Joyce Meyer - Do Enough But Not Too Much - Part 2 (04/22/2025)
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Joyce Meyer shares a heartfelt message on finding true rest in God amid life's constant changes and stresses. She teaches that real exhaustion comes from inner junk like anger and unforgiveness, not just work, and urges believers to sit in God's presence first, forgive quickly, trust Him during trials, and enjoy life by obeying His Word—because Jesus already finished His part, leaving us His peace.
Resting in God Before Running the Race
You know, the apostle Paul had a pretty tough ministry. He went through a lot of hardships in order to preach the gospel. He was beaten several times, had no food several times. Just, if you go through the list, it’s just, you wonder «How did he possibly make it through that»? And he said it was because he didn’t look to what was seen, but he looked to what was unseen. In 2 Corinthians 4:8, he said, «We are hedged in and (pressed) on every side [troubled and oppressed in every way], but we’re not cramped or crushed: we suffer embarrassments and we’re perplexed and unable to find a way out, but we’re not driven to despair: we are pursued (persecuted and hard driven), but not deserted [to stand alone]: we are struck down to the ground, but never struck out and destroyed».
So, I like that. He’s telling you what the problem is, but he’s also saying, «I’ve got hope because I know that I’m gonna get the help that I need». And then, in verse 16, he said, «We don’t become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Even though our outer man is [progressively] Decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] Renewed day after day».
So, you have two lives. You have an outer life: you have an inner life. How many of you are noticing that your outer man is changing? Falling. I don’t know why everything goes down, you know. There would be a nice time when gravity would go up. And you know, I’m 81 ½ pretty soon, now. And, yes, I work hard on it. And, you know, I constantly see changes in my body. And so, I don’t care for that phrase that «I’m constantly wasting away,» but it’s true. However, inside, I feel like I’m 25 or 30, you know? And that’s what… You gotta stay strong inwardly. You know we’re always praying for things, but Paul prayed that people would be strengthened in the inner man by the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling them and their personality.
Inner Strength Through God's Word
You need to stay strong inside, that’s why you need the word on a regular basis. It’s interesting to me that some people can’t believe the Word of God, but they believe somebody that they’ve never even heard of who says something stupid on the internet, and they believe that. I mean, I thought about that tonight. I thought, «How goofy is that»? Or you’ll hear some newscaster say some crazy thing and believe that, but when God says something, you’re like, «Well, I don’t know if I can believe that».
God is the most trustworthy, truthful, entity that we will ever, ever, ever know. And you can believe every word that he says. And the Bible tells us we will have trials and tribulations, but it also tells us that if we continue to believe in God, he will always work it out for our good. And I believe that because I’ve seen it work in my life and I’ve seen it work in the lives of other people. And sometimes, things that look really bad to us actually, are good, we just don’t see it the way that God sees it.
How many of you have done most of your spiritual growing in the hard times in your life? Well, that’s one of the reasons why we have them. Because sometimes, you won’t believe God if you don’t have to. But when you have to, you hang on to him. And so, then he goes on to say, he calls these troubles that he’s having «Light momentary afflictions». Wow. Light momentary afflictions. Because «We consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen». You see, we live in two realms. We live here on the earth, but we also live in the spirit realm. And actually, God wants us to see the unseen. You don’t see it with your natural eyes, but we have eyes of faith, and we have ears of faith.
That’s why Jesus told the people, «You have ears to hear and you hear not, you have eyes to see, and you see not». And he wasn’t talking about their natural eyes and ears, he was talking about their spiritual eyes and ears. «For the things…» Now, I want you to hear this, «For the things that are visible…» The things we can see, «(are brief and fleeting)…» that means they’re not gonna last. Nothing that we look at in this world is gonna last. It’s already in the process of decay, and one day it’s all gonna just move out of the way, and Jesus is gonna come in the clouds. «But the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting».
