Joyce Meyer - Overcoming Fear With Faith (08/18/2019)
This sermon focuses on the God-given measure of faith every believer possesses, based on Romans 12:3. It explains that faith is a powerful force that grows only through use, released through prayer, confession, and action. The conclusion urges believers to actively resist fear, live courageously, and persist in faith until they see God's promises manifest, finding joy in the trusting process itself.
You Already Have the Faith You Need
God offers us faith. Romans 12:3 says, "Unto every man is given the measure of faith." So, you have faith. You don't need to pray for faith. I don't need to pray for faith. I just need to use the faith that I have. And the more that I use the faith that I have, the stronger it will get. Faith can grow, but the only way it grows is if you use it. And faith is a force. It's actually a powerful force that resides on the inside of our spirit. And when it's released, tremendous things can happen in our life.
Like, for example, the Bible says when a righteous man prays, tremendous power is made available. So, faith is a power force. We have faith. But I believe that there's a kind of a law in the universe, which I call "Use It or Lose It." And so, if you don't use a muscle, it's going to become atrophied and weak. And you won't be able to use it. If you had a cast on your arm or a cast on your leg for a long time, when you take that off, the muscle is just weak. You have to have therapy to get it all strengthened again.
The "Use It or Lose It" Principle of Faith
I believe it's the same way with our faith. Unto every man is given the measure of God's faith. Not just any kind of faith, but the measure of God's faith. You have to have some kind of faith, or you wouldn't even get out of bed in the morning. When you get out of bed, you're putting faith in your legs and faith in the floor, that if the two meet, you're going to stand upright. So we operate in faith all the time, a natural kind of faith. You have to have faith to drive in traffic. Amen? You certainly have to have faith to raise children.
You've got to have a lot of faith to be married and stay married for a long time. You have to have a lot of faith. But when we can begin to understand that it's a God-kind of faith that we have as believers in Christ, and that it's God's actual faith that is in us. It's not just a human faith, the kind we use to put our feet on the floor. This is a special God-kind of faith that we have. And Paul even said that he got to the point where he lived by that faith.
Living by the Faith of the Son of God
He said, "It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me. And the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who died and gave himself up for me." Now, faith is not something that we necessarily feel or that we see. Faith is a decision that we make about where we're going to put our trust. I want to say it again. Faith is not a feeling that we wait to have. I don't say, "Oh, I feel really faithful today." Sometimes I feel really anointed and full of the Spirit of God when I come out to do this.
And sometimes I don't feel that at all. But I've found out that if I step into it by faith, God always meets us when we take that step of faith. And He helps us get to where we need to be. But if we stand out here waiting to feel something, then we can be waiting forever. Because faith is the substance of things that we don't see and the substance of things that we don't feel. The Bible says it's evidence. It's a spiritual evidence that we can put our confidence in God.
How to Release Your Faith
You know, there are all kinds of people who march off to church every Sunday and never, ever learn how to exercise or release their faith. Faith is a force that resides on the inside of us. And I think that we can release it three ways: by praying, by saying, and by doing. By praying in faith, by saying something in faith. I always talk about the importance of confessing God's Word out loud. If we don't learn how to stop saying how we feel and what we think and start saying what God says, we're always going to be in trouble.
I don't think I ever do a seminar of any kind, anywhere, that somewhere in that seminar, and possibly several places, I talk about the importance of getting into agreement with God verbally and confessing the Word of God out loud. And I can prove it to you many, many different places in the Bible. So faith is released when I say, "I believe I have favor everywhere that I go." That's a scripture. And if I say that, it helps renew my mind that I can trust God.
Watch Your Words: They Release Faith or Fear
I can release my faith when I go out of the house for God to give me favor everywhere that I go and make special things happen in my life. But I was with somebody the other day, and they didn't get the parking place they wanted, and this was what they said: "That figures, that's my luck." I thought, well, I hope you're around me long enough for me to change that attitude. Because you know what? That's the attitude that the world has, and the attitude that I had for a long time.
