Joyce Meyer - Understanding Your Emotions

TOPICS: Emotions

Father, help me tonight. I don't want them to hear from me, I want them to hear from you. So, I pray that everybody would be attentive and that people would really learn something tonight. Not just hear something, but learn something about this whole area of emotions, and how we need to handle it. In Jesus' name, amen.

Probably more than anything, people talk about how they feel. People come for prayer, "Well, I feel, I feel, I feel. I feel, I feel". And we all have feelings but the thing you have to understand about feelings is they are ever-changing. They're fickle and so really, because I feel something that doesn't mean that it's truth.

So first lesson, everything you feel is not true. You may feel like, for example, that you're no good and yet if you read what the Bible says, you have unbelievable worth and value to him. You may feel that you can never be forgiven for the things that you've done wrong in the past but if you would learn the truth, the truth says that he forgives and forgives and forgives and forgives and forgives and forgives and forgives and we are to let go of the past and press on to the things that are ahead. You may be forgiven of a sin and still feel guilty, but that guilt that you're feeling is actually a lie because if the sin has been removed, there's nothing there to feel guilty about.

So you really need to start asking yourself, "Is this thing that I'm feeling", that in many instances we're basing our life on, "Is this feeling true? Does it agree with the Word of God? Or is this just some random thing from somewhere that maybe I've had for a long, long time and I need to check out the source and see if I'm believing a bunch of stuff that's not really true"? Do you know that when you believe lies it keeps you in bondage. And there's people in here tonight, you believe certain things that really aren't even true. And that's why it's so valuable to hear the word, hear the word, hear the word, study the word, study the word, study the word, because Jesus said, "I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life". Today, the world is trying to tell us that there is no absolute truth. Well, there absolutely is an absolute truth. And Jesus is it, amen.

So let's look at a couple of scriptures. Romans chapter 8, verse 8. "So then those who are living the life of the flesh catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature", they... You know what an impulse is? It's just like, woop! Oop! It's just this kinda sudden urge, you know, like, whoo, chocolate! Hoo, sale! "The impulses of their carnal nature", which means the part of us that has not yet been crucified, they "Cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable unto him". Now that does not mean that God doesn't accept us if we have any carnality in our lives but it means that kind of behavior is not acceptable to God. That's not how he wants us to behave.

Okay, so let's think about the word "Catering" for a minute. I spent a lot of years catering to my flesh and I'm sure some of you have had the same experience and may still be in that situation. You may not even know that you're doing it. And what that means is every time you feel that you wanna do something, you go do it. Or any time you don't feel like you don't wanna do something, you don't do it. We cater to our feelings. We feed the flesh and the more you feed anything, the stronger it gets. And the less you feed anything, the weaker it gets. So we, by the help of God, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, we need to learn the word, know what's the devil, know what's God, and we need to use the fruit of self-control that every one of us has. Don't ever say you don't have any self-control, "I just can't control myself". Yeah, you can. You may not want to, but you can.

And so the more we go with God and don't go with the flesh, the weaker, the weaker, the weaker it gets until it really no longer can have any control over you. Catering. There are people who have catering businesses. I have hosted catered events. And you know, if you go to a buffet, you don't get any specialized service. You get your own plate, you put your own food in it. You carry it to your own table, you get your own napkin. They might bring you some water. You eat and you pay. And the bill is probably not too major. But if you go to a five-star restaurant where you've got three waiters catering to you all night... You get up to go to the bathroom, and you leave your napkin on the table, and when you come back it's folded into this cute little duck. I mean, everything is specialized, everything is personalized. When they come to the table, they call you mr. And mrs. You're treated like a king. You don't have to get your own food. You don't have to clean the table up.

See, when you go to the buffets, they even want you to clean your dishes up, but you're gonna pay a higher price for the catered meal. Now come on, there's a message here. When we cater to our flesh, so here's the thing. We're either gonna pay now or we're gonna pay later. So we either pay now by saying, "No, I'm gonna go with God on this and if my flesh wants to have a screaming fit, just let it have it". See, there is a real thing that we feel in our flesh when we don't give it its way. How many of you know, you understand that feeling? You know, like, if Dave and I have had a argument and I think he's wrong but God puts it in my heart that I need to go and apologize, oh, my flesh hates it. Hates it. I cringe. And I, like, always want Dave, when he is wrong, to say, "I was wrong". But he doesn't do that much.

