Joyce Meyer - Fighting Back Against Fear - Part 1

Ginger Stache: Hello, and welcome to, «Enjoying Everyday Life». Well, roll up your sleeves because it is time to fight back. That’s right. Today, we are fighting back against that opponent that we all know far too well, fear. Today, it has met its match. So, join in this conversation from a talk it out podcast as we share ways to trust God and face fear rather than running from it.

Ginger Stache: We are going to talk about something that’s really important because it impacts all of our lives and especially in the world today. We live in a world that is full of fear. And so, Joyce is here with us, Erin and I are gonna talk about how to deal with fear in our lives and how to help overcome it. And just to start with something silly.

Erin Cluley: I laughed: I don’t even know what it is.

Ginger Stache: One of the fears I have, and I’ve really gotten over it because it’s become just such a part of my life, is embarrassing myself all the time, and, you know, having silly things happen. And so, now, it’s just like, I’m not afraid of it anymore. It’s just part of what happens.

Erin Cluley: Just embrace it.

Ginger Stache: So, for example, when Joyce went to «Good morning America» and was going to be on there, I was able to go with her, and we pulled up in New York city, at the studio, and there’s paparazzi outside and they’re yelling at Joyce and taking pictures. She gets out and Dave gets out. I’m the last one to get out of the car. And I go to step out and, you know, you think you’d like to make a graceful entrance. I just tumbled to the ground.

Joyce Meyer: It wasn’t a car: it was an SUV.

Ginger Stache: Yes.

Joyce Meyer: Makes it taller.

Ginger Stache: Yeah, and I just tumbled down the steps and laid there as they took pictures.

Erin Cluley: Oh my, you fell out of the SUV into the line of paparazzi.

Ginger Stache: I fell out of it. And, you know, fortunately, nobody cared what I was doing. You know, they were there to take pictures of Joyce, and none of it mattered. But the point is when you’re sitting there, after you’ve fallen out of the SUV…

Ginger Stache: You think, «Perfect. This is just what I wanted. This is the entrance I wanted to make».

Erin Cluley: How long did you sit there? Because when those moments happen, you have to decide, «Do I just pretend, I’m fine, and everything’s okay»?

Ginger Stache: Jump up and say, «I meant to do that». Yeah, that wasn’t gonna work.

Ginger Stache: I don’t think I sat there a long time. I know I got up laughing because that’s just, you know, the natural thing for me anyway.

Erin Cluley: It’s either that or cry, so.

Ginger Stache: And that’s part of the fears I think that we all have is that it’s, «What might happen»? «What am I going to do that will make me look silly»? «What’s gonna happen in the world that I have no control over»?

Joyce Meyer: «What do people think»?

Ginger Stache: Exactly.

Erin Cluley: Yeah, that fear of rejection is huge.

Ginger Stache: So, all those things, we wanna talk about maybe a healthier way to deal with those fears.

Joyce Meyer: And, you know, people have a lot of unique fears. I mean, things that you might not ever think of. Whatever it is you might be afraid of, you don’t need to feel silly, or you can talk to God about it. You can talk to a good friend about it. You just, I think one of the worst things that we do is try to hide things. And then those things that are hidden become like little pots of poison on the inside of you.

Ginger Stache: That’s very true.

Erin Cluley: When I shared, I think it was years ago, when we first started doing the show, I think I shared a couple of my fears. And I was so embarrassed. But I thought, «Well, just tell it like it is». And so, I remember hearing other people say, «Oh, me too». And the freedom that I felt that I am not the only one that has these ridiculous fears. And it wasn’t that it was the same. It’s the fact that I’m not alone in having to work out these things and figure out how to handle them.

Ginger Stache: Do you think there are so many things in the world today that are naturally fear provoking? So, how do you work through some of those fear of the unknown things?

Joyce Meyer: Well first of all, I think that trusting God has a lot to do with this. Like, there’s so many random shootings and things that could make a person just be afraid to even go out their front door. And I’m just not afraid. I don’t ever think like that. But I believe that’s because I trust God with my life, you know. I’m not leaving this earth unless it’s my time to leave. And so, nobody really can do anything to me because God’s got me.

Ginger Stache: That’s such a good point because bad things do happen. They do.

Erin Cluley: It tells us in the Bible. I mean, in this world you will have trials.

Ginger Stache: Right. But all of it’s out of our control and it’s all in his control. And fear’s not gonna change it. So, we’re gonna begin with Joyce telling us in a teaching that we do not have to be wimpy, fearful Christians, which is important news, and it might change a lot of our lives.

