes, got a little bit ahead of God, kind of sensed a call on his life, but tried to get it started before he actually had the experience he needed to do the job. And he ended up out in the wilderness for 40 years learning some tough lessons from God. But Moses was born at a time when Pharaoh was killing all the babies, baby boys. But Moses' mother had faith, and she put him in a little wicker basket, covered it over with something that would keep the water from getting in it and just put him on the Nile River.

And God saw to it that Pharaoh's daughter found him. And so, he was raised in the house of Pharaoh, just like one of Pharaoh's sons. And so, he had a cushy life. He had a great life. Wonder how many people would walk away from a cushy life to have a hard one? Think about that. Would you walk away from a nice, cushy life where you had everything, every advantage, every privilege in order to go and help a bunch of people, but you knew you were gonna have to go through a lot of hardship in order to do it? I don't know of too many people that would do that. Jesus did it. He came down from glory and became a man so he could save all of us.

Hebrews 11:24-25, "Aroused by faith Moses, when he had grown to maturity and became great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, because he preferred to share the oppression, [suffer the hardship] And bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life". Boy, that is so powerful. You get that? The fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life? You may be living all wrong right now and you know deep in your heart that you are. Maybe you would be one of the ones that said, "I accidentally turned your program on".

You really don't wanna give up the life that you're living, but you know deep down it's leading nowhere and you're not really happy with it. Not really. You know we can stay busy all day and think we're happy, but when you lay your head down on the pillow at night, there's an emptiness there that you can't get rid of. But if you'll be willing to lay aside some of your comforts and surrender your life to God, that doesn't mean he's going to take everything you've got away from you, but he will take sinful things away from you because they're the things that are making you miserable. And he'll teach you how to be a giver instead of a taker, how to be a lover instead of a hater.

All the things that when you lay down at night, your day might be a little harder, but when you lay down at night, there's a satisfaction in your soul that nothing can replace. Those willing to suffer are finished with intentional sin. I love 1 Peter 4:1-2. "So, since Christ suffered in the flesh for us, and for you, arm yourselves with the same thought and purpose [patiently to suffer rather than fail to please God]", so, this says, "Arm yourself with this thinking, 'i would rather suffer than fail to please God'".

Boy, that would be something good to say every morning. "God, I'd rather suffer today than fail to please you. I want your will to be done in my life. Your will, God. I want your will to be done in my life, no matter what it costs, no matter what it takes. I want your will to be done in my life". "For whoever has suffered in the flesh [having the mind of Christ] Is done with [intentional] Sin [and has stopped pleasing himself and the world, and now pleases God], so that he can no longer spend the rest of his natural life living by [his] Human appetites and desires, but [he lives] For what God wills".

So, what is this saying to us? If we're willing to endure, if we're willing to go through some of the hard things, we will no longer intentionally sin. That doesn't mean you'll never make mistakes, but it's not something that you're gonna know you're sinning and do it anyway because you don't care. People who really love God can't do that. Oh, we still mess up. We still make mistakes, but they're not planned mistakes. It's like, you know, somebody might run over my toe in the grocery store with their grocery cart and I might like instantly get angry, but right away I'm convicted that that anger is wrong and I repent.

And if I've acted badly with them, I'll even tell them, "I'm sorry". But if I wasn't serving Christ, I wouldn't do that. I might get mad and tell 'em off and have a little fleshly fit. There's a difference in planning to sin and knowing that you're doing it and just making a mistake and as soon as you realize you made it, repenting, and asking God to forgive you. Esau was very impatient. He'd been out hunting, and he came in and he was hungry, and he didn't want to wait for dinner, and his brother Jacob had boiled and made a pot of stew and he asked for a bowl of the stew and Jacob, who was a swindler and a trickster, said, "If you sell me your birthright, I'll give you a bowl of stew," and Esau said, "Well, what good's that birthright doing me now? I'm hungry".

See, he was the man who wanted everything right now. "I'm hungry, right now, and I'm gonna give up this birthright," even though that was one of the most wonderful things that a man could have in those days was that birthright, the prayer of blessing prayed over the firstborn and the double portion of the inheritance that they received. Man, he was throwing away a lot. He was throwing away his inheritance just to get a bowl of stew. And the Bible says, that later on, he was so sorry that he did it, but he had no place to reverse what he had done.

I wanna really encourage you today as we prepare to close not to do things now that are gonna cause you to live in regret later on. My father, who's been gone now for a good number of years and thankfully he's in heaven, but he only had three peaceful years in his life. He waited until he was 83 before he received Christ and repented for the abuse that he perpetrated on me when I was a child. And from 83 to 86, I saw a changed man. He had some peace in his life.

But I know that he died with a lot of regrets and I'm praying for you right now that you'll start making right decisions now so you don't live in regret later on. Thank you for being with us today. You can call our office if you have any questions or if we can help you. Thank you for being with us, and I'll see you next time.