Do any of you have men that just don't like that terminology, "I was wrong", you know? It seems to be a male thing, I don't know. And so that can be really hard on my flesh. And you see, years ago when things were hard on my flesh, I had not developed an ability to keep my mouth shut. C'mon, is anybody in the room tonight? I mean, I could not keep my mouth shut. So every time I didn't get my way and my flesh felt uncomfortable, I would start something. I got somebody who's with me, right down here tonight. But oh my gosh, God has changed me so much. Oh, it hurt. It hurt really bad. But see, the point is, is you can either suffer in a way that will always keep you in bondage and you keep suffering and you keep suffering and you keep suffering, or you can suffer temporarily and get to the point where that thing no longer has control over you and then you're free.

1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 3. Paul was talking to the Corinthian church. They operated in the gifts of the spirit. They were supposed to be the cream of the crop. And he says to them, to the Christians... Let's just say that he was having a meeting similar to tonight. His crowd probably wasn't this big 'cause he was in a cave somewhere but let's just say that he was having a great meeting and everything was going good there in the cave and Paul looks at 'em and says, "You are still unspiritual". See, I'm nicer than Paul was. "You are still unspiritual, having the nature of the flesh because you're under the control of ordinary impulses. Because as long as there is envy, jealousy, wrangling, factions", which is strife, "Among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh, behaving yourselves after a mere human standard and you're acting like (unchanged) men"?

See, being born again means that there should be a change. Now, everything doesn't change overnight, there's no doubt about that. The Bible says that we are changed into his image, little by little, from glory to glory. So if you just got born again last night, which almost 400 people answered the altar call last night, if you just received Christ last night and you haven't seen any big change in yourself, don't worry about that at all. We're good, we're cool with that. But if you've been saved 20 years and you don't see any change and you're still going around the same mountains you went around 20 years ago, and you still can't keep your mouth shut and your mind is still full of junky stuff, these guys are too good for that, I can tell.

C'mon, let me tell you a secret. I preach at whoever smiles at me the most. Now, you know, my call is to help the believer mature and grow up. Because I was a Christian for a long time. Let me rephrase that. I was a miserable Christian for a long, long time. It's one thing to be a miserable sinner, it's another thing to be a miserable saint, amen? So something should happen when we receive Christ as our Savior. We're not supposed to stay the same.

I see changes still in my life all the time. At the end of this year, I will not still be the way I am right now. And I'll tell ya, if you come to this conference and if you sit here for all four sessions or if you only come to one session or whatever, and nothing changes, then it was a waste of time. Don't waste your time, you don't have enough time to waste anymore. We don't just hear the word, with the help of God, we apply the word. "Knowing these things, blessed are ye if you do them", Jesus said in John 13. We're new creatures. The Bible says, "Put off the old man and put on the new man".

Now, emotions are so fickle. Did you ever say to somebody, "You are so fickle"? And when you say that to them, what you're actually saying is I cannot depend on you, you are one way one day and another way the next day. And we have to understand that emotions are fickle. They change without any notice at all. You can go to bed, feeling like you wanna do something the next morning and wake up the next morning and you don't want to do it at all. You don't feel like doing it at all. I had that happen to me yesterday. I walk every day, several miles, and I actually really love it. I really miss it when I can't do it. And when I do my conferences, I can't do it. And I came here a day early to do something at life church and so this time I'm here for 3 days so I'm really wanting to get home and walk again.

Well, normally, I won't walk on Saturdays when I get home from my conferences, because I'm just really tired. And so Thursday night, I said, "When I get home on Saturday, Dave, I think instead of eating out, I'm gonna go home and walk first and then we can pick up something and eat at home". And he said, "Okay". Well, when I got up Friday morning, I was still good for that. I mean, that's, you know, no, Thursday night I was still okay. Then Friday morning, I got up, this morning, and I was kind of tired and I thought, "Oh, I don't know if I feel like walking on Saturday". And then later on in the day I started feeling a little bit better and I said, "Yeah, you know, I am gonna go home and I'm gonna walk on Saturday". And so I finally just said, "I think we just better wait 'til Saturday and see what happens there".

Now see, I can do that with something like that 'cause that's not a life-altering decision but there are some things that you cannot afford to do that with. There are some things that you gotta set your mind and keep it set and no matter how you feel or don't feel, you gotta go ahead and do that thing. Feelings disappear when you would like to have their support. And they appear at times when you really wish they wouldn't. We would love to feel like exercising, like cleaning out the garage. We would love to feel like going to work or paying the bills. But those feelings refuse to show up and support us. Mike, who's been going around greeting you and he helps me up here with the offerings, his wife Pennie is my administrative assistant and she's not real fond of exercise and so after she heard me teach this, I taught it last week at our inner city church in St. Louis, and she said, "You know what? I have never one time in my life felt like exercising".