Joyce Meyer: We’ve heard it said, I haven’t personally counted them, but I’ve heard it enough that I believe there are 365 «Fear Not’s» in the Bible, 1 for every day of the year. I think that’s a good indication of God letting us know that fear may come to us every single day in some way. And tonight I wanna teach you about the fear of trouble, trials, and tribulation. And I just wanna start out by saying that there’s really no need to fear them. I can promise you that you’ll have them. A girl said to me one time, a friend of mine, she was in her early '40s, and she’d gotten pregnant for the first time, and she was really afraid of giving birth. And she said, «I’m just so afraid that it’s gonna hurt». I said, «I can solve that for you». «You can»? I said, «You don’t have to be afraid of it. It will hurt. But millions of women have done it, and they’re still alive».

We can’t let ourselves start to fear something that is sure to happen anyway because if we fear it it’s only going to make the pain of it all that much worse. You know yourself even if you have pain somewhere in your body like I’ve had my chiropractor say when my back got hurt about a year and a half ago, and it was really pretty bad. That was when I started using this chair, and since then I’ve decided I like it. I figure I’m just old enough. I can do what I want to, and sometimes I wanna sit down, so that’s that. You get bolder when you get older. Did you know that? You’re not tryin' to impress anybody anymore. You’re not, you know, you’re just pretty much free to be who you are and do what you please, you know?

And he’s told me, you know, «Try not to tense up and be too careful, or if your neck is hurt the more you do this». So the more we’re afraid of the pain, the worse that it gets, and it’s that way in any area of life. What do they tell you to do when you’re givin' birth? «Breathe, relax, breathe, relax». And so I just wanna use that principle and share it with you tonight that anything that you fear, the fearing of it is going to make it worse. If you know you’re gonna have to go through it anyway, then it’s totally useless to fear it.

What you need to say is, «God is gonna give me the grace when the time comes, and I can do whatever I need to do through Christ who strengthens me». Life is not easy. We all know that. But God has equipped us with the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to do difficult things with a smile on our face and joy in our heart. We are anointed by the Holy Spirit for hard. Amen? Did you hear me? We are anointed by the Holy Spirit for hard. We don’t have to have everything easy. We are not wimpy. We are full of the Holy Ghost, warriors. We have the power of God in our lives to enable us to do great things.

Ginger Stache: That’s so encouraging.

Erin Cluley: It is.

Ginger Stache: I mean, that alone, that God helps us through all the things that we are anointed to be able to do hard things because of him who strengthens us, that alone takes a lot of the edge off of that fear.

Joyce Meyer: Yeah, there are hard things in life, and we don’t even have to look ahead and be afraid. After the way I was raised, I grew up rooted in fear because of the abuse from my dad. And really, that’s the main thing I remember about my childhood was just fear, being afraid all the time. And it’s such a terrible way to live. But, you know, now that I know who I am in Christ, and I know that the same power that raised him from the dead dwells in me and that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, I think if you see yourself that way and you think of yourself that way, then you will automatically respond differently to things. Because of the way I was raised, I grew up just, I always had this feeling around me and my atmosphere like waiting for the next problem to happen because I had so many problems.

Ginger Stache: Yeah, understandable.

Joyce Meyer: And I think I thought, you know, well, «If I expected problems, then I wouldn’t be disappointed when they came». And God has done such a work in me. You know, I was so negative, and now I’m very positive, and I was fearful and now I’m bold. You know, we just want people to know that if you’re afraid, you don’t have to stay afraid. The word «Fear» actually means, in the Greek, it’s called «Phobos» and it literally means: flight or to run away from things.

Ginger Stache: To run away, yeah.

Joyce Meyer: And what God wants us to do is face things. The only way that you can overcome fear is by confronting that fear. And I remember when God told me it was time for me to go and confront my dad about what he had done to me. You know, the crazy thing about sexual abuse is you don’t talk about it. Nobody talks about it. It just happens and then nobody talks about it. So, I had never, you know, talked to him. I mean, I tried a couple times to get him to stop. I wrote him a letter once and, you know, he would just get madder and madder. And so, I went, in the power of God, and I was shaking, I was shaking like crazy, but I sat down in front of him. He was sitting on a recliner, and I sat down on the floor, and I said, «It’s time we need to talk about what you did to me when I was a kid». And of course, his first response was just to get really angry.

Ginger Stache: That had to be really intimidating, a scary thing to do.

