Joyce Meyer - Enjoy Your Life
So many people have the mindset of, "I will enjoy life when, when I go on vacation, when I retire, when the kids are older," and so on. But God wants you to enjoy your life now, not when. Enjoy this teaching on ways you can make every day better and later I'll answer some of your questions of this topic. We need to stop saying I'll be glad when and get glad now. Amen?
Now, I'm very serious about what I'm saying. I've spent so many years not enjoying my life. I never got to be a child. My dad started abusing me when I was very young and we lived in a total atmosphere of fear. And I just basically had my childhood stolen. So, as an adult, I did not have a healthy child in me and I think that we need that. I don't care how old you are, you need to have some child-likeness in your life. And there was such a vast difference between Dave and I because he seemed to be able to enjoy everything that he did, even if a lot of it was at my expense. But I was so intense about everything because I grew up just trying to survive every day.
And see, it took me a long time in my life that Jesus died so we can enjoy every aspect of our lives. And a lot of it is a mindset. It's just like, I mean a lot of people just automatically think well, they couldn't possibly enjoy going to work. They couldn't possibly enjoy cleaning house or cuttin' the grass, or changin' the oil in the car, or goin' to the grocery store. But I tell ya what, you can enjoy whatever you decide to enjoy because the point is is number one, the number-one goal in our life... matter of fact, a great woman of God who lived in the 1600S named Madame Guyon said that the high call on our life is to learn to enjoy God.
Come on. Not even just to serve God, but to enjoy God. And to enjoy God, you gotta be comfortable with God, amen? Not afraid of Him or feeling like every time you make a wrong move, he's gonna punish you, but to enjoy God. And the way that you can enjoy everything you do, whatever it is, is if you do it with and for God. Amen? Now come on, I'm tryin' to help ya enjoy your life a little more. Now, secondly, if you wanna enjoy your life, you gotta enjoy yourself. Mmm, that went over good. I said this yesterday morning, but I feel compelled to say it again this morning. I think a lot of people just don't pay any attention to what kind of relationship they have with themselves.
So, how do you feel about yourself? Do you like yourself? Do you love yourself in a balanced way? Do you appreciate the gifts that God has given you? How much time do you waste comparing yourself to other people? Do you only think about what's wrong with you or do you ever sit and think, you know, "I'm good at this. I'm good at this. God's gifted me at this." learn how to enjoy yourself because God enjoys you. Amen?
Now, here we go, enjoy the people in your life. And now I realize there are people that are hard to be around. I'm not talking about the people that annoy you at work and that kind of stuff. I'm talking about, you know, if you're married, enjoy the person you're married to and the only way you're gonna be able to do that is if you stop focusing on everything that's wrong with 'em. And you actually purposely think about the things that are a blessing to you. I've actually sat down and made a list of things that I really, really, really like about Dave. Well, I spent the first 20 years of our marriage only thinking about what I didn't like and what I wanted to see God change in him so I could be happy.
All right now, I'm gonna say something important: stop giving somebody else the responsibility for your joy. That was worth and even when you get married, don't get married with the expectation, "Now you're supposed to keep me happy," 'cause that may happen sometimes, but sometimes it may not happen and so you need to make a decision to be happy and live your life to make somebody else happy, and then God'll take care of your joy. Amen? In every relationship, there's gonna be things that you don't like. And if you focus on those things, then you will miss the things that you do like. Amen?
And when you talk to your friends and other people, don't talk about the people in your life. Don't talk about everything you don't like. Well? "Well I wish." You know, wishing is a total waste of time. It's just completely useless. Take what you've got in life and kick the devil in the behind. And let God teach you how to enjoy... that doesn't mean the people don't need changing. That doesn't mean that there's not things that we don't like. We've all got things that we don't like. I'm talking about not focusing on them because what we focus on is what becomes larger and larger and larger. Do you know that a lot of people end up getting divorces simply because all they focus on is what they don't like about the person they're married to? Amen?