Joyce Meyer - How Do I Apply God's Word To My Situation?

TOPICS: Everyday Answers, God's Word

I don't think that we have ever fully realized how amazingly powerful the Word of God is. How many of you take some kind of medicine? Okay, well, now, we don't know how it works. It's kind of amazing that you can have some super big problem, or a pain somewhere, or something going on in your body, and yet you can take a pill. And if you take it on a regular basis, those symptoms will go away. Well, you see, I think that the Word of God is medicine for our soul. Amen?

I believe that we have got this humongous medicine cabinet that's right here, and it has something in it for everything that ails you. There's help in here for jealousy. There's help in here for condemnation. There's help in here for the lost. There's help in here for the weak. There's help in here for the angry. There's help for our mouth, there's help for our mind, there's help for selfishness.

I mean, this is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful book. It is a treasure, amen? So, "Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be," going to say three things, "Quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to take offense and get angry".

Now, I looked at this list this morning, and I personally I like to kind of think about where I'm at spiritually and how am I doing in these areas. So, I'll tell you I don't have a huge problem with anger anymore. God's really worked in my life with that. I mean, years ago, I spent more time being angry than I wasn't angry, but I've got a revelation on that. I don't waste much time with that.

I'm not real easily offended because I've kind of trained myself to quickly try to believe the best, and believe that if somebody did offend me, that's probably not what they were trying to do. And so, that has helped me a lot.

However, when it comes to listening, I could still use to grow a little bit because I kind of like talking more than I like listening. And also in the area of being slow to speak. Sometimes, I say things before I should say them.

However, I am happy to report that I am a lot better than what I used to be. And so, you see, I'm so glad that we can celebrate our progress, and we don't have to be depressed about how far we still have to go, amen?

Now, when it comes to this listening thing, that we should listen more, obviously we should listen more to people. We can learn a lot if we listen to people, amen? And, but I think it also has another meaning that we need to realize, and that is that we need to always have one ear tuned toward God.

And I'd like to kind of present this idea to you this weekend that we basically live in two worlds at one time. We're in this world, but we're also at the same time we're here with our feet on the ground, we're connected to another world.

Now, you see me with my feet here on the platform this morning, but you better hope I'm hearing from God. Because if I'm not, if I'm not letting Him lead me and guide me, then you probably won't get very much out of this. And so, I'm not, like, sitting here real aware, you know, that God is speaking to me, but I know when I teach that there are times where I will have a plan, and I'll get up, and what I say has not much to do at all with my plan because God already knows what you need.

I think that we talk too quick, and we answer people too quick. And we need to slow down and think a little bit, make a connection with God, how do you want me to handle this situation? Do you want me to say anything? Do you want me to be quiet? Just taking more time before we pop off an answer can be real wise.

I want to give you a biblical example. You might be familiar with the story where Jesus was being taken to task by some of the pharisees that were trying to find a reason to find fault with Him. And so, they brought a woman that was caught in adultery in front of Him. And they knew that the law said that they should stone her.

And Jesus could not break the law. He kept the law perfectly so we would be free from the tyranny of living under the law. And when He said on the cross, "It is finished," He meant that old system of trying to live under the law of Moses. But He couldn't break the law, so now He's in a situation where the pharisees are watching to see what are you going to do, and yet He didn't want the woman to be stoned.

And so, if you remember the story, Jesus, when they said to Him, "What do you say? The law says we should stone her to death. What do you say that we should do with her"? Because He's out teaching love and mercy.

So, now what's He going to do? You ever felt like you were kind of in a trap somewhere, and you're like, "Hmm, what am I going to do now"? And so Jesus, the Bible says that He bent down on the ground, and He wrote in the sand or the dirt with his finger.

Now, what was that all about? What was He doing? And then He gets up, and He says, "Let him who is among you without sin cast the first stone". Well, the answer was perfect because He didn't break the law with what He said, but He still kept His message about love.

"Well, whichever one among you has never done anything wrong? Then you can be free to cast the first stone". And it says one by one, they dropped their stones and walked away. And so, I think if we would take more time to listen to what we should be saying before we open our mouth, things would get a lot better.

Verse 21, "So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls".

So, if we look at this in context, He's saying, "Okay, now listen to this. Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to take offense, and slow to get angry". Because your anger is not the right thing. It's not the way God wants us to live.

And so, here's some help for you. Be sure that you receive the Word of God with an attitude of meekness because it contains the power to save your soul. Or, if you will, it contains the power to tear down that spirit of anger that you're feeling, and actually will give you the strength.

The Word of God will give us the strength that we need to let go of things that God wants us to let go of. And it will give us the strength to do the things that God wants us to do.

Here's what I would do. If I was angry and I was having a very difficult time getting over it, I would look up several scriptures on anger. Because see, here's the thing. If I've got a headache, putting a band aid on my head don't help.

So, we need to take the Word of God purposefully, depending on what we need. If I've got a bad attitude, looking up scriptures on how I can be blessed is not going to change my attitude. Come on, I know it's early, you can get this. Amen?

And so, what I'm telling you is that the Word of God can be used specifically for specific situations. Like, I recommend if you are starting out in a walk with God, and you have all these boatloads of problems, things that you need to grow up in and get over, I mean, it's fine to be on a certain Bible reading plan.

I think that's great discipline, but if I were you, if you're having a specific problem with something, I would commit to studying the Word of God in that area. Are you with me? Study the Word of God in that area because there's power in the Word to help you solve the problem that you have.

So, let's just say that I'm angry, and just really want to go rip somebody's head off, but I know that's not what God wants me to do. So, now this is a little book we have, we call it the purple book, but it's about the power of speaking God's word out loud. And it's divided up into categories for you.

So, it's kind of like a real quick like, man, I'm in trouble. I'm about to tell somebody off, and I need to get some medicine here to help me, except they put a thing on here and now it's tearing my page.

Okay, there. So, I can get this, and I can go, "I will bridle my anger. I will trash my wrath. I will cool my pipes. God will help me. I follow the example of the Lord, who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy and lovingkindness. I am slow to anger, and I have great understanding. I am not like he who is hasty of spirit, exposing and exalting his folly. I speak soft answers that turn away wrath, not grievous words that stir up anger".

And so, there's three pages of these kind of scriptures here. And I can tell you the truth, if you read these out loud, it won't be long and your soul will start to calm down, and you're going to start to feel better and better and better.

Now, all anybody can do in my position is tell you what will help you. But knowing what I've said is not going to do what needs to be done. It's you going home and doing it when you have a personal situation going on in your life that will make the changes. That's what I would do, even right now.