Joyce Meyer - Choosing To Trust God (08/21/2019)
Joyce Meyer teaches that trust is a deliberate choice—we always trust something, but only God deserves complete trust. In difficult times, the answer is to trust God and do good (Psalm 37:3), taking His "medicine" for the soul like forgiveness and obedience. Sharing her own painful past, she shows how trusting God leads to obedience that brings healing, victory, and even redeems past hurts, turning pain into purpose for others.
Trust Is Always a Choice
You know, trust is a choice. Trust. You say, well, I want to trust, but I'm just having a hard time with it. Well, see, you do trust something. I mean, you're either trusting yourself, or you're trusting the world, or you're trusting your job, or the government, or your bank account, or somebody else that you know.
We do trust something, and the point is, is we need to get spiritually smart enough to know what to trust, and what not to trust, or who to trust, and who not to trust. We may give a certain amount of trust to people, but don't ever give the trust that belongs to God to another person.
Because, although we can trust other people to some degree, we can trust ourselves to some degree, God is the only one that we can completely trust, totally trust, and say, I believe that you will always take care of me.
Now, right away when I say that, there's probably some people that are thinking, well, wait a minute, I trusted God, and He didn't come through for me. Well, let's just back off a little bit, and look at that a little different. Were you trusting God to give you what you wanted Him to give you? And so now you're a little bit miffed because you didn't get what you wanted? Or are you trusting God to give you His very best for you, and His timing, and His own way?
Well, you'll clap louder by the end of the weekend, so it's all right. We're going to actually cover that in detail in another message. Choosing to trust God.
God's Medicine for the Soul
Well, how many of you have any medicine in your house, like over-the-counter stuff or prescription medicine? You got any medicine? Okay. You probably got some Band-Aids, maybe some antibiotic cream, you know, maybe like, if you got a pain somewhere or whatever, your choice of aspirin or whatever it is, you got some stuff.
And God also has medicine for our soul. You know that? Do you know that the diseases and the sicknesses that we have in our souls, in our mind, our will, and our emotion, are much worse than any physical disease that you can get.
I tell you, I'd rather have... I mean, I'd prefer not to have either one, but if I had to choose, I would rather have a really bad headache for a long time than to have to suffer what your soul goes through when somebody has hurt you emotionally really bad. Come on.
And so it's really not the things that happen to us that determine the quality of our life. It's how we respond to those things and how much of it we take into ourselves or how much we say, well, I'm going to trust God with that. So God has medicines for our soul.
For example, if I sin and do something wrong, I can do what the normal thing would be, which is to feel guilty and condemned. Or I can take some God forgives me and it will heal my soul. Amen?
So if you want to, you can sit there all morning and you can feel guilty about something you did or did not do this morning. Some of you probably got mad at somebody in your home and said a bunch of stuff you shouldn't have said before you left to come to the Christian meeting. I don't know.
And I don't know. Maybe somebody got real not so kind to somebody else in the parking lot who zipped in and took the parking space you were trying to get. I can almost guarantee you in a crowd this size that happened to somebody.
And so you can either be mad at them or you could take some, I'm going to forgive you. You can feel really bad about yourself because of something that you did this morning that you shouldn't have done and just ruined the whole day. Or you can take a good dose of, oh, God's merciful and He forgives me.
So God has medicines for our soul. And actually the Word of God is medicine for everything that ails you inside. The Word of God fixes our mind. It helps us turn our will in God's direction to where we're doing what He wants instead of what we want.
Has anybody here figured out yet that doing what you want your way doesn't make you happy? Has anybody figured that out yet? Okay. You know what? I've been teaching the Word 40 years and you know what I know now? God is always right. No matter what I think or how I feel, God is always right.
And I mean, really, the whole Bible is a message about do this and live. A quality life that's worth living. Do this and be miserable. I don't know why it takes us a lifetime to get it. Well, I do because we have stubbornness and self-will and, you know, all these different things.