Overcoming Inner Stress and Junk
Now, I’ve had it on my heart for a while now that I needed to do some teaching on faith, and I’ve been doing this long enough that when God keeps putting something on my heart, I know I need to do it, whether it makes any sense to me or not. And, you know, we think, well, these are faith people. But really, how much do we live by faith? How much do we walk by faith? And what do we use our faith for? What are you doing with your faith? You know, a lot of times we just try to use our faith when we’re in trouble or when we want something, or when we need something. But you know, there’s a very interesting scripture, it’s really kind of… Little bit scary.
Romans 14:23 says, «Whatever is not of faith is sin». Wow. I think about that sometimes, and I never have completely gotten through that. But God wants us to do, not only are we saved by faith, but he wants us to live by faith. The same way we’re saved is the same way that we should live. We believe all kinds of things we can’t see. But when it comes to spiritual things, you know, if we could see what’s in this room right now, I believe we’d see it’s full of angels. And I don’t think there’s a demon that would dare to come in here tonight. You have angels with you all the time, all the time. The presence of God is with you all the time. And you think, «Well, I don’t feel it».
Well, maybe you need to just take one step and get out of your head. You know what I do a lot of times? I’ll just say, «God, I know you’re with me right now,» and I can close my eyes and actually, feel the presence of God. I mean like, feel in the natural, the presence of God. You know, we’re not gonna feel his presence when we’re busy and running around and all kinds of noise and doing, you know. One of the reasons why people don’t really sense the presence of God as as they should is because we’re all way too busy and in too much of a hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. That’s why you always need quiet time with God. And if you can start your morning like that, it does help the rest of your day. Before you say a word to anybody in the morning, talk to God first. I recommend starting before you get out of bed, because you never know what a day’s gonna bring.
You know, I’ve never seen gravity, but I believe in it. I mean, if you really think about all the things that you believe that you’ve never seen, then it gets a little bit easier to believe the things that God says that you haven’t seen. I’ve never seen oxygen, but I’m sure likin' it. We use it all the time, we never stop. I can’t see it. We make use of all kinds of things that we can’t see. I didn’t see Jesus die on the cross, but I know that I know, that I know, that he did. It’s interesting the things that we know.
Now, you know God is real, you believe in the Holy Spirit, you believe Jesus died for you. You’ve never seen those things, but by faith, you’ve received that and it’s become ingrained in your heart. Now, what if you could also believe just as strongly that «All things work together for good»? See, then, when you have a problem, I’m not saying that it’s enjoyable to go through, but you can believe «This is gonna work out good. I don’t know how, I don’t see how God’s gonna do it, but some way, this is going to work out good». And there are things that happen to all of us that we don’t understand, things that seem unfair, things that seem unjust. I’ve had many, many, many difficulties in my life, just like most of you have. But I’m still here.
Letting Go of Inner Junk That Causes Stress
You know, people always say, «Well, I’m going through this, and I’m going through that». Well, thank God you’re going through. You know, going through is not all that bad. At least it’s not killing you, you’re still moving. And I think instead of thinking and talking so much about what we’re going through, we should talk a little bit more about what we have come through and we’re now on the other side of it. Because you know what I just realized recently? This just kind of came out of my mouth when I was preaching: it’s a good way to say it. Once you go through, then guess what? You can go back and get somebody else that had the same problem you had, and you can bring them through. And that’s really all I’m doing.
Using the Word of God, the experience that I’ve had with God, every time you go through a difficulty, you get a little more experience with God, and every time you get a little more experience with him, it’s easier to believe what he says, that he’ll always take care of you, he’ll never leave you, he’ll never forget you, he’s with you all the time, he’ll meet your needs, he’s coming back to get you. Amen? How many of you are ready for that? He could come tonight, and I’d be fine. But except for all the people that still don’t know him. And for that reason, I pray that he tarries as long as absolutely possible. Now, I wanna share one, two, three, four, five scriptures about faith with you. And do a little preaching around them.