But we can actually release our faith for God to show us favor and do things for us that will leave our mouth hanging open in awe. Little things and big things. And to be honest with you, sometimes I even get more excited about the little things than I do some of the big things. How many of you love to just watch God be with you in your daily life and just make things happen that you know is God just saying, "I'm here, I'm here."
Don't Let Your Faith Lie Dormant
And to be honest with you, when I think about all the years, years and years that I went to church, and I loved God, and yes, I heard about trusting God for salvation, and I believed in that, and I believe I was saved, I would have gone to heaven if I would have died. But I didn't really know anything about faith. Not real faith. I mean, I knew about faith for salvation. But I didn't know about this wonderful gift of faith that God has given us that can bring healing into our life.
This faith can help us live free from guilt and condemnation and can enable us to do great things, things that we don't even know how to do. And I just want to encourage you not to ever get lazy and just let that wonderful gift of faith lie dormant in you, while you stand around and wait for some feeling to motivate you to do what you should be doing by faith. And if we're doing it by faith, remember, that usually means that we're doing it without feeling, and quite often, without seeing the result at that particular moment.
What Happens Between Prayer and Manifestation?
The Bible says when you pray in faith, believe that you receive and you will get it. It doesn't say that you have it yet, but it says when you pray, believe that you receive and you will get it. Well, what happens between praying, releasing your faith, believing that you receive, and when you get it? A lot of patience, and a lot of lies from Satan. And we're going to talk all about this. I'm just kind of touching on some of the things that we're going to deal with here this weekend.
So, faith does you no good if you don't release it. You release your faith by praying, by saying. I mean, you can release your faith all day long just by learning how to confess the Word of God out loud. You get up in the morning and say, "God loves me. I'm the righteousness of God in Christ. My sins are forgiven. This is going to be a great day. Something good is going to happen to me today. Something good is going to happen through me today." Well, that's kind of a different way of praying.
Prayer Simplified: Faith is Prayer
I remember Dave saying to me one time, and you know, God deals with different people in different ways, but I remember Dave saying one time, "Faith is prayer." And I knew what he meant. Like, when just that simple "I trust you, God," that's prayer. But so often, we make such a big ordeal out of prayer, and we complicate it, and we legalize it to the point where we do it out of duty, but we don't really enjoy it. Prayer is powerful. It changes things. But we have to pray in faith.
Now, I believe that we all have probably a lot more fears. Little ones, lots of little ones, maybe some big ones. Usually, if they're big ones, you know they're there. But I think that we probably all have lots of little fears that we have just gotten used to, and we have put up with for so long that we maybe don't even realize that we have them. What do you think of that? You think that's possible? How many of you think that may be possible? I wonder how many times we kind of think, "Oh, I think I'll do that."
The Truth About Fear and Courage
And then a fearful thought comes, and we just go, "Oh, no, I won't do that." And we don't even really stop to say, "Well, God, is that something you want me to do?" Because when the Bible says, "Fear not," it's not saying, "Don't feel fear." It actually means, when you feel fear, don't let it stop you. Courage is not the absence of fear, it's pressing forward in the face of fear. So we need to learn how to, if I'm going to do something and this fearful thought comes, I need to think about what I'm thinking about.
I need to realize that that's the devil probably just trying to keep me from something that God wants me to do. And I can address it right then and say, "I'm not going to live in fear. I will not live in fear." That's a talk-out-loud time. "I will not live in fear. Because God is with me." And just keep right on going. Just keep right on going. I tell you what, I am mad at the devil because he is stealing people's destinies through fear. And I don't want you to let the devil steal your destiny.