And see, I actually do at this point in my life. You know why? Because I've seen the pay-off. Remember, I talked to you last night about if you know what the pay-off is? Well, the pay-off for me has been unbelievable increase in energy. And so it's, like, I don't even pay any attention now to the doing of it because I'm looking beyond that to what I know I'm gonna get out of it. Well, she doesn't have that revelation yet but she said, however, I do look at a storage cabinet that's a mess and think I feel like cleaning that out. I said, "I've never felt like that". So you see, for every one of us, there's gonna be things that we're gonna feel like doing and those things are gonna be easier for us. And for every one of us, there's gonna be things that we don't feel like doing but that doesn't mean that we don't do them. I'm gonna rewind and say that again, 'cause sometimes we need things two times.

Jesus said, "And again I say unto you". So and again I say unto you, we all have things that we feel like doing and we all have things that we don't feel like doing. But there are some things that we must do, no matter how we feel about it. And in a lot of areas of life you have to stop letting your feelings vote. Somebody said to me a few years back, "So Joyce, after all these years of traveling and being in hotels and doing conferences, how do you feel about all the travel you do"? And you know, my answer surprised even me. I said, "You know what? I haven't asked myself in a long time". I would get in real trouble if I asked myself how I felt about this. I tell you what I might feel like doing. I might feel like staying home, getting in a recliner, and rocking one of my grandkids. I don't feel like going out and getting in another hotel room, but it has nothing to do with how I feel because I am determined that I am gonna run my race, I'm gonna finish my race, and I am gonna do all that God has called me to do. A-double L, ALL, ALL, ALL. Not half, not three-quarters, all.

And if there's anything we need to realize in the church, we've gotta stop being mediocre. And that means to be halfway between bad and great. God has called us to greatness. He called us out of something to take us into something. And we don't wanna be like the Israelites who came out, but now we're just wondering around in the wilderness and we never make it to the Promised Land. "I feel, I feel, I don't feel". Stop asking yourself, so often, how you feel, and maybe let's even challenge our selves to stop talking so much about how we feel. "I just feel like giving up". Well, you're not going to. Alright.

Now, Dave said to me yesterday, "You know, I never really feel like playing golf, I just do it because it's my duty". I said, "Could I have that again, please"? He said, "Nah, I never really feel like playing. I just do it 'cause I know it's my responsibility and my duty". Obviously, he was being funny, but... I'm still like, in shock over that. You know, we don't want to feel angry. I wish I never felt angry. Because if I never felt angry, then I wouldn't have to control myself. I wish that I just had these ooey, gooey, oozy, gushy feelings about every person on the planet. No matter how they acted, I just wish that I could just feel that for every annoying person in the world. Cause you see, here's the thing. I'm commanded to love them. But I'm not commanded to feel like I wanna do it. Amen?

And so, we have to stop saying, "Well, you know, I don't feel... I don't feel"... Boy, I wish I never felt impatient. Lord, have mercy, we talked about that last night. If you weren't here, buy the cd. Sometimes, I feel jealous. I hate that. I mean, that's just like the height of stupidity for me to be jealous of anybody. Sometimes, I feel angry. Sometimes, I feel grouchy. Sometimes, I feel offended. Sometimes, people hurt my feelings. But here's the main message that I want you to get. Just because you feel angry, you don't have to be angry. Just because you feel jealous, you don't have to be jealous.

So, you know what I've learned to do? If I'm really having a problem comparing myself with somebody else and wanting what they've got, I first of all, pray for them, and if the nonsense doesn't go away, I'll send 'em a gift. Come on, we—by doing good, we can break the power of the devil off of our back. Romans 12:21 is one of the most powerful scriptures in the Bible, very simply, "We overcome evil with good". We overcome evil with good. I completely overcame all the tragedy of my abusive past when I made a choice that I did not feel like making: to take care of my father who abused me until he died. See, when you do what's right, no matter how you feel, it breaks the stronghold of the enemy over your life. Are you with me? And it's okay. You can tell God how you feel. You know, feeling anger is not a sin, being angry is a sin.

