Joyce Meyer - Confidence (NEW)
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Well, thank you for joining me today on, "Enjoying Everyday Life". You know, this program today, is just for you, because we love you and we care about you. And we want you to be bold and courageous and full of confidence. And there's so many people that the devil has stolen their confidence. And God wants you to have it back if that's you. You know, when a person lacks confidence, they have a very hard time making decisions. They are afraid to try things. They don't live a very adventurous life. They do the same thing over and over and over. Whatever is safe is what they do. But if you have confidence, you can step out in things knowing that even if you make a mistake, it's okay. You're not a failure because you fail at something. You're only a failure if you give up and refuse to try again.
The Bible says that, "A righteous man falls down seven times and gets up again". You know, we just keep trying and keep trying. Now, the thing that really makes you confident, if you believe it, is that God loves you. God loves you, yes, I said you. And he loves you unconditionally. That means there's never a moment in time when God doesn't love you. And no matter how many things you do right, no matter how much better you behave, God will never love you any more than he does at this moment right now, because he is love, he is perfect love. And the Bible says that, "Perfect love casts out fear".
I want you to be confident and bold and courageous, and to step out in faith and do the things you believe God is asking you to do, without fear of failure. Confidence gives you the freedom to be yourself without apology. You know, we're all different and you don't have to be like somebody else. If you're comparing yourself with somebody else, people even compare themselves spiritually with other people. I don't pray as much as they do, so something's wrong with me. I don't read the word as much as they do, so something's wrong with me. No, you do what God puts in your heart, and don't try to copy what everybody else does. God is never going to help you be somebody else.
Come on, I want you to have the freedom to be yourself. Maybe you're like I was at one time. You've tried to be so many different people that you don't even know who you are anymore. I tried for a long time to be like my husband who's real laid back and easy going, and always positive, always in a good mood. And that just wasn't me. I'm a little better now, but certainly wasn't me in the beginning. And I so wanted to be like him and I tried to be like him. And I tried to be like my next-door neighbor who was very artsy. I mean, she painted their house. She mowed the grass. She just did all kinds of things, made her family's clothes, had a garden, canned tomatoes.
And I tried to do all that, and I failed at all of it because God was not gonna help me be somebody else. And he didn't ask me to grow a garden so he wasn't gonna anoint my garden. God had called me to teach the word. But the enemy would tell me, "You're not a regular woman. You need to be a regular woman," whatever that is? You know, when you start dealing with God, regular is different for every person. You don't have to be like somebody else. You don't have to try to live up to everybody else's expectations. You have the freedom to say, "No". If you don't believe that God wants you to do something, then you can tell the person who's requesting that you do something, "I'm sorry, but I just don't feel like that God has released me to do that". And if they're really a friend, they'll say, "Good, I don't want you to do anything that God does not want you to do".
Are you a people pleaser? Wow, that's a misery waiting to happen. Galatians 1:10, very favorite scripture of mine. Paul said, "Am I trying to win the favor of men or of God"? You might ask yourself that today. Are you living to please God or to please people? Are you afraid of being rejected? Are you afraid that people won't like you anymore if you don't do everything they want you to do? Well, some of them won't. But if you're not free to be yourself, you are going to be miserable. "Do I seek to please men? If I were still seeking popularity with men, I would not be an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ". Wow! Paul is actually saying, "If I were trying to be popular with people, I would have missed the whole call on my life".
And you know, I can say that too, because when God called me into a teaching ministry, it wasn't something that very many women did. I don't think I was really totally aware of that. I might have been more scared if I was, but I just knew that he called me, that he filled my heart with a desire to teach his word. And I just went about doing it and started losing friends and family members. And I didn't understand it. I didn't understand why I was getting that kind of rejection. And it was because people didn't want me to do something that they didn't think I should do.
A lot of people are controllers and manipulators. If you don't do what they want you to do, then they don't want anything to do with you. Well, you know what? You don't need that kind of friends. You're better off to be just with God, than to be with people who want to control you. Can you say, "No," when you know that you should? Or do you let fear of man keep you from following your own heart? I want you to think about what I'm saying, and answer these questions for yourself, because today is a day to make a decision that you're gonna change. Do you strive for perfection so you can feel good about yourself? Or do you already know how special you are to God? God has created you special. If you knew really how amazing you are, you would never let the devil steal your confidence again.
And see, some of you, even when I said that, you just like, "I'm not amazing". Yes, you are! You are amazing! You are fearfully and wonderfully made. God put you together just the way you are on purpose with his own hand in your mother's womb. He was very careful about it. And God has a plan for you. But you have to have confidence if you're gonna step out and begin to walk in that plan. What is faith? Faith is stepping out into something, not knowing 100% for sure what's gonna happen, just believing in your heart that this is what you're supposed to do.
