Joyce Meyer - How Your Mind Affects The World Around You

TOPICS: Mind

Love always looks for people to help, but you gotta be mentally prepared before you go out of your house to do that or you're not gonna pay any attention. I'm not even gonna ask for a show of hands, but I just wonder how many people in here this morning even spent seconds mentally thinking about asking God to help you notice people today that were in need and setting your mind to go out, be an encouragement, be friendly, be nice, help people. Jesus, who was actually love in a body, and I love that, always took the time to help people. And he told a story letting us know how we should live.

"Jesus said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it? And he said, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and you must love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said, you have answered correctly; do this". I draw a circle around, "Do this". 'Cause see, a lot of times we know the answers, but we're not doing. I mean, it doesn't matter how much you clap and cheer for my message today if you don't go home now and do this. So, if you would just even take a few minutes this afternoon, sit down somewhere, and think on purpose. This is one of the ways that you renew your mind is by thinking on purpose according to the Word of God.

I wanna walk in love today. I'm going to walk in love today. Help me, Lord, walk in love today. I wanna help somebody today. Boy, let me tell you what, you start praying that every day, "God, I wanna help somebody today," you're gonna be the busiest person you can possibly imagine. I'll tell you one thing I'm not is bored. And frankly, I don't know how "Do this, and you will live enjoy active, blessed, endless life in the Kingdom of God". Is that not wonderful? Now do this and you will enjoy your life. I love it. We can just stop right here and have a shouting party. "And the man, determined to acquit himself of reproach, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?" Like he didn't know. "So Jesus, taking him up".

I love that. It was like Jesus said, "Okay, I'll take that challenge". "A certain man was going from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him of his clothes and belongings and beat him and went on their way, unconcernedly leaving him half dead, as it happened". Can I tell you that you run into people like this every day, people that have been beat up by the world. They've been hurt, they've been abused, they've been mistreated, and they're lying somewhere, if not physically, mentally and emotionally, on the side of the road of life with no hope and no help. And now, we have some options "And now by coincidence a certain priest," a religious man, "Was going down the road, and when he saw the man lying there in such a mess, he passed by on the other side of the road".

He crossed the street oh my goodness. Do we ever pull up to a stoplight and we hope that the light changes and we can get away before the guy begging gets to our window? You know, sometimes we just don't wanna mess with the people in life that make us uncomfortable and we're not real sure. Well, it's very simple. If you feel like God wants you to help 'em, help 'em, and if you feel like he doesn't, then don't. We gotta use wisdom. Not everybody out collecting money's actually really poor. Some of 'em are just getting rich, but you'll know. You're led by the Spirit. You'll know. And I'll tell you what, I'd rather help somebody and be wrong than to not help somebody and be wrong. Amen? I'd rather give somebody a couple of bucks and then have God say later, "Oh, you shouldn't have done that".

"And then a Levit," who was also another type of religious man, "Came down to the place and saw him, and he passed by on the other side of the road. But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled along, came down to where he was; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity and sympathy". We need to just stop saying, "I feel so sorry for them". It's okay to feel sorry for people, but we also need to be ready to move. Where are you at? I'm gonna keep just preaching just to you. You know, if nothing else, when you think of somebody that's hurting, say a prayer for 'em. Be moved to say, "God, comfort them today".

Any little thing. Any thing other than nothing. The one thing we cannot keep doing is nothing. Nothing is no longer acceptable. I tell you, I live an exciting life because I never know what God's gonna have me do next. I don't like all of it, but I'm happy about working with Him to bring help to people. So, He was moved with pity and sympathy. Verse 34, "And he went to him and dressed his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine. And then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and he took care of him there".

And he had to go and finish some business that he had to do. He said to the inn owner, "Whatever it costs". Now, I love that. "Whatever it costs, you take care of him, and when I come back I will pay you". Whatever it costs. We don't have too many believers like that anymore. It's like, whatever is required, whatever it costs, whatever it takes, you can count on me. Oh, you're not liking this like you ought to. "Well, for crying out loud, Joyce, I've only got a certain amount of money". Well, nobody's expecting anybody to do what they can't do. You know, God's even challenged me... I hesitate to even tell you this because you're not gonna like it. You're not gonna want to apply this to your life, but I'll just tell you anyway. "Oh God, help so and so".

God told me one day, "Why don't you stop asking me to do things for people that you could easily do yourself and just don't want to". A group of christian men, many of them in ministry and some in business, were praying one day together, and they began to pray about a certain conference that they were gonna be having. And one man began to pray that God would provide the sufficient funds needed for that conference. And they went on for a little bit, and another man stopped and said, "You know what? We don't really need to pray about that. We don't even need to bother God with that because between us we've all got what it would take to pay for this conference with no problem".