Possess Your Promised Land
I want you to possess the promised land, not just go to church and hear about it, and talk about it all your life, and pray about it, but never really live in the promises of God. I want you to enjoy God, and enjoy yourself, and enjoy the people around you, and do all that you can possibly do with your life for the glory of God. But fear will hinder every bit of that. It's probably pitiful if we would know, if we could pile it all up in a pile, everything that the devil has stolen from everybody in this room corporately through fear.
We would be absolutely so aggravated at ourselves for letting the enemy do that. Yes, I said letting the enemy do that. There's only one attitude that a Christian can have toward fear that is acceptable to God, and it is very simply this: "I will not fear." Now once again, that doesn't mean you won't feel fear. If you don't understand the difference in what I'm talking about, the next time you feel fear, you're going to think, "Well, it didn't work for me."
A New Level Brings a New Devil
Matter of fact, I'm going to really take a step of faith here and say something. I don't even know that I think you can pray fear away. You know what I think happens when you pray? I think that you should pray that God will give you courage to confront fear when it comes your way. You know why? Because Satan is always going to try to keep us from going forward. Always. What did the Apostle Paul say in 1 Corinthians 16:9? "A wide door of opportunity has opened unto me and with it many adversaries."
New level, new devil. That's just the way it works. We pray for promotion and we forget that we're going to get something along with the promotion. "A wide door of opportunity opened unto me and with it many adversaries." Don't ask God for something if you're not ready to pay the price to have it. Sometimes we ask God for something, he tries to give it to us and then we're like... "Well, I don't understand what's going on." Well, it's just the devil trying to scare you.
Make the Decision: I Will Not Fear
So you need to say, "I will not fear." As long as you know in your heart that what you're doing is what you believe that God is leading you to do or has asked you to do, or if it's something in the Word of God, then you need to make sure you keep pressing forward. Fear means to run from, to take flight. And there are so many different kinds of fears. I mean, I looked them all up in a dictionary one time and looked them up in an encyclopedia. It's the fear of this and the fear of that, phobia, phobia, phobia.
And you know, I'm going to preach to myself this weekend as well as you. Because I don't think that I'm a real fearful person, but I do know that there are little fears that I probably put up with in my life. And I don't want to, because I don't believe that God wants us to have fear of any kind. I believe He wants us to be bold, courageous, confident, and full of faith. Bold, courageous, confident, and full of faith. He wants us to walk with our head up, not hanging down.
Active Faith Gives the Devil a Nervous Breakdown
He wants us to walk with purpose, not shuffle around. He doesn't want our hands hanging down. He wants us alert. He doesn't want us inactive because of fear. He wants us active and giving the devil a nervous breakdown every day. "I will not fear. I will not fear. What can man do unto me? If God be for me, who can be against me? If God is on my side, whom shall I fear?" Hallelujah. But Joyce, I don't know what's going to happen. Who does? I don't either. And you know what? Even if you think you know, you probably don't.
Well, God told me. Yeah, well, He may have told you what's going to happen, but I bet He didn't tell you when. And so you'll get tested just like everybody else. "Oh, you made that up. God didn't tell you that. It's never going to happen. You might as well forget it." How much fear do we really permit in our lives? Father, I pray right now in Jesus' name that any kind of fear that we're permitting in our lives through laziness or because we've just put up with it so long we don't even recognize it anymore.
The Foundation: Have Faith in God Constantly
I pray that you'll reveal it to us and that one by one we would resist and stand against fear until we are completely free from its torment. In Jesus' name. Amen. Mark chapter 11 is going to be kind of our founding scripture here this weekend. I want to say this to you enough that you'll leave with it ringing around in your heart. Mark 11:22. Isn't it so much fun to be together this weekend? And Jesus, replying, said to them, "Have faith in God constantly." I love that.
Now we can go on and read: "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt at all in his heart, but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him. For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe, trust, and be confident that it is granted to you, and you will get it." And I might as well throw this in for good measure. And... well just, just stop there, Joyce. "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, leave it, drop it, let it go."