And so God's Word, it really is medicine for our soul. And I mean, I've been at this a long time and I'm a serious student of the Word of God. And I can tell you, I have yet to find anything that bothered me that I couldn't find an answer for in God's Word.
The Prescription: Trust God and Do Good
But I do believe that there is a couple of medicines that we need to make sure that we have. And these two together pretty much will solve every problem that you have anytime. And the first one is trust God. And the second one is do good.
Let's look at Psalm 37, verse 3. Psalm 37, verse 3. Trust, lean on, rely on, and be confident in the Lord and do good. So shall you dwell in the land and feed surely on His faithfulness and truly you shall be fed.
Now in just a minute we're going to read the first 10 verses of Psalm 37. And we're going to understand that this was said to people that were going through very difficult times. What do you do when everything around you seems to be falling apart? What is our response to be? Trust God and do good.
Not just trust God. Not just do good. I mean there are people out in the world that are doing good things. But they still don't have the package together, right? Because they're not trusting God. And then there are lots of believers who trust God but they never do anything good. Hello.
How many people say well I'm trusting God? Well I'm trusting God. Well yeah, but what else are you doing? Do you know one of the most powerful things that you can do while you're hurting is to do something good to help somebody else?
And that's not... You don't feel like that. It's like I don't want to do that. I mean when we're hurting we want to just shrink and withdraw and we want everybody to do something for us. But remember we're going to take God's medicine now.
This is a prescription for trust. And the doctor is Jesus and the patient is whosoever. And the instructions here is take as many for as long as you need it. Refills are endless. You can take this thing back and get it refilled any time you want to.
Now there are some side effects that you need to be careful of and here they are. The side effects are peace, joy, stability, confidence, and just overall better health. So you can just get in here and say, wow, I think I'm going to take me one of those.
I'll tell you, we got some talented people in our office. So we got endless refills of trust God here. And then here again, we have a prescription for do good. Same doctor, Dr. Jesus. Patient, whosoever. How many of you are a whosoever? All right.
Take as many for as long as you need it. Endless. The side effects of this, oh my gosh, extreme happiness and rewards in heaven. My, my. And yeah, we got do good pills in here. Right there. Everybody say, trust God and do good.
You may hear me say that a couple of hundred times between now and Saturday morning when the conference is over if you get to come to all the sessions. And if not, you'll get it on TV. But I wouldn't wait till then because I believe there's a special anointing when we're all together like this.
And although television is good, it's not like being here. So those of you watching by TV, the next time we're having a conference anywhere where you can get to, why don't you come and be with us? We would love to have you. Amen.
Handling Life's Surprises with Trust
Now, I've lived long enough to try to be happy a lot of different ways. And I tried the whole selfishness thing and I mean just, I've tried everything. And I can tell you this works. I don't care what ails you, what your problem is. It can be a surprise problem that comes up out of nowhere as we know every storm is not in the forecast.
It can be you've got a plan and now all of a sudden God comes along and changes your plan and now the first response is upset. that the answer to every problem that we have is trust God and do good. Amen.
Now, just for the sake of those watching by television, you know we had a little problem here last night. Our conference was supposed to start on Thursday night but lo and behold one hour before the conference was to start the power in this block where the arena's at went out and it did not come back on until ten minutes before the meeting was supposed to be over And so we had several thousand people standing outside.
The ones that were inside were made to go outside. They locked the parking lot. They put a big sign, a lighted sign, up out on the highway that said the Joyce Meyer Conference is cancelled. Now, do you have any idea what that does to me? I mean, I just want to... I'm thinking, we had one session cancelled. Why couldn't you say, come back tomorrow?
And so, you know, now listen, how many of you know when you have a problem like that, your mind can just go crazy? I'm thinking, well, if you tell them it's going to be cancelled, then nobody's going to come back. And I'm going to be in that big arena by myself. And so the only way to calm my soul down is to take some trust and do some good. Amen?