First one is Ephesians 2:8-9, talks about salvation. Listen to this, «It is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment…)». See, that’s what it means to be saved, you’re delivered from judgment. You’re not judged for your sins because Jesus already took your punishment. You ought to be more glad than that. Now, we do need to admit our sins, at least the ones we’re aware of. I like what David prayed. Prayed that God would forgive him even for the sins that he didn’t know he’d committed. You’re «(delivered from judgment and made a partaker of Christ’s salvation) through [your] Faith». Now, faith is not the price that buys salvation. Jesus bought it, but faith is the hand that simply reaches out and receives it. It’s interesting to me that we always say, «Did you get saved»? You can’t get salvation. «Did you get the Holy Ghost»? «Did you get your breakthrough»? «Did you get your healing»?
The word «Get» means to obtain by struggle and effort. But tonight, you can receive Jesus. And you know what the word receive means? You can receive mercy. Some of you are mad at yourself for something you did 10 years ago. You can receive mercy tonight. You can’t get it, but you can receive it. See, we can’t get anything from God because everything he gives us was bought and purchased with the blood of Christ, and now is offered to us freely if we will, by faith, receive it. And the word «Receive» means to act like a receptacle and take in what’s being offered. There’s something being offered to you, tonight. I have a way for you to stop worrying. Trust God.
The minute you have a problem pray, and give it to God. Don’t even give the devil a chance to get roots of worry down in you. You don’t have to be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow’s already been taken care of. God’s word says, «Enjoy today because tomorrow is gonna have troubles of its own». Why waste today worrying about tomorrow or yesterday? You can’t do anything about that. Oh, the Word of God is so absolutely wonderful if we can just believe it. But you gotta believe it. That’s our part.
Some of the disciples ask, it’s in John 6, «What must we do to please God»? Everybody always wants to know what they’re supposed to do. One time, we sent a survey around our office and said, «If you could ask Jesus any question, what would you like to ask him»? And you know what? The largest number of people that said the same thing, the thing they said was, «I’d like to ask him when I’ve done enough». And these are Christians working in a Christian ministry. But I think a lot of people have that, «When have I done enough? Do I need to read the Bible more? Do I need to pray more»? Well, sure, we do those things, but we’re not doing God a favor when we read the Bible. He already knows it. We’re not filling out getting our checkmark for reading the Bible, today. We need to read it, so we know what God is offering us and promising us, and because the more that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
The more you read even the same thing over and over and over, the stronger it gets rooted on the inside of you. And I commend you for being here tonight, even though there’s so many things going on in the world right now that are troublesome. And maybe there’s even people here that were greatly affected by the hurricane. Maybe there are people here that lost their homes, and yet, here you are. And I’ll tell you when we have trouble the place we need to run to is the shelter of God. You don’t run away from God, you don’t get mad at God when something happens you don’t understand, that’s when you run to him, and you say, «I know you’re good. I don’t understand what’s going on in my life, but I know that you are good». Amen?
Faith never quits, it never gives up. It doesn’t cave in when the going gets hard. Another thing the Bible says that when you receive Christ, you’re «Justified». You know what that means? To be made just as if you never sinned. You sit with a cup of coffee for about an hour and think about that. You might get happy. Now, listen to this, «And this [salvation] Is not of yourself, it’s not [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God». You cannot buy salvation with your good works. Thank you. You know, we’re New Testament believers, but so many people live as if they’re still under the law, always trying to do something to keep God happy. Don’t ever read your Bible out of obligation. Don’t pray out of obligation. You are wasting your breath to pray out of obligation.
«Well, I know I need to pray. I better say my prayers. I better read my chapter in the Bible. I won’t understand what I read after I read it, but I’ll read it». Well, you might understand more if you’d slow down and quit trying to do it for quantity and do it for quality. I determined, one time, I was gonna read the Bible through in a year. They passed out these calendars where you got check Marks if you read all six chapters a day that you had to read. I’ll never forget it: two in the Old Testament, two in the New Testament, one in Proverbs, one in Psalms. And I did pretty good and was getting my check Marks for a while, but then I started having these gaping holes. Why? Because I wasn’t even doing it for the right reason.