Unforgiveness Will Block Your Faith
So that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins and your trespasses, leaving them and letting them go. Well, might as well read verse 26. "But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings." Now, I, you know, there's no mystery to that. That doesn't need understanding or interpretation. Doesn't even need revelation. If you are mad about anything at anybody—offended, bitter, resentful, no matter what it is—you say, "Well Joyce, that cannot include what's been done to me."
You know why? Because you don't want your faith not to work because of hanging on to some feeling and being mad at somebody who's probably out having a good time and doesn't even care that you're upset. Amen? Some of you are even mad at people that are dead. Now, how dopey is that? That's sure not going to help. "Have faith in God constantly." I love that. That doesn't say have faith until there's an unexpected problem, maybe a big one. Have faith until you have to wait a long time for what you need God to do.
The Only Godly End to Faith is Manifestation
Have faith until life isn't fair. Have faith until somebody treats you wrong. Have faith until your enemies appear to be more blessed than you are. There's no "until." I love what Dave says about faith. He says, the only godly end to faith should be the manifestation of what you're believing for. Amen? In other words, if I'm believing God for a car I need and I get the car I need, then I don't have to have faith for that anymore and I can use my faith on something else.
But until I have the manifestation, the only thing that should ever keep me from believing is not how long I wait, not how hard it is, not the lies of Satan. The only thing that should ever stop me is if I get the manifestation. And even if we die believing God for something that we never did actually get in reality, God will be pleased. Now you ain't too excited about that. See, right then when I said that you got afraid. You mean I'm not going to get it?
Joy and Peace are Found in Believing
But see, here's the thing—look at me—it's not actually getting what we want that makes us happy. It's the whole attitude of faith that we live in, and it's in trusting God that we find joy and peace. Romans 15:13 says joy and peace are found in believing. It doesn't say joy and peace are found in getting everything you want. So you can be just as happy if you have a heart full of faith as you would if you actually had the thing. And I know you probably don't believe that, but it's true.
We make ourselves miserable while we wait. You can wait with doubt and unbelief, or you can wait with a heart of faith saying, "God, I believe you're working right now. And I believe that you're not a man that lies, and I believe that you can't be late. And I believe if this is what I'm supposed to have, you're going to get it to me and nobody's going to stop you." And then, and then you could add this: "And God, if you don't want me to have it, then I don't want it."
↓↓↓ Part 2 ↓↓↓
Without faith it's impossible to please God, because we must believe not only that He exists but that He's a rewarder of those who seek Him—He's good and wants to bless us. Joyce explains faith isn't earning blessings (grace through Jesus already paid for them) but the hand that receives them, while fear is faith's enemy that we must resist by choosing to believe God's Word over feelings or circumstances. The real "work" God wants is simply to believe, trust His love, and remain steadfast against opposition, knowing perfect love casts out fear.
Faith Pleases God
Without faith, it is impossible to please God. And those who come to Him must believe that He is—and I love this part—and that He is the rewarder. Wow! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! It is not just that He is—He is good. And He wants to be good to you. Without faith, we cannot receive and walk in God’s good plan for our lives. And that is why He is not pleased when we try to come to Him without faith. Because He wants to give us good things.
Faith is not the price that buys the blessings of God. It is simply the hand that reaches out and receives it. Grace is the price that bought every blessing from God. It is not my faith that buys blessings. Jesus bought the blessings with His blood. But I can receive with the hand of faith.
We Don't Deserve It—That's the Beauty
There is no reason for God to want to bless me. There is no reason in the natural—if you want to know the truth—for Him to want to bless you. I do not deserve it. You do not deserve it. But I am ready to... I am willing to receive it. I am willing to have it. And I think the fact that we do not deserve it makes it all the more amazing. Amazing! Amazing! Absolutely jaw-dropping amazing.
You say, well... What does God want me to do? That is everybody’s biggest question. What do you... God, what do you want me to do? You have prayed, and you are not getting your breakthrough, so what do you want me to do? He would probably like you to stop doing something. Try like some worship or something like that.