PART 2
Now, emotions can keep people out of the will of God, but somebody was talking to me yesterday. It was actually my daughter and she likes to ask me what I'm gonna be teaching and then I told her what I was gonna be teaching. She said, "Well, what do you do to control your emotions? How will you tell somebody to control their emotions"? Well, the first thing I would tell you is anytime the devil is after you, you can immediately interrupt the devil's plan by praying. It's just the simplest little thing, you just pray. Or sometimes when the devil lies to you, all you gotta do is confess the scripture out loud, he goes away. He don't want to listen to you preach to him. He's not in here tonight. He doesn't like to hear preaching, amen? But you can preach to yourself.

So, the first thing you do, you feel jealous, you feel offended, you feel angry, you pray, "God, I don't wanna feel like this, but until the feelings go away, I'm asking you to help me control myself. I wanna glorify you and not give into this. I need your strength". I'm not wanting to send you home to try to change or to try to not feel certain ways. I'm trying to tell you that you're always gonna have certain feelings. You never know exactly when they're gonna show up. You never know exactly when they're gonna go away, so we need to learn to enjoy the good ones and resist the bad ones. I love it when I feel like doing everything I was supposed to do, but I've made my mind up.

Can somebody say, "I've made my mind up"? That I'm gonna do what I'm supposed to do whether I feel like doing it or not. Now, for some of you, this is gonna be like a radical lifestyle shift because I can tell you, when you're used to doing everything you feel like and giving into your feelings, it is tough when you start trying to change. Let me tell you what, I had some strongholds in my flesh from the way I was raised and mmm honey, whoo. When I started trying, even remotely trying to be a submissive wife and keep my mouth shut, and not argue with Dave, I mean the war in my flesh was like World War III. But I'm still here and God gave me the victory, amen? Right away pray, it interrupts the devil.

Then, if you're having a consistent problem with something, study the Word of God in that area because there's power in the word to change things. The word is powerful, powerful. There's power in every Word of God that I'm speaking to you tonight. It's full of power. It has inherent power in it and it can change you. The Word of God changes us. I mean, I sat down one day and I quickly found 40 things that the Word of God does for us, 40. And you can find almost all of them in Psalm 119. The Word of God keeps us from sin. The Word of God protects us. The Word of God energizes us. The Word of God changes us.

So, don't ever look at your Bible like, "Well, you know, I better read my chapter today, I don't want God to be mad". God doesn't need you to read the Bible, he knows it. He wants us to study for ourselves because we need it. We need to be educated. Now, there is gonna be times in our life when God himself is gonna test our emotions. Hmm. Now, what happens when you test something? Well, it means that you just put a little pressure on it to see if it's the real deal or not. Have you ever bought a chair without sitting on it? No. Have you ever bought a mattress? Turn on your right side, turn on your left side. You lay on your back, you lay on your stomach, then you go try all the other ones.

Psalm 7, verse 9, "Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the uncompromisingly righteous those upright and in harmony with you: for you", talking about God, "Who try the hearts and emotions and thinking powers, are a righteous God". So, how would God try us in an area? God may not remove an emotion that we don't like as soon as we would like him to because he wants us to learn how to live beyond that feeling. We may want to feel God's presence but he might hide. Have you ever gone through seasons in your life where you thought, "Wherever you're at, I don't know where it is"?

Listen, I remember when I was a baby Christian, baby Christians can get by with stuff. I mean, I remember when I would need a word from God, I would just do one of these things... Come on, be honest, how many of you've done that? Look at that, everybody in here! One of my granddaughters heard me say this the other day. She's like, I've got one that's 15 and one that's 17 and even the 15-year-old just laughed her head off. She said, "I've done that. I've done that". Well, you know, for a while it worked. It was amazing. I mean, I would go to Dave and say, "You are not gonna believe this, I prayed and asked God this question and this is what I opened up to and pointed to".

And even Dave would be impressed and that takes a lot. "You gotta be kidding". I was like, "Wow, isn't it awesome"? Well, but then it got concerning when I would try that and I would get, "Woe, be unto you, you wicked sinner". Ooh, let's try again. Well see, God may give us confirmations, and signs, and wonders, and all kinds of emotional stuff in the beginning stages of our walk with him but he's not gonna let us live off that forever because he wants us to learn to not live by sight but by faith. You know, I don't really ever sit around anymore and ask myself when I pray or spend time with God, "Do I feel God's presence"? Now, I did.