And one day, I read my six chapters and I heard the Lord say to me, «Now what did you learn? Come on, I want you to get, what did you learn»? And I thought, «Absolutely nothing». Not one thing. Do you know that God would rather you take one verse of scripture and read it, and chew on it, and meditate on it, and think how it applies to your life until you really get it? And then you can go on to another one. When we really start thinking about it, we still do a lot of things for wrong motives.
And our motives are very important because the Bible says that anything that we do on Judgment Day will pass before the eyes of fire, and anything that we have done with with an impure motive will be burned up. And the only thing that will be left will the good works that we did out of right motives and those will receive a reward. Don’t give to get. Give to be a blessing to somebody. And yes, the Bible says when you give you will receive. That’s a promise, we can believe that. But we don’t give to get, we give to be a blessing to somebody else.
Okay, it’s «Not because of your works», verse 9: it’s «Not the fulfillment of the law, lest any man should boast. [it is not the result of what anybody can possibly do...]». The only way you’re gonna receive salvation is just to give up. «Here I am Lord, I can’t do it. Take me just the way I am and work on me till you get me to where you want me to be». Amen? Let me tell you something, being a Christian is not boring. Amen?
How many of you always have something going on in your life? How many of you God’s working on you in some area, right now, dealing with you? Amen, well I got a new one yesterday. Ugh, not yet. Yeah, it was about my mouth again. Yeah, I get that message about once a week. Now, let’s look at what faith is. You say, «Well, it’s just believing God». No, it’s actually believing what you can’t see. What God says is true, but you can’t see. Once you can see it, you don’t need any faith.
Forgiveness and Letting Go of Inner Junk
Well, thank you for joining me today on «Enjoying Everyday Life». This is a heart-to-heart message, from my heart to yours. I know that many of you right now are going through changes in your life. And I cannot even imagine if we had all the changes that all of you that are watching are going through, we’d probably have a mountain. And some of them are changes that you’re excited about. You’ve provoked those changes. And, you know, we don’t mind change when we’re the ones that make the change. But when somebody else changes, and what they change affects us, then a lot of times we don’t like it. But if you’re going to ever have the courage to change and not be miserable the whole time it’s taking place…
Now, I want you to listen to this, because it’s very simple, but profound. You have to change your mind about change. You have to not see it as a negative, but look at it in a positive way. Yes, something has ended, but there’s a new beginning. You can’t imagine how it could be any better than the thing you gave up because we always lose something before we know what the new thing is going to be. And so, you let go, but then you have fear that there’s going to be nothing to take hold of. I can’t even imagine how Abraham felt when God told him to leave his country and his family and all that he knew and «Go to the place that I will show you». He didn’t even tell him where to go.
Just imagine Abraham just packing up his tent and getting his family and just starting to wander off through the desert. I would have probably been more tempted to say, «Well, you tell me where I’m going, and then I’ll decide if I wanna leave where I’m at». But you know, we’re always, change is just part of life. And you have to realize that if you’re resistant to change, you’re just going to be unhappy all the time. George Bernard Shaw said, «Those who cannot change their mind cannot change anything else». I like this one. John Rockefeller said, «Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great». I wonder how many people just hang on to what they know is safe, rather than going for something that they really wanna go for, but they let fear hold them back.
I wonder how many of you right now, there’s something you believe that God wants you to do, there’s something you have a desire to do in your heart, maybe it’s something as simple as color your hair, or get a different hairstyle, or change careers. Just the thought of something different can be frightening, but it doesn’t have to be if you can look at it in a very positive way. Now, I said, I don’t mind changes that I provoke, because obviously, I want the change. But when it’s hard is when somebody else changes and you’re affected by that change. Like someone told me recently that after 20 years of marriage, her husband walked in one night, she had no idea that he was unhappy, no idea there was a problem at all, and he just simply said, «I don’t wanna be married anymore». He said he didn’t have a girlfriend. He wasn’t because he had another woman. He just simply didn’t want to be married anymore.