Stop the Works of the Flesh
What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? God, what do you want me to do? I have done everything I know to do, God, and nothing is working. I just do not know what to do. And I still remember one day falling on the floor dramatically. Do you ever do the dramatic thing with God? God, I just give up. I have done everything I know to do, God, and nothing is working. I just give up.
And honestly, I am telling you the truth. I heard the Holy Spirit excitedly say, “Really? Really? Really?” And then all of a sudden, it just came to me like it was a revelation, because the only time that God gets to work are those few moments in our life when we get out of works of the flesh long enough to say, “God, I cannot do this. If anything gets done, it is going to have to be You.”
God Waits for Us to Give Up
Oh, really? Like God is surprised by that? Come on, do you ever get dramatic with God? “I just cannot take it. I just cannot take it anymore.” Some of you told God, “God, if I do not get a word from You at that seminar, I just cannot go on.” Well, look at me. Yeah, you will go on, because God is not going to let you quit.
All right, John 6:28. Then they said, “What are we to do?” Do you not love it? “That we may habitually be working the works of God. What are we to do to carry out what God requires?” Somebody asked me the other day—God has been really dealing with them about waiting on God and spending time in His presence—and they said, “What am I supposed to do while I am waiting on God?” That is the whole point, is it not?
The Work God Requires
“What are we to do? What is it that God requires?” And I love this, verse 29. Jesus replied, “This is the work, the service that God asks of you: that you believe.” See, that is such a shock to some of your systems that are workaholics. You are like, “Well, yeah, I believe, but what else?” Well, obviously, you know, if God tells us to do something, then we need to be obedient. But a lot of times, we are in works of the flesh, and then we actually miss the work that God would have us do.
We get into what I call works that do not work, and then we get frustrated because we are not flowing under grace. We are in our own strength trying to be Holy Ghost Junior.
Believe to See God's Glory
Now, I just wonder if I bought that forgiveness book of Joyce’s and underlined some stuff and left it laying out on the table at home. I just wonder if maybe my... I just wonder if maybe my husband would read that. So you get my point.
I also love John 11:40. Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you and promise you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?” Is that not wonderful? What do you want me to do? Believe.
Well, every time we set ourselves to obey, to believe, to receive something by faith, you can count on it—fear will come. Fear will come. But we can meet it every time with faith and say, “I will not fear. I will not fear.”
Faith Is Not Based on Feelings
Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now, look at that. Faith has nothing to do with what we see or what we feel. Faith is something in our heart that says, “God is good. God keeps His Word. And if God said He will do this and I believe He will do it, I do not care what I see or what I feel like or what anybody says or how long it takes.”
You have to understand what faith is, because if you think it is something you are supposed to feel, you are going to miss the whole thing. “I just do not feel like God loves me.” Do not ever say that. Do not ever say, “I do not feel like God loves me.” Know the Scripture well enough to say, “I do not care how I feel. I am rooted in His love. His love makes me more than a conqueror through Christ. God loves me. He loves me unconditionally.”
God's Love Never Changes
When I was still an enemy of the cross, He died for me and loved me. Can I tell you that God will never love you any more than He does at this moment right now? Come on. I said God will never love you any more than He does at this moment right now.
You say, “Well, what about if I behave better?” Nope. He will not love you any more than He does right now. He will be happy for you, because that obedience will open up new levels of what God can do in your life. But He will not love you any more than He does right now.
God loves even the person that is unsaved as much as He loves those of us who think we are the most religious. We do not obey God to get Him to love us. We obey Him because He loved us first. And we are responding out of that love, in amazement, that He could love us.
Fear Is Faith's Enemy
Fear is the enemy of faith. Well, everything has to have an opposing force in the earth. And I cannot really think of anything that does not. You know, for faith to work and be valuable, there has to be fear coming against it.