You know, people many times say to me, "How do I know if I'm hearing from God"? Well, sometimes the only way you're gonna know is to step out and find out. Step out and find out. People wanna, "How do I know if I can hear from God? Can I hear from God"? Yes, you can hear from God. You can be led by the Holy Spirit. Many times, God just leads you by a knowing, just a knowing. Someone wrote me and asked me, "How can I know when I'm marrying the right person"? Well, you know because you feel right about it. You enjoy the person. You love them. You have a fondness for them. You're thrilled to be with them. They feel the same way about you. It's just right. And you know it in your heart.
When God speaks to us, he doesn't always come with a megaphone and yell in our ears. Most of when I hear from God is just a knowing. I just know inside that it's right. And I believe it. And I take a step forward. And if I find out it wasn't God, then I step back, say, "I'm sorry, Lord". And I step out and try again. But see, if you have no confidence, then you're not going to do that. You're gonna be afraid. And you're gonna live this isolated, little bitty, lonely life because you lack confidence. And confidence is really just another word for faith. You have faith. God gives every man the measure of faith that he needs for the life that God has called him to live. Do you feel controlled by other people? Are you letting them control you because you won't set boundaries for them in your life?
You know, we need to set boundaries for ourselves. I'll do this much of this, but I won't do anymore. I'll spend this much money, but I won't spend any more. We need to set boundaries for our children, boundaries for our friends, boundaries for our spouse. And a boundary is a line that I draw for you, that you can't cross. You know, I can't blame my neighbor if his dog comes and poops in my yard if I don't have a fence. A fence is a boundary that keeps him out. One of the greatest freedoms that God offers us is the freedom to be who he created us to be. Do you feel like that you're being your really true self? Or are you just pretending to be what you think everybody wants you to be?
You know, the problem with that is everybody wants you to be somebody else. Your kids want one thing, your spouse wants another. Your parents want another. Your friends want another. And we have to be free to be ourselves and trust God to give us favor with the people that we are supposed to be with. You know, in Romans 12, it tells us, "Not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the entire renewal of our mind". You know, I hope and pray that you read the Word of God, that you study the Word of God. But even beyond that, I hope when you do that you believe it. I think a lot of people read it, and they believe it for somebody else, but they don't believe it for themselves. You can be bold and strong and confident and courageous.
Well, what is confidence? Self-confidence is confidence in yourself, but our confidence should be in Christ. In Philippians 4:13, it says, "I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me [I'm ready for anything and equal to anything through him who infuses inner strength into me: I'm self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency]". I love that attitude. "I'm ready for the day, whatever it brings, I can handle it because Christ is in me. And I have the faith, the confidence that I can do whatever I need to do today through Christ, who I know loves me and is for me and wants me to be a winner in life. He wants me to be successful in life. I am confident in Christ's confidence".
In Philippians 3:3, Paul said, "For we [Christians] Are the true circumcision, who worship God in spirit and by the spirit...And we put no confidence or dependence [on what we are] In the flesh and on outward privileges and physical advantages". But our confidence should be in Christ. Look as good as you can, but don't put your confidence in that. Don't put your confidence in who you know. Maybe you know some important people, maybe you don't. But your confidence can't be in them, because you never know when somebody's gonna not be in your life anymore. Your confidence should not be in what you own, what kind of car you drive, how many degrees you have, how educated you are, what your job is.
You know, to God, being a janitor is just as important as being the CEO of a company. It's all about doing what you believe God wants you to do. Don't ever feel like that the job that you do determines your worth and value. It's who you are in Christ, not what you do that matters. You know, I've been in ministry now for over 40 years. And what if someday I can't do this anymore? Does that mean then that I have no value? No, I'll still be Joyce Meyer. God will still love me. I'll still have a relationship with him. And you know what? The time that we spend here on earth is very, very short. We all say, I don't know where all the time went.
But you know what? It does just keep going by day after day after day. And soon, like me, you'll be at the end of your life. And then we face God for judgment. And I want to spend eternity with him. I don't wanna go to the wrong place. I wanna go to the right place. And that means I need to do what's right now, while I'm living here in the earth. I don't wanna be like the world. I wanna be like Jesus, be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Our confidence should be in him. When we lean on him and we put our faith in him, everything we lay our hand to prospers and succeeds, if what we're doing is his will for us.