And then somebody else told me a similar story. The man just walked in. He said, «I don’t wanna be a dad. I don’t want the whole thing. It’s just not what I wanna do». Well, that leaves a woman devastated for a period of time. First of all, you have to fight feeling rejected, feeling like it was your fault if you would have done something different. I don’t know why when other people have problems that we always take it that it’s our fault. You know, I was sexually abused by my father when I was a child and a teenager, and I felt guilty about that for years and years and years. But I didn’t do it, he did it. He had a problem, so why did I feel guilty? It’s a ploy of the devil to just make you miserable. He loves to make people feel guilty.
Anyone, I heard this statement in a book, I read this statement in a book, and it just, I thought it was awesome. «Anyone who thinks things can always stay the way they are is a fool». I asked my daughter, this morning, I said, «How do you feel about change»? I said, «You don’t seem like it bothers you». And she said, «I guess I just know that change is part of life». And I think that’s the way we have to look at it. Change is part of life. We change, our bodies change. And if yours hasn’t changed yet, just wait, because it will. Our desires change. We may wanna do something and we loved doing it for four or five years, now, all of a sudden, we don’t wanna do it anymore.
Well, you know, that’s one of the ways that I can tell when God is finished with something and he wants me to do something new. Now, I don’t just jump every time I don’t like something for a day, but if I just keep staying there and keep staying there and keep staying there, then that’s one of the ways that I can tell what God’s trying to say to me. Our friends change. You might have a really close friend for years and years, and now they’re not your friend at all. Nothing happened. Their life went one way, and your life went another. The world around us changes, and boy, is it changing now. And many of the changes we don’t like. That’s why if you’re a believer in Christ, you know that he’s got you covered and he’s gonna protect you, and you don’t have to live in fear in these last days. Change is absolutely everywhere. Prices change. Styles change.
Somebody just told me, this morning, they were gonna do a deep dive into their closet and get rid of everything. She said, «I wanna change. I wanna change my style of dress. I wanna go more classic». Well, that’ll be kind of exciting. Now, you know, my hair will always be the exact same way, so don’t expect that to change. But I do change my mind about a lot of different things. Somebody mentioned, this morning, that I’ve done a good job of changing things in the ministry as to keep up with the changes in the world. I remember when we didn’t even know what a computer was. And I remember the first person that talked to us about getting on the internet, Dave and I said, «Ah, we don’t want to mess with that». He said, «This is gonna be the future: you need to get on the internet». «Nah, we don’t want, we’re not gonna mess with that».
Well, we had to change our mind, didn’t we? Now, if you wanna communicate with people, you need to have a computer. And I’ve had to change so many things in the ministry, change the way we did our music: get younger music bands. We did 36 conferences a year, for a long time, and now we’re not doing that many conferences anymore. First of all, I’ve been at this for 48 years, and so, I’ve gotten older during those years because I didn’t start until I was in my '40s. So, you’re thinking, «Now how old does that make you»? Well, I’m 81 ½, and I just plain don’t wanna work as hard as I used to. But I have a great opportunity because I’m on television in a large part of the world, and I’ve written 150 books, and they’re translated into over 100 languages.
My grandson and his wife are in India right now. They may not be when you see this, but when I’m recording it, they’re in India. They adopted a little girl in India, and they’re there waiting for her passport. And they went in a bookstore the other day, and there were my books in Hindi. Well, that’s a wonderful opportunity for me. That’s happened over a large period of time, but all the work that I’ve done, it’s not lost. We just now are getting it to people in a different way. Please don’t get stuck in your ways, and be totally unwilling to change. Because I can tell you, if you won’t change, you will get left, as they say, «In the dust». Everybody else will move on, and you’ll still be back here trying to make the same thing work that used to work.
Now, let’s talk about your mind. What you think about how to change must change. Now, this is talking about changes that we wanna make in ourselves. You know, when you become a Christian, you very quickly start to recognize things, ways you have, and things you do that are not right, according to the Word of God. Or you’ll hear sermons that let you know that certain things are wrong according to the Bible. And the first thing we normally try to do is we try to change ourself. And so, if you wanna change, you have to change your mind about how to change because there’s no amount of just willpower that’s gonna change you. Yes, there’s a certain amount that we can do. We need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. But it is the Word of God and the Holy Spirit working in your life that’s going to change you.