You say, “Well, I would rather not have all this opposition.” Well, you know what—you might be surprised. If you had no opposition, you might be a worse mess than what you... Or we might be worse messes than what we even are.
I think of the bee who was taken on a space shuttle into flight to go to some other planet. And in the weightless atmosphere, with no gravity, they never had to flap a wing—he just floated around. In the weightless atmosphere. No opposition, no wing flapping, just floating around. And the end of the story was he enjoyed the ride, but he died.
Opposition Builds Strength
And that is exactly what would happen to us if all we could do was—if all we had to do was just float around. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. If all we had to do was just float around and be spiritual, never have to deal with anything. We would never develop. We would not grow.
An eaglet, when it is born, has a little tooth on the end of its beak. And when it is still in the egg, it uses that little tooth to peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck. I mean, hours and sometimes days of peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck. Pecks and pecks and pecks and finally gets a little crack. And then peck and peck and peck and peck and peck and peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck.
Keep Pecking in Faith
Now, you know the way we are? When we have to peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck—we are like, “Come on, God. Could You get me out of here? Come on.” Well, one man reported that he saw the little baby eaglet trying to get out and just decided to help it. Well, it did not work—it died. It needs the opposition to be strong. And we need opposition to be strong. Amen?
So just remember the next time things are taking a little longer than you would like, just say, “Devil, I am going to keep on pecking.” Peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck, peck. Pecking in faith.
Everything Has Opposition
Everything has to have an opposition. For there to be good, there must be evil. Otherwise who would even know what good was? Love and hatred, depression, joy, harshness, kindness, noise, quiet, positive, negative, generosity, greed, light, dark, fear, faith, opportunities, adversaries.
And you know we see that in each one of these—God gives us one, and the devil comes against us with the other, trying to steal the one that God has given us. But we are going to keep on pecking. I think I will change the name of this to the peck of faith.
You know why there are opposing forces? Because God does not want robots mechanically serving Him because that is all they can do.
God Wants Relationship and Choice
Do you know why God created man? He wanted fellowship. He created us for relationship. He wanted someone to have a relationship with. And so He made us in His image, because it is kind of cool if you can fellowship with someone that is kind of like you.
Now you know I love my dog, but I do not get the same kind of fellowship with my dog that I do with a really good friend. Well, sometimes I do, but we will not go there. Okay. God gives these opposing things because He wants us to choose.
Our choices—the choices that we make—are some of the most important things that we do in our life. Every choice is a seed that we sow that brings some kind of harvest in our life.
Choose Life and Faith
When we have the privilege of leading people to Christ, we always tell them this is the most important decision that you will ever make. And you can make a decision to not stand against fear—to just let it go ahead and rule you—because it will be a little bit of work to stand against it. Maybe a little uncomfortable sometimes. But then that is your choice, and you will reap the benefit of allowing that fear to stay in your life.
Which means you will not experience the fullness of everything that God had for you. He will love you. You will go to heaven. But there will be things that you will miss here that God had planned for you that He will not be able to release to you if you do not learn how to develop your faith and be bold and courageous.
Do It Afraid If Necessary
I mean, do we honestly think that I could be doing what I am doing if I was timid and fearful? No. Not is right. Not. I could not. “Well, Joyce, you are just naturally bold.” Well, you know, in some ways I am, but in some ways I was not. There have been many things that I have had to do afraid. Many, many, many things that I have had to do afraid.
Deuteronomy 30:19: “I set before you life and death, good and evil.” God, could You not just give me the good stuff? “I set before you death and life, good and evil. Choose life that you and your descendants may live.”
We have to be responsible for our choices. Amen? Well, we like to take responsibility for the good ones and ones that work out good. Oh yes, praise the Lord. But we are not always so keen on taking responsibility for the bad ones.