I'm not saying that it's always easy, but easy or not, it is the best option. Because it's the only thing that's really going to work. And to be honest, I had all these visions of, oh my gosh, people are going to think the whole thing's cancelled. They're going to go home. But to be honest, we have a better crowd here this morning on Friday morning than what we normally would.
And the thing that tickles me about Christians, if you make them mad. I mean, we have this God-given ability, boy, to dig in and say, I'm going back. And I'm going to keep going back until I get what I came for. Amen?
Psalm 37: Trusting God in Difficult Times
I really love Psalm 37. And actually, I go and I read this pretty frequently because the conditions of our world and our society today are really pretty bad. A lot of fear. A lot of need. A lot of deception. A lot of people turning away from God and wanting to think that God doesn't exist.
And even the way a lot of kids are growing up, having to watch their parents live and they're just going to go and repeat that same thing over and over and over. I'll tell you what, I am so thankful for what I know. How many of you are thankful for what you know?
Because you see, the truth, when I see something wrong, I immediately know it's wrong. You know why? Because I've studied this for 40 years. I don't have to wonder if it's wrong. I don't have to wonder, hey, is this okay now? Because society says it's okay. I say, no, I know. I know right from wrong.
When you hide the Word of God in your heart, it keeps you from sin. I said, when you hide the Word of God in your heart, it keeps you from sin. And I know people can say all kinds of things. Well, how can you be so dumb as to think that a book like that, you know, has got total truth in it?
I'll tell you one of the reasons why I know it's true, because it works in my life. And all the other stupid stuff don't. I know the mess I was in when I started studying the Word. And I'm sure that I don't understand it perfectly. And, you know, there may even be, you know, in all of our modern translations, a few things that aren't exactly the way that they were meant to be.
But you know what? It's the best thing we got going for us. Amen? And it's interesting, because the devil has tried for thousands of years to get rid of this. But here, this book still survives. And it's still the number one best-selling book in the whole world.
And so, I'm a word person, and I don't apologize for it. And to be honest, it really doesn't matter what I think about this thing, or that thing, or some other thing. God has already spoken. And it's what He says that matters. Amen.
Fret Not – Trust Instead
Psalm 37, verse 1. Fret not yourself because of evildoers. Fret not yourself because of everything that's going on in the world today. Neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness, that which is not upright or in right standing with God.
Do you know there are times when people do the wrong thing, and it seems like their blessings outweigh those of the people that are doing the right thing? Amen? Somebody on your job could do the wrong thing and get a promotion, and you could do the right thing and get fired. But we can't cave in to that. And just hang on.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass. Now, be careful. You can't get too happy about that. And I know how you feel. I'd like to want to rejoice when I get to that part too, but we're supposed to pray for our enemies.
Trust, lean, rely on, and be confident in the Lord, and do good. Wow. So shall you dwell in the land and feed surely on his faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed.
Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he will give you the desires and the secret petitions of your heart. Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. You know, instead of being out in the world today trying to make something happen in your life that only God can make happen, you're here, you've taken the time to come and delight yourself in the Lord, and God knows the things that you want and need, and he promises that if you will delight yourself in him, consistently delight yourself in the Lord, And want him more than you want anything he can give you, then he will also give you the desires and the secret petitions of your heart.
Not the desires of your flesh. But the real true heart desires. God says, I'll work that out for you. I'll take care of that. You know why? Because we serve a God that opens doors that nobody can shut and shuts doors that nobody can open. Amen? I love that. He's sovereign. He shuts and nobody can open. He opens and nobody can shut. Wow.
Commit Your Way and Be Still
Commit your way to the Lord. Roll and repose each care of your load on him. Trust, lean on, rely on, and be confident. And also in him. And he will bring it to pass.
My mother-in-law, who has gone home to be with the Lord several years ago, gave me my first Bible. It was a little white King James Bible. And I didn't know anything. And she wrote Psalm 37, 5 in the front of it. Wrote it out. Commit your way unto the Lord. Cast all your care on him. And he will bring it to pass.
