Joyce Meyer - Desperation For Hope (08/17/2019)
Joyce Meyer shares her past as an extremely negative person shaped by hurt and disappointment, urging believers to choose hope and refuse negativity. Drawing from Scripture like Romans 15:13 (God of hope) and John 10:10 (abundant life), she teaches that hope is a confident, joyful expectation of good—energizing us, strengthening faith, and defeating the enemy's theft of joy. By deciding to speak positively, believe God's promises, and expect good things daily, we can live happily and victoriously despite circumstances.
My Past as a Negative Person
I'm doing a new series here that I worked quite hard on this week called How to Be Godly in an Ungodly World. Now, let me just share with you that I was, for a large part of my life, an extremely negative person. I saw what was wrong with everything. And I had been hurt a lot in my life. I'd had lots and lots of disappointments.
And really, to be honest, when I married Dave at the age of 23, I could not remember ever being really happy. And that's sad when somebody grows up that way because sometimes the way you get started is the way you stay if you don't let Christ interrupt the mess in your life and give you a brand new beginning.
Fear of Disappointment
I believe that people that have had a tough time in life very often are afraid to expect anything good because they don't want to be disappointed. The pain of disappointment has been so prevalent in their lives that they just think, well, I'm not going to expect any good thing to happen because it's probably not going to anyway.
And I want to tell you, if that's you, today you need to make a change. You need to make a change. It's amazing how good life can get if you'll just refuse to stop hoping.
Better to Hope and Not Get It
And I can tell you, if you hoped for something good your whole life and never got it, you'd still be better off than if you hoped for nothing and got it. Because when you're full of hope, you're happy. You're happy.
And the devil doesn't want us happy. The thief comes only to kill, steal, and destroy. He loves to steal our joy, but Jesus said, I came that you might have and enjoy your life and have it in abundance to the full until it overflows.
Joy Is Energy
Many of the attacks of the enemy against us are not after him getting our stuff or keeping us from getting this promotion or whatever. He's after our joy. Because joy is energy. Joy is energy. The Bible says the joy of the Lord is our strength.
But I want to put it a different way. Joy is energy. I actually feel physical energy flowing into my body when I have a good attitude and I feel everything draining down when I have a bad attitude.
Attitude Is Yours
Now, let me tell you something. Your attitude is yours. And nobody can make you have a good one if you don't want to. And nobody can make you have a bad one if you don't want to. There's not enough good stuff that can happen to a negative person to keep them happy.
And nobody can make you have a bad attitude if you don't want to. We think because circumstances have been bad in our life that we have to have a bad attitude. That we're just obligated to have a bad attitude. I mean, that's the natural way of thinking.
Greater Is He in You
But you don't have to do that as a believer in Christ. Because He gives you something on the inside that is greater than anything that's on the outside. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.
And the Bible teaches us that right in the midst of all kinds of tribulations, we are to cheer up and to do it on purpose. Amen? I know some of you probably had a really difficult year. Maybe some of you have had a difficult five years. Maybe some of you have had a difficult life.
Refuse Discouragement
But I want to tell you that you cannot assist the devil in destroying your life by getting down and discouraged and negative-minded and becoming a pessimist and refusing to believe that anything good is going to happen.
We get what we believe for. Be it unto you even as you believe. I say this all the time. I'd rather believe for a lot and get half of it than to believe for nothing and get all of it.
Aggressive Hope
I think a lot of times we're not aggressive in hoping. We just kind of wait to see what's going to happen. Well, I hope the meeting's good this weekend. Well, you know, that's not...that is not Bible hope. That is not any different than wishing.
Bible hope is a very close relative of faith. They hoped on in faith. Faith causes you to believe that good things are going to happen. You believe in the promises of God. You're expecting.
Confident Expectation
Actually, the definition of hope is a confident, joyful expectation that something good is going to happen. I love that. And it's something... Now, listen to me when I tell you this, because a lot of people think, well, I can't help it if I don't feel that way.
We're not talking about how we feel. We're talking about what we decide to believe. And what we decide to say. And I know I keep saying it over and over this weekend. But get your mouth open and say something positive.