Do Not Let Your Heart Be Afraid
Let us look at John 14:27. “Peace I leave with you. My own peace I now give and bequeath unto you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
“Well, I cannot help the way I feel.” Feeling fear is not being afraid. Being afraid is caving into the fear and doing what the fear is telling you to do rather than what God is telling you to do. Amen? Do you need me to say that again?
“Neither let them be afraid. Do not let your heart be afraid.” You say, “I cannot help the way I feel.” We are not talking about the way we feel. You can feel afraid, but that does not mean you are afraid unless you cave into the fear and do what the fear says instead of what God says.
Fear vs. Being Afraid
Now, let me be clear. You know, if you are afraid of deep water, I am not suggesting you go dive off the diving board tonight to prove something. Somebody asked me the other day if I was a good swimmer. I said, “Well, let us just put it like this. If I fall in, you better come in too.” But I have no need to do that. That is not something God is telling me to do.
I am talking about the things that God is telling us to do. Fear hath torment. 1 John 4 says, “Fear hath torment.” Now, obviously, the only way we can ever totally get over fear is to know the perfect love that God has for us.
Perfect Love Casts Out Fear
1 John 4:16–18: Perfect love casts out fear. And he who has fear has not yet known or had love perfected in them. So the more we know and have a revelation on how much God loves us, the less we have to be afraid of, because we just believe—like a little kid—“My Daddy is going to take care of me.”
And you know what? To be honest, even if we do not get what we wanted, we do not really even care all that much, because we trust Dad so much that we know that what He gives will be better than what we wanted. Amen? And that just gives us such peace.
Man, I tell you, when I was struggling to get what I wanted all those years, I was so miserable. And I imagine I have got a few people here tonight and you are like, right there—like, yep.
Surrender and Trust
Well, you know, why do you not just give it up? Why torment yourself? Just say, “God, if this is ever going to happen, You are the only one that is going to make it happen. And if You want it to happen, nobody is going to stop it from happening. And if You do not want it to happen, I am not going to make it happen.”
And you know, probably one of the biggest areas that we fuss and fume over is what we would like to see happen in other people’s lives that we love. Come on now. Do not miss what I am saying. I said probably one of the biggest problems that we have is fussing and fuming over what we want to see happen in our kids, in the person we are married to, in our parents.
You know what I finally figured out? You cannot make somebody love God. I do not care how hard we try—we cannot make somebody love God. Now we can live a life in front of them that will make them maybe righteously jealous. We can be salt, make them thirsty, but we cannot make them make the choice.
Prayer Gives God Opportunity
If God cannot make them, we sure cannot make them. It is one of the hardest things to watch somebody that you love make bad decisions. You say, “All I can do is pray.” Well, let me tell you something—that is the most powerful thing that we can do.
But still, when it comes right down to it, God will protect that person’s freedom to make their own choice. Amen? When we pray, it gives God an opportunity to work. So keep praying, but losing your joy is not going to make things any better.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed, and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.”
Remain Constant Against Fear
Is not John 14:27 wonderful? So see now, if we put that back up and you look at it realistically, that has given all of us a responsibility. He did not say pray and I will make it all go away. You say, “Well then what am I praying for?” For strength, for courage, for confidence, for boldness. For the power to endure whatever comes with good temper—to never give up, to never quit, to keep a smile on your face even when you are hurting so bad you feel like you cannot stand it.
Not to be phony, but just to let the devil know he is not going to get your joy. “And do not for a moment be frightened or intimidated in anything by your opponents and your adversaries. For such constancy and fearlessness...”
When fear comes against us, what should our position be? To remain constant. To keep going forward. To keep putting one foot in front of the other one.
“For such constancy and fearlessness will be a clear sign, a proof, and a seal to them—your enemy—of their impending destruction. But a sure token and evidence of your deliverance and salvation and that from God.”
So it is almost like when we are in a battle there is... God is watching and the devil is watching. And if we remain constant and steadfast, it is a sign to God that we really have our faith and confidence in Him. But it is a sign to the devil that his day is just about over. Amen.