And boy, has that been true. Wow. My gosh. I wish that I could... And some of you know because you've made this journey. But I wish that I could get people who don't know to understand how pathetic my life was when I was handed that first Bible.
And what the Word of God, believing the Word, and following the Word, how it has changed me. And changed my life. And taken my brokenness and turned it into something that can actually be of value in other people's lives.
Please let me tell you today, if you will trust God with your life, and learn the Word. See, so many people just... They think that all there is to being a Christian is pray a sinner's prayer, go to church sometimes. You know, maybe put a little something in the offering basket once in a while. And so now everything in my life should magically change.
No, our walk with God is a journey. When you commit your... When you ask Christ to come into your life, whether you know it or not, and somebody should explain this to you, you are giving your life away. In Him we live and move and have our being. He is not a Sunday morning event. He is our life. To live is Christ. To die is gain. Wow.
And He will make your uprightness and your right standing with God go forth as light and your justice and right as the shining sun of the noonday. Be still and rest in the Lord. Wait for Him. And patiently lean yourself upon Him. Fret not yourself.
I was preaching on this one time and a lady out in the audience yelled out, That's me, Sister Fret. You know, let's ask ourselves some questions. How many things do we fret over and worry about and get concerned about that are just downright silly? They're not really going to make any difference to anybody.
And even important things, if you can do something about it, do it. But if you can't, then trust God. Ephesians 6 says, do all the crisis demands. Do what you can do. But it says, do all the crisis demands and then stand firmly in your place. And our place is, I'm trusting God.
Trust Leads to Obedience and Victory
I don't care what ails you, what your problem is. It can be a surprise problem that comes up out of nowhere. As we know, every storm is not in the forecast. It can be, you've got a plan and now all of a sudden God comes along and changes your plan. And now the first response is upset. The answer to every problem that we have is trust God and do good.
We have a privilege of trusting God. Well, I've done everything I know to do. I guess I'll just have to trust God. You ever say I said that? I've done everything I know to do. I guess there's nothing left to do but pray. Well, that should be the first thing we do. And trusting God should be the first thing that we do.
It's a privilege to pray. It's a privilege to trust God. Trusting God has side effects. Peace, joy, confidence, stability, joy, extreme joy. I mean, trusting God is the best sleep aid in the world. Now, trusting God doesn't mean that we sit back and do absolutely nothing while God does everything.
Trusting God really means that we are going to put our trust in Him. But we're also going to do good. Now, let me just share something with you that God spoke to my heart years and years and years ago. And it was at a time when I had all kinds of problems, enemies. Joyce, you take care of my needs and I'll take care of yours.
See, God needs us to get out in the world and be a blessing. God needs us to get out in the world and shine. Let me put it more simply because the shine thing can kind of get mystical. Yes, I'm going to go out today and shine. For somebody that could be putting on sparkly jewelry, I don't know.
God needs us to get out in our little part of the world and act like we believe in Jesus. Well, what does that mean? That means that you're kind to people, that you treat people good, that you're quick to forgive, that you help people when they need help, that you don't complain all the time and murmur and grumble and that you... Well, anyway, you know, right? You know.
You know, trusting God is what leads us to a lifestyle of obedience. And maybe, you know, we're supposed to obey God. That's... That's kind of the long and the short of this thing, right? It's like, do what I tell you to and your life will be blessed. Can you turn to somebody next to you and say, do what God tells you to, your life will be blessed.
This is not hard. Anybody could pass this class today. And so, trusting God is the only thing that's going to lead us to obedience because why would I obey somebody that I didn't trust? And so, even when Moses disobeyed God and God got angry at him, he said, you didn't believe me. So, trusting and obedience go hand in hand.
Obedience Unlocks Blessings and Healing
Why in the world would I tithe and give offerings if I didn't trust God? That would just be the dumbest thing that anybody could possibly do would be to take 10% plus of their money and give it away. See, that's why the world doesn't understand this. I had an accountant one time tell me, you're giving away too much money. Well, he didn't understand. He didn't get it.