I can remember when Dave and I were in like these amazing church services and I would just... Oh, I mean I would just be, the anointing, the presence of God would just be overwhelming. And we would leave sometimes and I'd say to Dave, "Did you feel the presence of God tonight"? He'd say, "No". I thought, "What is wrong with you"? See, I didn't realize that he was actually more spiritually mature than I was because he wasn't sitting there asking himself how he felt. He already believed that God was there. Come on. And how many times do we assume that somebody's not spiritual because they're not feeling what we're feeling? Man, we can get off into some silly stuff. "Ooh there's, look at that, my hand's shaking, it's God". I mean, you know something like that I guess could be God.

I mean, I remember Oral Roberts saying that he would feel the power of God in his right hand when he prayed for the sick. But the good news is is I am so glad that I don't have to base what I believe on what I feel because my feelings come and go and change but God never changes and he never goes. He's always with us. And you never have to feel bad if you're in a church service or in a prayer group or something and everybody seems to be feeling all kinds of stuff and you don't feel nothing. And I know that's hard. I mean, I've had to try to counsel people through that. "Well, I never feel"... Job 19:25 and 26, my, my, my, this is shoutin' ground right here. "For I know that my redeemer and vindicator lives"...

Now, Job had had a bad day, to say the least, a bad few days, maybe a bad few months. Nobody in the Bible seems to have had it as bad as Job did. I mean, his wife said, "Curse God and die". His friends were against him. And he said, and I wanna read you verses 25 and 26. "For I know that my redeemer lives, and at last, the last one he will stand upon the earth". Now, look at verse 26, "And after my skin, even this body, has been destroyed, then from my flesh or without it I shall see God". Wow, he didn't say, "I feel", he said, "I know, I know". Paul said, "My determined purpose is to know him and the power of his resurrection".

I mean, listen, I admit feelings are awesome. I felt a strong presence of the Lord here tonight and last night in our worship and that's great. But if I didn't feel, I still know, and to be honest, now listen to me, when you know that you know, that you know, that you know, I don't think you can really even tell the difference between what you know and what you feel because you're not basing anything on what you feel, you already know. I know God loves me. Romans 8:35-39, one of the most important things for you to know is that God loves you and he is never gonna stop. Matter of fact, can I tell you something? And this is always kind of shocking to people, God will never love you any more than he does at this moment right now.

You say, "Well, won't he love me more when I do better"? God's love is not based on our behavior, it's based on who he is and he is love. "Well, if he won't love me anymore, than why should I try to be good"? Because you love him, not to get him to love you, but because you love him. Boy, if we can grow to the point where in trials and tribulations or even in tragedies, things that are so unbelievably painful and things that are unfair and that we don't understand and we can still never even be tempted to say, "Well, God, don't you love me"? That's a victory.

"Who shall ever separate us from Christ's love"? Somebody's who's hurting in this place tonight needs to get this. "Who shall ever separate us from Christ's love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword? Even as it is written, for your sake we are put to death all the day long: we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter". I love that. You can be talking about being a Christian and you may be in a season in your life where your circumstances are so bad that to other people, you look like a sheep being led to the slaughter. "Yet in the midst of all these things we are more than conquerors".

Wow, right in the middle of them, we are more than conquerors, how? "And we gain a surpassing victory through him who loved us". Victory comes through knowing that God loves you and that no matter what you go through on this earth, at the last day, you will see your redeemer alive and you will stand with him. "I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will ever be able to separate me from the love of God which is found in Christ Jesus", awesome.

And you know, for those of you that are watching this by television, let me just say to you personally, God loves you and he wants you. He wants to have a personal intimate relationship with you. He wants to come into your life, and flood your life, and fill you with his presence, and teach you how to live a life that will be worth living. And if you have not received Christ as your Savior, there's a number on your screen that you can call right now and somebody that works with me will tell you about how you can be born-again. And if you're sincere and you want a new life, they will pray with you and God will begin a work in your life that will make you a totally different person. So, please call. Let us help you. God loves you. Let's not live by how we feel. Let's live by what we know. Everybody say, "I know".

Now, just one last thought or so that I wanna share with you. Watchman nee also said, "He who lives by emotions will live without principle". Principle is an accepted rule of action or conduct. It's a standard that we live by. Do you have a standard for your life? Have you drawn a line somewhere and said, "I will not do those things? I will do these things. I will not do those things". Well, some of you I guess, aren't sure, I don't know. Do you wait for your friends to tell you what kind of movies you're gonna go see or will you stay home alone if it's either that or be offensive to the Holy Spirit?