And it happens gradually over a period of time. We change by prayer, including repentance, studying God’s word, and learning to fellowship with God. See, don’t think of God as just being way off in the sky somewhere. Yes, he has a throne in heaven, but he also lives inside of us. Did you hear me? Lives inside of us. In Philippians 4:13 says, «I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me». The Amplified says «I’m ready for anything equal to anything through Christ who infuses inner strength into me». So, let me tell you, whatever changes you are facing right now, don’t be afraid because God loves you, he’s got a good plan for your life, and whatever you’re losing, God can cause whatever you gain to be even better if you’ll give it an opportunity.
So, change your attitude. Ask God to help you change your attitude. And don’t be negative about it. You know, there’s a lot of things that are gonna change whether you like it or not. And so, you need to let 'em change. My son, my baby, he’s now 45. It’s kind of fun having a 45-year-old baby. He lived around the corner from me for many years. I saw him almost every single day. He’d run in the house, run out, grab something, run out. And he and his wife came one day and said, «We’re gonna move to Utah». He and his boys were really into snowboarding, and they went up there a lot to do that. And he hated the weather here. So, he said, «I just wanna move somewhere where it’s cooler and where we can snowboard whenever we want to». And the job that he’s doing here for us, he could do remotely as long as he came in once a month to have meetings.
And so, I didn’t like it when he told me he was gonna move. But he was gonna move, so there was really no point in me being distraught about it. And maybe you’re facing that now. Maybe two months ago, you had a house full of children, maybe now they’re all gone. Well, you don’t have to have the empty nest syndrome where you mourn for years and years because something has changed. My son now comes into town every month and stays about three days, and he stays with us. And so, we probably see him as much in those three days as we saw him in a month when he lived around the corner from us. And we have better quality fellowship because he’s there a lot during those three days. And he always saves a mommy day, which I appreciate. We go out to eat, he takes me shopping, and we get a good chance to catch up. That’s just an example of how something can seem so bad and yet it turned out to be better than what I had. And you may find that.
Some of you are facing some, maybe you’ve lost your job. Well, that’s a shock, nobody wants to lose their job. But that doesn’t mean that God can’t give you one that’s better. So, get a good attitude and a good confession and do your part, look for a job, and stay busy at it, and put in applications, and send out your resume, and you will get a job that’s better than the one that you lost. You see, when we’re used to one thing, we always think nothing could be any better than this, but that is just absolutely not true. Because God is God, if we mess up plan a, or if the world messes up plan a, God can make plan b be better than plan a ever would have been. Why? Because he’s God. He can do what he wants to. All things are possible with God.
I love this scripture. «Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond all that we would ever dare to hope, ask, or think, to him be glory». That’s Ephesians 3:20. He can do way beyond anything we could ever hope or think for. You can change. You can navigate change. You can survive change. You can change your mind today about change. Now, you know, the Bible’s full of rare individuals who dared to believe things could change. Nehemiah is a good example. Where he lived, the land was in a state of ruin. Their walls were torn down, which meant they had no protection from their enemies. But he dared to believe that they could be rebuilt. Most everybody else had given up.
Well, «Now we’re just prey to the enemy, and our city’s ruined. And, o, woe is me. What are we gonna do»? But nobody was doing anything. However, Jeremiah, I mean, Nehemiah came along and he said, «We can do this». Nehemiah 1:2-4 and 2:17–18, «Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. And they said to me, 'those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. Because the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates has been burned with fire'». Well, that left him totally wide open to any enemy that wanted to come in. And he said, «'when I heard these things, I sat down and I wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven'».