Joyce Meyer: It was important for me though to do that because you can’t, the longer you run from things and hide from things, the more they have power over you. But if we confront them, in the power of God, it begins to take that power away from that enemy that’s trying to rule you with that fear. And what you run from, when you run from things, God always takes you back and makes you face 'em. You know, Moses ran from Egypt and God sent him back to Egypt.

Ginger Stache: Yeah. They come back around, don’t they? At one time or another.

Joyce Meyer: Yeah, they do.

Erin Cluley: I bet that was very, like you said, very intimidating and scary. So, how did you know was it the Holy Spirit that showed you it’s the time to do this even though you were probably really scared? Or how did you know when to lean into going forward even through the fear, or «This is not a good choice, I need to not do it»?

Joyce Meyer: Well, actually God had put on my heart months and months before that, «The time is gonna come when I’m gonna tell you to go and confront your dad».

Erin Cluley: So, he prepared you.

Joyce Meyer: And he said, «It’s not now, but I want you to know that it’s coming». And so, that did kind of help prepare me. And one night all I heard was, «It’s time». And I knew exactly what he meant. And I didn’t really get into a lot of thinking about it. I just had made my mind up I was gonna do what God told me to. I got up, I told Dave, «It’s time». Because I had told him what I felt like God had said to me and we just went and did it. And the conversation wasn’t too long because he got very upset, but he started trying to blame it on me. And I said, «Everything that I did, I did because I was petrified of you. You controlled me with fear». And then he got like this different look on his face, I think he lied to himself to justify what he was doing that I actually liked what he was doing, which was stupid. And of course, my mother was there in the house, and it had never been brought out in the open to her, although she knew about it, and didn’t do anything about it. So, it was quite a dramatic scene. But I did what God told me to do. And there were other talks that we had later, but that was the first opening to say, «What you did was wrong, and I need you to know that I know that it was wrong».

Ginger Stache: So, essentially, you’ve talked to everyone about doing it afraid and that’s what you had to do.

Joyce Meyer: I had to do it afraid.

Ginger Stache: You knew that it was time, you had a lot of fear, but you had to face that fear and do it anyway. And it didn’t really go the way, I’m sure, you had hoped that it would go.

Joyce Meyer: No, I was hoping that he would, you know, repent and say he was sorry. But the way I got this teaching on «Do it afraid» was I read a story about a woman, she’s a Christian woman, but she had just let fear control her for many, many years of her life. And she was telling a friend of hers all about, you know, «I can’t go out and drive at night. I can’t», you know, she’s telling all these things, «I’m afraid, I’m afraid, I’m afraid, I’m afraid». And her Christian friend just looked at her and very calmly said, «Well, why don’t you just do it afraid»? And, man, all of a sudden, I thought, «Yeah»! Just because you feel fear doesn’t mean you can’t do something. I mean, if your knees are shaking, you can still do it, you know.

Ginger Stache: And it doesn’t mean it will go perfectly either.

Joyce Meyer: It doesn’t mean it will go perfectly. But we let fear stop us. And the thing is, is that faith is the only thing that will overcome and conquer fear. They’re two opposing forces. We receive everything that we receive from God by faith, and we receive the lies and the torments of satan through fear. And so, the thing to do is to start facing the fears and just remember that fear means to take flight or to run away from. And you can’t, you’ll never get rid of the fear if you don’t face it.

Erin Cluley: This teaching, your teaching on «Do it afraid,» has drastically changed my life because some of that is just by nature my personality to be, I like to have control. And so, I like to know what’s going to come. And so, it feels very scary to me to not be able to see the future in some aspects. It’s not all aspects of life, but there are certain areas where that lack of control makes me feel really uncomfortable. It feels scary. And so, to flip the script that I’m not, I think you call us at some point, not puny, pathetic Christians, that I am not pathetic.

Joyce Meyer: Wimpy.

Erin Cluley: Wimpy. Yeah, yeah. And you said that today too, that I’m not wimpy, that I have the power and authority that Christ has given me. Like, if I walk in that, I should stand upright and know that, «Yes, this might be hard and this might be scary, and I might fall on my face. But even if, I can still do it, and I can still take a step forward». And I think that it is a whole perspective shift in our minds to see ourselves with that authority in Christ and not just as this weak little Christian who I might get hurt or it might go bad, and I might fail. That changes my posture and how I approach things.

Joyce Meyer: And make your mind up ahead of time, «I will not live in fear».

Erin Cluley: No.

Joyce Meyer: Even to confess that out loud, several times a day, especially if you’re afraid, «I will not live in fear. I will not fear, for you are with me».

