Joyce Meyer - An Attitude Of Trust And Patience (08/17/2019)
No matter the rotten, unfair things you've faced or are facing now, trust it all to God—He is justice itself and makes wrongs right. Stay in the Word, pray, speak agreement with Scripture, and reach out; double blessings are coming for your trouble, as Isaiah promises. God redeems and restores, turning pain into honor and ministry.
God's Promise of Justice and Double Blessings
I want to tell you that no matter what stinky, rotten, unfair, unjust thing has gone on in your life, or maybe is going on right now, if you will trust yourself and everything—that situation and yourself—to God, God is a God of justice. And that means that God makes wrong things right. Do you understand me? It may not come in your timing, but it will come.
You stay in the Word, you keep praying, you keep agreeing with the Word of God with your mouth, you keep reaching out to other people, and it is impossible for you not to get justice in your life, because God is not a man that He should lie. Amen. And the Bible says in Isaiah that God will give us double blessings for our former trouble. I believe that I am doubly blessed today in my life because of the junk that I went through and the things that people did to me. God is a redeemer and a restorer, and He gives us a two-fold recompense for our former trouble.
So whatever you're going through right now, don't let it make you bitter, but you just say, I've got a double blessing on the way. I've got a double blessing on the way. I'm going to get double for my trouble, amen? Double for my trouble. I look at these girls over here that at one time were hookers and how God has changed their lives, and now they've turned it around into a ministry. And it should just get you so excited to think that you've got a double blessing coming in your life. A double blessing coming in your life.
My Personal Testimony of Abuse and God's Redemption
You know, I'm going to be giving my testimony publicly in a few weeks, and I certainly don't have the time to get into a lot of it here, but... When I wrote that thing down, because I don't sit around and dwell on it and think about it. When I wrote it down, and I had to purposely remember a lot of the details of what happened, and I was just so awed by the power of God and what He does in our lives.
And, you know, I always say I was abused or my father molested me. I never used the word rape because it just, I don't know, it just sounded too nasty to me or something. But I realized that actually what he did was he raped me. He didn't force me physically, but he forced me through fear, manipulation, and control. And I don't mean to be crude at all when I say this, but I just want you to see the unbelievable majesty of what God's done.
To the best of my ability, I counted up how many times I felt like that my own father raped me. And I believe it was about 200 times. Now, yes, that's terrible, but... And there's nothing that He cannot do. There is nothing that God cannot do. Don't tell me He can't solve your problem. God is working. Men abused me, and now God has given me a place of honor among men. And He will do that for you. It's almost impossible to believe that that could have happened to me. God is a God of justice. Amen. God is so good.
Letting Go to Receive True Justice
You know, there came a time in my life when I had to give that whole thing to God. Who can figure out child abuse? Who can figure that out? I don't know. We know that God can do anything. I ask all the questions. Why didn't you come and rescue me? Why this? Why that? Why something else? Why didn't the people help me that I tried to reach out to? Why, why, why, why?
And finally, I just decided to do the 1 Peter 2:22-23 thing. When He was reviled and insulted and abused, He did not revile and abuse in return, but He trusted Himself and everything to Him who judges fairly. You cannot have justice in your life until you let go of it. And part of letting go of it is stopping trying to figure it out. Do you understand me?
I think that there's one kind of faith that gets what it wants and praises God. But I think it takes a whole nother level of faith to not get what you want and keep praising God. I want you to have hope when you leave here today. Jesus went through hard stuff. I don't have the time to go to all these places because, like always, I run out of time. But in Luke, we see what He went through in the garden. We see that His disciples betrayed Him. They abandoned Him. He was left alone there.
He even felt, although He knew that He hadn't, but I'm sure He felt in His whole being that even God had left Him. His Father had left Him. If you can remove this cup from me, God, do. But nevertheless, your will be done. And not mine. If you need me to drink it, I'll drink it. He died on the cross. And if you... I read the story fresh this morning. I mean, they were making fun of Him. They were laughing at Him. They were jeering at Him. And He died. But right before He did, not understanding anything, He said, Into your hands I commit my spirit.
The Power of Surrender Like Jesus
I would just love to see people today and people watching by TV come to the point in your life today where you say, God, I'm giving it all to you. Man, I don't understand it, but I'm tired of trying to figure it out. I don't have any energy anymore to try to figure it out. I mean, that's just what I... I just don't even have the energy anymore to get upset about anything.