Now, he was mourning, but he was praying at the same time. So, while he was mourning, he obviously was believing that God could do something. «Then I said to them, 'you see the trouble we’re in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, and let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so we will no longer be in disgrace'». And I don’t have time to tell you the whole story, but I mean, they had to fight the good fight of faith to build that wall. I mean, it got down to the point where some were building and some were just protecting them from enemies but he wouldn’t give up. He refused to give up. And boy, that’s a great quality to have, be the kind of person that refuses to give up. Be the kind of person that’s determined to have the good life that God said you can have.
Now, I can just sense it right now. There are some people watching and you are hurting so bad from something that has changed in your life and you just feel like everything’s over. Well, this is God’s word to you today that it can be fixed. God can do a new thing. Matter of fact, God loves to do new things. «And I also told them about the gracious hand of my God that was on me and what the king had said to me. And they replied, 'well, let us start building'». See, sometimes all people need is a leader. They just need one person to say, «We can do it». You know, you can be that person that can say, «We can do it». «So they began the good work and they worked together. They prayed continuously. They fought enemies and opposition, but they finished the wall,» and they had a big party.
You know, Joseph believed that God could work something out of an evil and a painful situation. His brothers sold him as a slave. And he went through many different painful situations, spent 13 years in prison for something that he did not do. And it just seemed like everybody he helped would go off and forget about him. But every place that Joseph went, God gave him favor. Even in the jail, he had favor. And to make a long story short, he ended up interpreting a dream for Pharaoh, and Pharaoh put him in charge of everything. Nobody had more power than Joseph except Pharaoh. So, he went from the pit to the palace, and you can too.
Daniel believed he would not be left alone in the lion’s den. Peter believed he could be forgiven for betraying Christ and still be used by God. A woman who was sick 18 years believed she could be healed. She pressed through the crowd. Sometimes you gotta press. Don’t give up. Wherever you’re at right now, don’t give up. Don’t accept the devil’s lie that life is over and you’ll never have a good life. After being sexually abused by my dad, I mean, I thought «I’ll always have a second-rate life».
Well, boy, when you get in the Word of God and you start learning what God has to say about that, no, you never have to have a second-rate life because somebody else did you an injustice. God will actually give you double for your trouble if you trust him to do that. And yes, I had a bad beginning, but I’m having a great finish, and it’s not over yet. Paul believed that all Christians could do whatever they needed to do in life through Christ, who was their strength. I want you to believe that good things can happen to you, no matter what you’re facing right now. Come on, get a smile on your face, get excited, get stirred up, and say, «Something good is going to happen to me».
And I understand. If somebody’s left your life that you loved, if you’ve lost a loved one, they’ve passed on to be with the Lord, or maybe somebody you love died and you don’t know whether or not they were saved, that’s concerning you, cast all your care on God and enjoy the happy life that he’s given you, because whatever has changed has changed, and there’s probably nothing you can do about it. So, you might as well get in line with it and let God give you a brand-new, wonderful, powerful, exciting beginning.
We need to understand the anatomy of change. Change is a process, and sometimes it’s a longer one than we would like it to be. God has changed me. I mean, from the time I got into a serious relationship with God 48 years ago till now, I feel like my husband has been married to 20 different women. We don’t change all at once. We don’t receive Christ, go to bed, and get up the next day and we’re a totally different person.
We change as we learn, as we grow, as we study the word. Change is frightening because we like to be in control. Even if we’re willing to let go of what’s behind, we’re afraid that we’re not ever going to be able to take hold of anything that’s going to be as good as what we lost. Change occurs when we confront fear, not because we don’t feel it. And so I will just tell you, you have to have courage to change. And that’s really the main thing that I wanna say to you today is be courageous and face change boldly, believing that no matter what has happened, God can work good out of it.
Romans 8:28 says, «All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose». I’m changing all the time. We’ve had so many changes at the ministry this year, and I don’t know what’s still to come, but I’m ready for it because I trust God that he’s in control of my life. And you know what? He’s in control of yours, too. God loves you very much. You’re very special to him, and he has a good plan even in the midst of the changes that you’re going through. Thank you for being with me today. We love you, and we pray for you on a regular basis.