Joyce Meyer - Why Should I Be Joyful In My Trials? (08/24/2019)
Joyce Meyer dives into the tough truth of James 1, urging us to count it pure joy when facing trials because they build endurance, patience, and spiritual maturity if we don’t run away. Sharing raw personal stories of staying in uncomfortable situations or stepping out only when God said, she warns against fleeing hardship and calls us to pray “Your will be done” instead of demanding blessings. Trials aren’t punishment—they’re God’s way to grow the fruit already seeded in us and make us strong enough for greater blessings.
Counting Trials as Joy
How many of you already know what James 1 verse 2 says? Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations.
How many of you have made it to that point and you do not need this message tonight? You know, it is almost not even hardly fair for God to ask a preacher to preach this message because... Somebody asked me what I was going to preach on this weekend. I said, well, I get the extreme thrill of trying to get people excited about their trials. Which is not easy.
And the only way that we can actually consider them joyful—and that is about our thinking process. We do not necessarily have to be clapping and cheering about the discomfort we are going through. But if we understand what the Bible says about the value of trials—and this is a message that is under-preached.
God’s Blessings and Spiritual Maturity
Yes, God wants to bless us. He wants to bless us more than we know how to handle. He will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing so great that we cannot contain it. We do not even know how to take it in.
But I know from the Word of God and from experience that God cannot bless us in the natural beyond where we are at spiritually. I want to say it again. You are not going to give your three-year-old baby the keys to the car. Amen?
And you do not because you love him. Every one of us should stop praying for God to give us all the stuff that we think we have to have to make us happy. We should pray a new prayer. This is the prayer we should pray. I pray this on a regular basis. I invite you to join me.
A Better Prayer
God, please do not give me anything that I cannot handle and still keep You first in my life. Amen? Something we do not hear enough of in prayer anymore, I do not think, is “Your will be done.” Amen. Your will be done.
We have gotten really good about telling God everything that we want Him to give us. But He says that difficulty and trials and tribulations and things that test our faith—we should consider them joyful because, not because they feel good right now, but because of what they have the ability to do in us if we will not run away from them.
And you know, there are some things you cannot get away from, but there are a lot of things that you can get away from. Amen?
Learning to Stay When God Says Stay
I had a job in ministry—well, I will start somewhere else. I was in a church at one point, and they really did not want me teaching home Bible studies. They were a little bit controlling and manipulative, so I was not really being treated all that great.
Man, my first impulse was, I am out of here. Who needs this? I am out of here. I really felt that God told me that I needed to stay. Well, it was uncomfortable to stay. Every week when I went to church, it was uncomfortable.
There were all these home Bible studies that different people had, and ours at one point was listed, then all of a sudden ours came off the list. Things like that can hurt you, you know? When you do not get picked. When you are rejected.
Leaving with the Right Heart
But God really dealt with me that I could not leave there with an attitude in my heart. Because you see, if you leave someplace with a bad attitude, you are going to enter the next place you go with that same bad attitude.
So God does not want us to go when we want to go. He wants us to go when He says to go.
Then I came to a situation where I was in a church that I had worked at for five years, and God was really dealing with me about stepping out and starting to do what I am doing now. I did not want to go. I stayed there for another year, maybe two, after God started dealing with me.
Going When God Says Go
I am telling you what, things were just not getting good. So you can go when God wants you to stay, and you can stay when God wants you to go.
You see, we like to be comfy. I did not want to give up my friends. I was concerned about what people would think—that I was ungrateful, that I was full of myself, thought I was going to go out and have this big ministry now, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But if I had not listened to God, then we would not be here tonight. I just wonder how many of you maybe God has told you to do or not to do something.
Hearing God’s Voice
When I say told you, I mean either through His Word, which is a word from God. It always cracks me up when somebody comes to one of my conferences, I preach my heart out for four sessions, and then they ask me if they happen to see me on the way out, “Do you have a word for me?”
Yeah. Did you listen to anything I said? Because this is the main way that God is going to speak to us and deal with us. Anything else that you think you hear better line up with that, or you are in trouble.
So, we need to get about the business of spiritual maturity. I do not like it any better than you do.
Recent Trials and Lessons
I had a situation happen a few days ago. I told you I got angry, and I had a trial that was not of my making. I was having a great day, and somebody else did something that then caused me to not have a great day.
How many of you love it when you are going around doing good, just clicking along with Jesus, everything is great, you are enjoying your day—and now somebody else does something. Well, to be honest, probably 70-80% of our problems are people problems.
In this particular situation, then it took my time. I had to deal with something I did not want to deal with. Then I had to do some other stuff.
Trials for Others’ Growth
I am getting ready to preach this message. I am being joyful about these things. So I just thought, okay, God, just now tell me how this is going to be good for me. I want You to tell me how this is going to be good for me. What am I going to learn out of this? How is this going to help me?