Ginger Stache: You know, I’ll give you an example in my life. And this is kind of a two-part fear maybe. I don’t know. But I remember reading, «Me and my big mouth,» years and years ago, long before I worked at Joyce Meyer Ministries. And it talked about how satan can’t hear our thoughts, but he will take advantages of the things that we say, and use them against us. Well, then I became afraid to say, you know, «Oh no, if I say a fear out loud, then satan’s going to use it against me». Well, I’m not naturally a real fearful person, you know, but there are those things that can really wreak havoc on me. And so, one of those is illness, especially, you know, like stomach issues. And I really don’t like to vomit. I don’t like it. And so, I start to get fearful when I start to not feel well. And so, over the past few days, you know, tim, my husband, was out of town, and I started not feeling well. And I started getting fearful. «What will I do»? You know, «I’m gonna start getting really sick. There’s no one here to help me. What if I need to get to a doctor»? You start thinking all of those things. Well, it doesn’t do any good to think those things because you figure it out, if and when, it comes. But instead, it becomes worse, and physically you start to get worse because you’re thinking in that way. And so, that’s just one of those areas that I can get fearful. And of course, it happened. I was so sick for 24 hours, or whatever it may be, but I survived. And, you know, you kind of have to look back at those things and think, you know, «God walked me through it».

Joyce Meyer: And you had at least a hundred people here you could call for help if you needed to.

Ginger Stache: Oh, absolutely! So many of those fears really aren’t founded. It’s not like anything is contingent on the one thing that you’re afraid of.

Erin Cluley: I think it’s so important that we remember to do that, that we look back on what we came through. That even though it was scary and even though my knees were shaking, I can look back and see, «No, you did that, Erin, because God gave you the strength to walk through it, even though you were terrified».

Ginger Stache: Right.

Erin Cluley: Nobody left…

Joyce Meyer: David said that when he was facing Goliath. He remembered the bear and the lion that he had killed with his own hands. And that gave him the strength to not run from Goliath, which everybody else was doing.

Ginger Stache: So, is it okay to admit our fears?

Joyce Meyer: Sure, yeah. Like everything, the more you hide it, the longer you’re gonna keep it.

Ginger Stache: No, that’s really true.

Joyce Meyer: And to bring it out in the open. And who cares if somebody thinks you’re silly, or, you know, like, afraid to wear socks, or not to wear socks or whatever. It’s like, we’ve all got our own stuff. You know, it would not frighten me at all to stand up in front of 10 million people and talk. But I would not like to go into a fast-food restaurant, if I wasn’t eating there, and ask if I could use the bathroom or if I could have a cup of water. So, there’s just certain things that, you know.

Ginger Stache: Yeah, we all have our buttons.

Joyce Meyer: Yeah.

Erin Cluley: I wanted to ask a question about, because you shared your story of when you talked to your dad. I imagine you had kids in the house at that time?

Joyce Meyer: Oh yeah.

Erin Cluley: So, how did you navigate walking through fear while you’re also trying to probably teach your kids to not walk in fear? Because it’s a really interesting dynamic for me to teach my kids, «We don’t have to be afraid. We’re gonna do it afraid». And me thinking, «But I’m terrified and I don’t want to do something either». So as a parent.

Joyce Meyer: Well, I don’t think I was showing them that particular fear that I had. You know, I kept that hidden. And, you know, I tried to teach my kids not to be afraid when they manifested fear in their life. But just because you have a fear, I don’t think that means that’s automatically gonna get off on one of your kids. You know, you still continue to encourage them. I mean, I think it’s good sometimes to say, you know, «Mommy has things that she is afraid of too, but I just face 'em, and conquer 'em, in the power of Jesus».

Erin Cluley: Sure.

Ginger Stache: Well, that is one of those things though, that is every parent’s fear is that something will happen to our kids.

Joyce Meyer: Yeah.

Ginger Stache: And yeah, so, even trusting God with our children, it’s a really hard thing to do and not walk in fear, at times, when we’re starting something new with them or something could go wrong. So, what advice do you have for parents with something like that?

Joyce Meyer: Trust. Trust in God. Praying over your children. My youngest child is now 45 and I still pray pretty much every day that God will protect my children, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren, which I now have 10 of, and Dave and i, from accidents, and from sickness and disease, and that his protection will be on us. And so, if you pray in faith believing… Now, you’ve done your part, you know, if something does happen, then you deal with it, you know, the way that you need to deal with it according to whatever the situation is. But everything, really, if you wanna have any peace, it always, at least, for me now, it always comes down to one thing, and that’s trust God.