I spend enough of my energy getting upset about stuff and trying to make people do what I wanted them to and trying to fix this and trying to fix that. I don't have any time for that anymore. I'm just trusting myself in everything. And Jesus trusted Himself in everything. And then three days went by, which probably felt like three lifetimes, but on Sunday morning, come on, on Sunday morning, that tomb was empty. And he said, go and tell my disciples, he is risen.
There may be a time of the cross, there may be a time of the grave, but there always comes resurrection. You've got to go by Friday to get to Sunday. We all get excited about Sunday morning, not too many people are excited on Friday. The day of crucifixion. What is your attitude while you're waiting?
Lessons from the Wilderness: Trust During Testing
In Deuteronomy chapter 8, our friends the Israelites once again, the Bible says, I led you in this wilderness these 40 years to humble you, to prove you, to test you. To see if you would keep my commandments or not. It's one thing to keep the commandments when you're getting what you want. It's another thing entirely to keep the commandments when nothing that you want seems to be coming your way.
It's hard to keep the commandments when you see your friends and other people getting what you're believing God for. And sometimes you think, I'm a whole lot more spiritual than they are. Come on. I do this, and I do that, and I do this. Well, maybe that's the very problem God's after. The self-righteousness. Do you know that sometimes God delights in doing something for somebody who absolutely does not deserve it in front of somebody who thinks they do deserve it? Yes. Because that just messes our mind up. It's like... Anybody know what I'm talking about?
And the Bible says that He tested them, and He tried them, and He led them in the wilderness, that He might do them good, that He might lead them into a land that flowed with milk and honey, that everything that they touched might be blessed, that they would be blessed when they went in and blessed when they came out. God is trying to take us through our wildernesses in life to bring us into a place of abundance.
Avoiding the Trap of Self-Help Plans
How long is it going to take you to get through your wilderness? A lot of it is up to you. It can be a short trip. It can be a long trip. Now, there is God's timing, and sometimes we can't do anything about that. But I do think a lot of times we make things a lot longer because we don't know how to do them right.
I personally believe that Abraham and Sarah made the whole thing with getting Isaac a lot longer than it would have had to have been because they had to have Ishmael in the meantime. And if you don't know the story, God had promised them a child. They weren't getting it fast enough, so they got a bright plan. You ever have those, that's what God wants me to do. No, that's not what God wants you to do.
Now, there are things that God wants us to do, but they normally don't come like... So Sarah, who obviously wasn't too bright when you see what she did, had a handmaiden, and she decided that she would give her to her husband to be his secondary wife, and that he could get her pregnant, and then she would call that child hers. Bad idea. Bad idea. And even worse, Abram went along with it. Well, sure enough, she got pregnant, and then she got a bad attitude towards Sarah. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
So they had Ishmael, a cute little baby. Then they had to wait years and years and years for that whole mess to get taken care of before they could have Isaac. The name Ishmael meant man of war, and the name Isaac meant laughter. Come on, you can have war or laughter. It depends on whether or not you want to wait for God or try to do it yourself. Amen? And, of course, we've all done things like that.
The Israelites' 40-Year Delay and Our Own Attitudes
Well, the Israelites wandered around in the wilderness 40 years trying to make an 11-day trip. I mean, every time I say that, I'm still amazed after all these years. 40 years trying to make an 11-day journey. Well, don't be too amazed at them. Some of you have done the same thing. And you know what? They just had a bad attitude.
They would not stop grumbling about their circumstances and situations. They would not put their trust in God. They were always trying to make something happen themselves. Moses went up to get the Ten Commandments, and he was gone a little longer than they thought he should have been. And while he was gone, they decided they'd make a golden calf to worship.
When you get so tired of waiting on God, you think if you have to wait one more day, you're just going to go completely mad. You need to open your mouth and say, God, I will put my trust in you. And I believe that your timing is perfect in my life. And if I keep my trust in you, there's no man on earth and no devil in hell that can keep me from having your will. Talk to yourself. Talk out loud to yourself. You believe more of what you hear yourself say than anything you hear anybody else say. It's called fighting the good fight of faith.