See, I've made a few decisions for my life. I'm not gonna waste another day of my life being angry. I'm just not gonna do it. I will be generous. I will fight greed and selfishness by being aggressively generous. I have a standard for my life. I will meet needs. I will give the Word of God first place in my life. I will finish my race. By the grace of God, I will. We do nothing without him, but we can do everything through him but you gotta make a decision. Colossians 3 says, "Set your mind and keep it set". Don't set your mind and then change it when it gets hard. Is this helping anybody tonight? He who lives by emotion will live without principle, that means he will live without integrity.

Now, this is sad, but we've done like sometimes they do these what they call man on the street interviews and when I'm gonna teach on something, they'll go out and just ask random people questions. You would be shocked at how many people today, don't know what integrity is. You can ask them, "What's integrity"? And they're like, "I don't know". That is sad, that's actually frightening because a person of integrity is an honest person, they tell the truth at all times, they keep their word, they do what they say they're gonna do and if they can't, they don't just ignore their commitment, they communicate. They don't buy a pair of shoes and when they get home find out they accidentally gave them two pair and just decide God's tryin' to bless them and they keep 'em. God's not gonna bless you by stealin' from somebody else, thank you.

Integrity. Thirty-five years ago when God told us to step out... It's thirty years ago, when God told us to step out, we'd done five years of home Bible studies, five years I worked for somebody else and now God said, "I want you to go north, south, east, and west". And he put in my heart, "There's three things I want you to do. If you do 'em, I'll bless you. Keep the strife out of your life, do what you do with excellence, and always be a person of integrity". So, integrity is very important to me and I hope it's something that's important to you. And if you don't know what it is, then I strongly suggest that you study it and find out. Keep your word. When you tell people that you're gonna do something, do it. If you tell somebody you're gonna call them back, call them back.

The word "Integrity" means the state of being whole or undivided. You know what that means? Your conscious agrees with your actions. We're not doing one thing while our conscience is telling us that we shouldn't be doing it. There's nothing worse than continuing to do something that you know that you shouldn't be doing. Boy, you talk about something that makes ya uncomfortable, that's it. To believe in your heart that your actions are right.

Now, I wanna close here by just going through a few scriptures with you. We're just gonna read 'em. I want you to see how important integrity is in the Word of God. Proverbs 25:26, "Like a muddied fountain and a polluted spring is a righteous man who yields, falls down, and compromises his integrity before the wicked". If we're out in the world where wicked people are and we are not walking in integrity, he says you're like a polluted spring. Proverbs 20, verse 7, "The righteous man walks in his integrity". Now, get this, here comes the payoff, "Blessed (happy, fortunate, enviable) are his children after him".

Give your children an inheritance of integrity. Teach them to be people of integrity. Teach them to be honest. Teach them to be excellent. All four of our children have a strong sense of this is important to do. Psalm 101:2, "I will behave myself wisely and I will give heed to the blameless way, o when will you come to me? I will walk within my house in integrity and with a blameless heart". I love that scripture. He's saying, "I'm gonna do what's right when nobody's looking. When I'm at home behind closed doors, I'm gonna do what's right because I'm living for God, not people". Just a couple of more. Psalm 26:1, "Vindicate me, o Lord, for I have walked in my integrity: I have expectantly trusted in, leaned on, and relied on the Lord without wavering and I shall not slide".

Now, Job chapter 2, verse 3, "And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and an upright man, who reverently fears God and abstains from and shuns all evil because it is wrong? And still he holds fast his integrity, although you moved me against him to destroy him without cause". Everything that Job went through, he still held fast to his integrity. Now, we talk about poor old Job, but you need to read all the way to the end of the book because in the end, Job ended up with twice what he had before. Doing what is right is extremely important. Even though you might not yet be getting a right result, continue to do what's right because your reward will definitely come.

I wanna close with Revelation 22:12, right at the very, very end of the Bible. "Behold, I am coming soon. And I shall bring my wages and rewards with me, to repay and render to each one just as his own actions and his own work had merited. Behold, I'm coming soon and I'm bringing my reward and my wages with me". Let me tell you something, payday's coming. Payday's coming and for those of you who are doing what is right even when it's hard and you're persistent, if you never get a right result here on this earth, he's coming again and he's gonna bring his wages and his rewards with him. Don't live for today, live today for eternity.