Why do we... Why did you put an offering in this morning to help provide water for somebody over in Africa somewhere that you'll never know or never meet? Because you trust God. And that trust provokes you to obedience. And you believe that if you give, if you bring all the tithe and offering into the storm house, that God will rebuke the devourer for your sake.
And he will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing so great that you cannot contain it. And when we don't do what God tells us to, we don't trust him. We don't believe the word. But if we do believe, and if we do trust, then we do what he tells us to. Hmm.
You want me to take the offering again? Would I get a better one the second time? You know, if I really believe that something marvelous is going to happen in my life, if I will forgive people who have hurt me, then I'm like, I'm not going to waste one more day of my life mad at somebody who obviously doesn't have enough sense to know how to treat people.
I'm going to pray for them, and I'm going to do what God tells me to, even though I may not understand it, I'm going to do it because I trust him. Come on. In every situation, I'm going to take some trust, and that trust is going to lead me into more and more obedience.
Partnership with God Through Trust
I want us to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 9. I don't even know how to tell you how many times in my life I've read this scripture. And two days ago, I saw something in it that I've never seen. It amazes me when that happens. How many of you have that happen in your life?
If you see something in a scripture, it's like, well, did they just add that word? I mean, I've looked at this over and over and over. I've preached on this. Well, I thank God for him. Amen? Okay. Now, listen. 1 Corinthians 1, 9. When God is faithful, reliable, trustworthy, and therefore ever true to his promise, and he can be depended on.
By him, you were called into, and I want you to watch this part, into companionship and participation with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, the word that just jumped out at me, and it's something I preach, but wow, now I've got another scripture to back it up, was the word participation. We're partners with God.
So, even when I'm trusting God, he may show me something that I need to do, and then if I go do that, that's also going to help solve my problem. But it's not going to help solve my problem because I came up with some bright idea of something I could do to solve my problem. It's going to solve my problem because God showed me, do this. Do this.
You know, I have had some amazing relief in my soul from practically blessing people who have hurt me. You've heard a lot of my stories about my upbringing and that my dad sexually abused me, and oh my gosh, I'll never forget when I was praying one day. You've got to be careful when you pray.
I was praying one day, and lo and behold, God showed up. Isn't that scary? I mean, when we say, oh God, show me what you want me to do, do we really want God to show us what he wants me to do? And I felt like God told me to bring my parents to the city where I live and buy them a house and take care of them until they die.
Well, I said, I rebuke you, devil. I honestly did. I didn't think there was any way that God could ask me to do that. Not after what my parents had done to me. And so I assumed that wasn't God and went on, and the next time I was praying, there God was again. Long story short, we ended up being obedient to God in that area.
Tried to buy a cheap house. God said, no, you buy a nice house. I did everything I could to wiggle out of any part of it I could. And can I tell you that that has been the single greatest victory and blessing. Now, hang on a minute, and I'll give you a real reason to shout.
Now, for me to gladly take care of the man who sexually abused me week after week after week after week for about 15 years, and to take care of a mother who knew what he was doing but didn't have the courage to do anything about it, for me to be able, because of my love for God, to take care of them was the greatest victory I've ever had.
And boy, I tell you, it had side effects. I mean, here was one side effect. Our ministry just like... Okay, so I can sit around, oh God, God, I'm trusting you for my ministry to grow. Oh God, I'm trusting you for my ministry to grow. Come on, are you out there? Are you out there?
Oh God, I'm trusting you for a promotion at work. I'm trusting you, God, I'm trusting you. And all of a sudden, God... That's good, you're trusting me. Now, here's a little... Here's a little good you can do. Hello. Trust the Lord and do good. Oh.
Well, God, does it have to be a house? I also love Acts 10, 38. You know, Jesus really... I mean, he was judged and criticized. He was... spit on. He was beaten. He was mocked. His own family thought he was nuts. And Acts 10, 38 says, God anointed and consecrated Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy Ghost, with strength and ability and power.