Scriptures on Putting Our Trust in God
Let's go to Psalms for a minute and look at a few of these scriptures about putting our trust in God. Psalm 5:11. But let all those who take refuge and put their trust in you rejoice. Everybody say put. Put. Put. Look at chapter 7, verse 1. Oh, Lord, my God, in you I take refuge and put my trust in you. Everybody say put. Put.
Chapter 9, verse 10. And they who know your name, who have experienced an acquaintance with you and your mercy, will lean on and confidently put their trust in you. Everybody say put. Put. Put. Chapter 11, verse 1. In the Lord, I take refuge and put my trust. Everybody say put. Put. Put.
Chapter 16, verse 1. Keep and protect me, O God, for in you I have found refuge and I put my trust and hide myself. Everybody say put. Put. Now, one last one. Chapter 20, verse 7. Some trust in and boast of chariots and some in horses. But we will trust in and boast in the name of the Lord our God.
Some put their trust in their bank account. Some put their trust in the world. Some put their trust in the company they work for. Can I tell you that your paycheck is not your source? Your paycheck is not your source. God is your source.
True Source of Success: Trust in God Alone
Next week I have a leadership session with our leaders. And the thing that I'm going to share with them is based around this. Some trust in chariots and some in horses. But we will trust in the Lord our God. And I really felt like that God put it on my heart to share with our leaders. That even though we have every kind of technology at Joyce Meyer Ministries. And we're going to use it and make the best use out of it that we can. And we're happy to have it. It helps us.
But we can't put our trust in that. Because we're not a success because of our slick advertising. Our great looking magazine. Our HDTV cameras. We're a success because God hath anointed us. Amen. Now, we need all that other stuff. It's good to have it. But there's a real danger in beginning to trust in chariots and horses.
And the church has to make sure that we don't get so commercialized that we forget about putting our trust in God. Because God caused me to be successful when I didn't have any of that. The first TV program that we did, we had a blue shower curtain type thing stretched across the back. I'm telling you the truth. And one camera sitting on a box. And we were in a hotel room that the ceiling was actually falling out of the wall. The room was so bad.
And we put that TV program on. It was about beauty for ashes. I'd never been on television before. And the very first day we were on, 125 people called and ordered my teaching series on beauty for ashes. And I tell you, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. But I started with a blue shower curtain and one camera.
Humble Beginnings and Unshakable Faith
And I remember when Dave and I would run up and down the road in our van with bald tires and not even have enough money to stay in a hotel. And have to pull over on the side of the road and get a little sleep so we could get back home. I remember when the whole thing was me and Dave and we had a guy that was a worship leader that played a drum machine with his foot, a piano with one hand, and a guitar with the other and sang. And I am not exaggerating. Talk about a one-man band, he was it.
And you know what? I wouldn't trade those years for anything. Because I know that what I'm doing is God. Therefore, when people judge me and criticize me and tell me that I shouldn't be this and I shouldn't that, and I'm just a woman and yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, I am just like, why don't you just go waste your breath somewhere else? It's too late for me. I've already seen Him and known Him. And I know what God can do.
Balancing Trust in God and Wisdom with People
Okay, now just for a minute, because I feel like that this is important. When we talk about trust, we not only want to talk about trusting God, which is obviously the most important, but I want to talk to you for just these next five minutes or so about trusting people. And I think that, you know, we cannot put a trust in people that should belong only to God.
In John chapter 2, verse 24, Jesus said, the Bible says, He did not trust Himself to His disciples because He knew human nature. But that doesn't say He didn't trust His disciples. It just meant that He didn't just throw His life whole, you know, He used some wisdom. And I've had to learn over the years to use wisdom with people.
But I'll tell you, people can really, really, really disappoint us and hurt us, can't they? But no, just remember, we do the same thing to people too. So the first mistake we make is having unrealistic expectations where we expect that people will never hurt us. I can pretty much tell you that anybody, anybody that you get in a very close relationship with, there will be some hurt involved in that and some disappointment. It's just the way it is.
But God's our healer. And He can always take care of those things if we're willing to do things His way. But I believe that we're living in a time today where Satan is really trying to get us to not trust anybody. When I came out of that situation with my dad, I came out saying, you can't trust anybody. You can't trust anybody. And boy, I had to lose that attitude.
And I made a decision a long time ago. I'm not going to let what one person does sour me on everybody. Did you hear what I said? I said, I'm not going to let what one person does or a few people do sour me on everybody.