Speak Positive Words
Because what you say runs across your face, gets in your ears, drops back down into your spirit. And you literally can talk yourself into a better mood. I said you can talk yourself into a better mood. You can talk yourself out of a bad mood. You can talk yourself out of a pity party.
And you do it by using the Word of God. Favorable and confident expectation. It has to do with the unseen and the future. Hope is the happy anticipation of something good.
Daily Hope Declaration
I started in January this year saying this in my own life on a real regular basis. I don't miss very many days, and I've been encouraging people everywhere I go, and it's been on TV. If I were you, before you even put your feet on the floor in the morning, or certainly do it within a few minutes after you're up, open your mouth and say, and when I say open your mouth, I mean speak it out loud.
Something good is going to happen to me today. And don't stop there. Don't stop there and go on and make the enemy really mad and say, and something good is going to happen through me today. Something good is going to happen to me, and something good is going to happen through me, because we are blessed to be a blessing.
Hopeful Mindset
Don't stop at just wanting to be blessed. We're blessed to be a blessing. God told Abraham, I will bless you, and I will make you a blessing, causing you to dispense good to others.
Hope is very simply a positive attitude and mindset. The hopeful person absolutely refuses to be negative in any way. Although they recognize and deal with their problems, they remain hopeful in thought, attitude, and conversation all the way through to victory.
Refuse Negativity
They remain hopeful in thought, attitude, and conversation. And conversation. And conversation. All the way through to victory. Anybody can decide to be hopeful.
If I can't get that across from you today, then I'm pretty much wasting my time. Because if we're going to let our feelings and our circumstances determine whether our hope is up or down, then the enemy's in control.
Decide to Be Hopeful
We've just turned over the keys to our life and said, here, do what you want to. But every person that's hearing my voice right now, whether it's on TV or some other recorded device, that you're watching on social media, you're here in the room, you're listening by radio, well, you can decide today to be full of hope.
And why would anybody want to decide anything else? If you can make yourself happy, why would you not choose to do it? Your thoughts, your attitudes, your words belong to you. And you do not have to wait for some special feeling to be hopeful.
Feelings Follow Decisions
We make decisions and feelings catch up with our decisions. We make decisions and feelings catch up with our decisions. We don't wait to see how we feel, then make a decision.
Well, hey, you going to go to the Joyce Meyer Conference this weekend? Well, I'm going to wait and see how I feel. Well, you're not coming. I mean, you are not coming.
God of Hope
I love Romans 15:13. It says, may the God of hope fill you. The God of hope. He is the God of hope. He is not the God of hopelessness. He is the God of hope.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. And believing really is a positive expectation. It's looking at the promises of God and saying, this is for me. And I believe that God is going to do this in my life.
Fight for Hope
Come on, fight for yourself. Don't be passive and just sit around and wish that something good would happen to you. Or even worse, sit around and be jealous of everybody else that's got a nice life.
Well, I don't know why nothing good ever happened to me. Well, I do. It's the attitude. You say, thank you, God, that you've blessed them. And by the way, I'm in that line, too.
Radical Hope
God is the author of hope. There would be no such thing as hope without God. No wonder the world's in trouble. Oh, my gosh. Boy, we better get our hopes up because in the midst of what we're living in today and the anger and the negativity and the bad news and all the stuff that we're hearing, no wonder God wanted me to write a book called Get Your Hopes Up.
If you've had a little hope, I want you to have a lot of hope. If you've had a lot of hope, I want you to have radical hope. You're welcome.
Doubt Steals Hope
Doubt and negativity steal hope. They block it. When you feel hopeless or down in any way, you just need a resurrection of belief and a positive attitude.
Something good is going to happen to me. Something good is going to happen through me. I don't care if you have to take one solid hour and march around your house and say over and over, something good is going to happen to me.
Break Negativity Off
God is good and something good is going to happen to me. If God can bless anybody, God can bless me. Something good is going to happen to me. Amen?
I sense an anointing in here, depression still being broken off of people, negativity being broken off of people. Say goodbye to those bad attitudes. It's a new day.