And he went about doing good. In the midst of everything that he was going through, while he was being reviled and insulted, he went about doing good. Do you know, your only job when you get up in the morning, I don't care if it's Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Your only job when you get up in the morning is trust God and do good.
Trust God and do good. Now, how many of you will admit that when you're having a problem, you can get pretty cranky? How many of you know when you're having a problem, you can blame it on everybody? Nobody does good to me. Why should I encourage anybody? Nobody encourages me.
I do all the work around here, and you guys just lay around here and do nothing. And I'm sick and tired, and I'm sick and tired, and I'm being sick and tired, and I'm being sick and tired, and I'm being sick and tired. But I'm trusting God. I am trusting God to make you treat me right.
Well, there it is right there. I am trusting God to make you treat me right. And I don't understand, God, why you're not making them treat me right. Did it ever occur to you that maybe God is using that person on you? What are you talking about? Well, you know what? We're all just diamonds in the rough.
I'll tell you what. When God allowed me into fellowship with him, man, I was such a mess. But I had potential. And you know what? You've got potential. But you also got some stuff that's got to be worked out. A lot of stuff. You're right, sister. Thank you. I was afraid to say that.
And I tell you, God used people on me. God used Dave on me. And Dave would tell you, if I handed him the microphone, he would tell you that he felt like one of his main jobs in my life was to crucify my flesh. I'll just give you an example. Like I might be going through something really bad.
And I would go to him and I would go to him and I would... And honestly, he would look at me sometimes and say, I am not going to feel sorry for you. I mean, I went wild inside. Just how could you be so mean? How could you be so uncaring? You just don't have any emotions. You don't care about anything. Come on.
Have I got any sisters out there? You know, everything for men is logic. Well, of course I love you. I wouldn't have married you if I wouldn't have loved you. Don't I bring home the paycheck? And, you know, it took me about 30 years to admit it, but... Really, because here's what he would say. If I feel sorry for you, it's only going to keep you in the same spot.
Can anybody feel my pain? You know, learning to trust God totally is a journey. So, please don't leave today and say, well, I wish I could trust God. I really wish I could trust God. You know, the title of this series is Choosing to Trust God. And you may have to say a thousand times when you have a problem, God, I trust you. I trust you. I trust you.
And here comes some worry. I trust you. And the devil says, it's not going to work out. And you open your mouth and say it out loud, God, I trust you. I trust you. I trust you. God, I trust you. If you can help me, who can? God, I trust you. I trust you.
Redeeming Past Pain Through Obedience
You know, so often things happen in our life, and we just don't understand. It just seems so unfair, and it's like, come on, and you tell me God is good. Well, what about this? And, you know, when I was a young kid, and my father was abusing me sexually, I mean, I prayed for God to get me out of that situation. He didn't. He could have. God's God. He can do anything He wants to.
But, you know, there's evil in the world, and there are evil people. And God says, I set before you life and death, I want you to choose life. But if you choose evil, you're going to reap the results of it. And while my father was reaping the results of his evil, sadly, I reaped some of it too.
But the thing to always remember, especially if you've been hurt as a child, don't use what happened to you as a child as an excuse to have a bad life your whole life. Because here's the thing, the minute that you're able to make your own decisions... Come on, now listen. The minute you're able to make your own decisions, every right decision that you make overturns all the evil and wickedness that was done to you.
But now, here's the thing that I saw yesterday. So, it was almost like God just showed me something about that whole situation I've never seen before. My father, his father was a mean Christian. Now, do you know what it does to people when they're raised by a mean Christian? Somebody who claims to be a Christian, but who mistreats people?
Maybe part of why God didn't deliver me then was because later on, he wanted to use me to be the deliverer. Are you hearing me? See, he not only delivers us, he could deliver me, but is it not a greater thing if he does this unbelievably amazing thing to where then my father, through Dave and I, saw the goodness of God that he never saw as a child growing up.
And it melted his hard heart. And because of that, he's in heaven today.