When I stepped out to teach the Word of God, I started small with a few people that I invited where I worked, to go to a Bible study on Wednesday mornings. And then because it was a union company, they asked me to not have it any, you know, not to be trying to do it in connection with work. So I moved it to my home. And I thought that was gonna be probably the end of it because my home was a long way away from where the job was. But lo and behold, it grew from 12 to 25, and then sometimes 30. And I had that home Bible study for five years. Five years, I did that. But you know what? I had no reason in the natural to believe that God actually was calling me to do that. I had to step out in faith. I had to have the confidence to try it.
Come on, could you just have the confidence to try it and know that God loves you enough that if you fail, it's okay? You know, I'd rather try to do something and fail, than try to do nothing and succeed. If you try to do something and it doesn't work for you, God's not gonna love you any less. He's going to be proud of you because you tried. And if you keep trying, you will run into the right thing. You'll run into the thing that suits you. I kind of feel like it's sometimes finding God's will is like going out to buy a new outfit. I go out and I might try on, depending on what it is, if it's a special party, I might try on 20 different things until I find what fits and is comfortable.
And that's what you need to do in your life. You need to find what fits, what's comfortable, what's right for you. Don't try to make your choices to impress anybody else. You know, we're never really free as long as we're living to impress other people. Care more about your reputation in heaven, than you care about your reputation on earth. You know, I really want you to get this today, because I know that if you have no confidence, that you suffer from that, that you live in fear. You don't know how to make decisions. You're always asking somebody else what you should do. And I want you to be strong and bold and to have the confidence to step out and find out and not be afraid that if you make a mistake, it's the end of it.
If you step out and you realize that it's really not you, it's not what you thought it was gonna be, then you just step back and you try something else. Don't be afraid to try. I had no formal training. I'd never had a public speaking class. Nobody ever showed me how to put together a sermon. But you know what? What God calls you to do, he equips you to do. And God just supernaturally showed me all those things. A lot of our friends were against us. A lot of family was against us. But guess what? God was for us. And if you have God on your side, it doesn't matter who's against you. And I want you to know today that no matter who's against you, it doesn't really matter because God is with you. God loves you. He approves of you.
You say, "Oh, he can't approve of me". He approves of you because you believe in him, not because you do everything right. Jesus died for us because he knew we would not be able to do everything right. And you know what? You can be confident even if you don't feel confident. When I do my conferences, I usually sit in some chairs off to the side during worship and announcements and things like that. And then when it comes time for me to go up and speak, I don't always feel confident, but I stand up there and I just be confident. And sometimes it'll even take me three or four minutes before I start to feel like I'm locking in, so to speak, and everything's right. Don't base everything on your feelings.
"Well, I just don't feel confident". Well, you know, there's a lot of times that I don't feel confident, but I go ahead and do it anyway, and then the confidence comes. If you will believe the Word of God and you'll do what it says, the feelings that you need will come in due time. You might feel that nobody loves you, but God always loves you. And I'm talking to you, I'm not talking to somebody else. I'm talking to you today. God loves you.
And maybe you've heard that over and over and you kind of sort of believe it. You believe it for other people, but I want it to get down in your heart that God loves you, and he has a purpose for you. And he sees you. He knows you. He knows everything about you. He knows what you're gonna do next. You don't know, I don't know. But he knows. And he's gone before you and prepared a way for you that you might walk in it. You might feel afraid, but you know, you can do it afraid if you know how much God loves you. In other words, I don't have to wait until I feel bold and courageous.
What happens is I step out and then it comes. That's the step of faith that we take. And then the feelings that we need come after that. Is there something that you wanna do, something you believe that you should do, but you're letting a lack of confidence stop you? Well, you know, fear has to be confronted before it will go away. It's not gonna dissipate unless you confront it. And to confront it means you're willing to do it even while you feel afraid, if that's what you believe God wants you to do. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is going forward while fear is still present. You have got so much going for you. You're so full of so many wonderful things, but you need to begin to acknowledge them.
Stop letting the devil fill your head full every day of everything that's wrong with you. And I dare you to look at what's right with you. You say, "Oh, I couldn't do that". Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of things right with you. I'll tell you what I think. I'm bold, I'm courageous. I've been made the righteousness of God in Christ. God loves me. He has a good plan for my life. Today, I believe I'm gonna have favor everywhere that I go. I'm talented, I have abilities. God is with me at all times. Start believing good things about yourself and confessing them out loud. You will be absolutely amazed at the difference it will make in your life. I wanna pray for you right now.
Father, I pray in Jesus' name, that all the people watching that need confidence will realize that they have to step out and find out. And when they step out and they see God bring them through things, then they'll begin to feel confident. Help them do everything that you want them to do, and to resist the devil. In Jesus' name, amen. I'm so glad you were with us today. And I hope you just do something amazing that will just make the devil so mad. But God will be glad and you will be glad too. I pray you'll join us again next time, in Jesus' name, amen.