Actually, God put something interesting on my heart. He said, this was not so much for you as it is for the other person. Because the way I dealt with it, I had to bring a correction. If they then receive that, that can help them build their character and do more of what they are supposed to do.
So, I might as well just tell you this and put it out there so you do not have to find out on your own later. The more mature you become in Christ, the more He is liable to let you go through a few things that really do not have anything to do with you. They have a lot to do with other people.
Dave’s Example of Endurance
Come on now. A very good case in point would be my relationship with Dave. Dave—I mean, I had serious issues when we got married. They were all internal, so they did not start coming out until after the wedding.
How many of you feel me on that one? It is like they did not start coming out until after the wedding. Everybody is on their good behavior during the courtship.
I did not even know Dave played golf when I married him. Did not know what a golf ball was. Because I was the only thing that mattered in his life during those five dates that we had before we got married.
Staying for God’s Purpose
But you know, Dave went through a lot those first few years. If he would have left because he felt like leaving, we would not be here tonight.
So whatever this means to different people here tonight or those watching by TV—you better think twice before you just think, well, I am out of here. Maybe you need to say, is this Your will? What do You want me to do in this situation?
And I do not see nearly as many smiles as I would like to see. I know, I know it is all painful. There is nothing that we hate worse than having to go through things. But it is here. We cannot ignore it. We have to learn to understand it.
The Purpose of Trials
He says, consider it wholly joyful when you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance, steadfastness, and patience.
Now, we will talk in a few minutes about some other things that they bring out too. But eventually... eventually we will get down to that if we let God work with us long enough.
You know why? At the moment of your new birth, when you receive Christ, the nature of God was planted on the inside of your spirit. Little seeds of everything that God is—His character, all the fruit of the Spirit—it is all in you.
Patience Grows Under Trial
Believe it or not, you are patient. But it is just like a little teeny, tiny seed buried somewhere under all your flesh.
Listen to this. Patience, the Greek dictionary says, is a fruit of the Spirit that grows only under trial. It comes from a root word in Greek that means to remain under.
So patience has nothing to do with running away from. It has everything to do with being steadfast, being disciplined, being committed, sticking with things, going all the way through with things.
Building Spiritual Muscle
I think we all know that the first thing our flesh wants to do when anything gets hard is quit and run away. Amen? Amen?
But before we run in the future, we need to say, God, what do You want me to do in this situation?
Patience is like a muscle. Faith is like a muscle. The less you use it, the more it atrophies and the weaker it gets. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. The stronger it gets, the more you can do.
Serving God, Not Just Receiving
You see, God not only wants to do things for us—you know, to be honest, sometimes I just get tired of having to tell people that 500 times to get them to keep listening. We are just not very good at laying our lives down and saying, God, what can I do for You?
Just for one day, could I forget about myself and say, God, what can I do for You today? You have been so good to me, You do not have to do one more thing for me the rest of my life if You do not want to. How can I serve You? What can I do for You?
But oh, I tell you what, it is very challenging to preach on sacrifice and suffering and being somewhere where you do not want to be and waiting on things.
Strength Through Trials
But you know what—when we let God work with us in our lives and we do go from glory to glory to glory, I tell you what, you give yourself a few years with the Lord of really listening to Him and you will go through some stuff.
But you come to a place where the stuff that used to bother you does not even faze you anymore. See, we do not need less problems, we need more strength. We do not need less opposition, we need more character. We need more faith, more spiritual muscle on the inside of us.
We need to be able to say with Paul, I can do all things through Christ who is my strength. Whether I am abased or abounding, I can do all things through Christ.
Choosing Joy by Faith
Now, I know in saying this, probably some of you, this is the last thing in the world you want to hear out of me this weekend. Thankfully, we will get to go on to other things, like your mouth and other more exciting things as we go on here.
But I just think if you can, if you can believe when you are going through something—and if you can open your mouth and say, I hate this, but I believe it is going to work out good. God, I am going to tell You right now, this does not feel good, I do not like it.
But I trust Your Word that You will work something good in me as a result of this. Therefore, I am going to do it by faith, God, but I am going to put a smile on my face. I am not going to murmur and I am not going to complain.
Coming Out Victorious
I am just going to say now, You do what You want to do in my life. Amen.
Now, if you will go home and start to do these kinds of things, I am not going to tell you that, boy, are things going to come up roses in two days. They will not.
But the day will come when you will think, I am so glad that I finally stopped running away from everything that was hard. I have learned how to go through with God and come out victorious on the other side.
We all want to be a conqueror, but we do not want anything to conquer. We want to be victorious, but we do not want anything to have victory over.
You Won’t Smell Like Smoke
We are just so down about going through. “I am just going through.” Well, the good news is you are going through and you have got Jesus with you. You are going to come out on the other side.
And honey, when you come out of the furnace, you will not even smell like smoke. Who would ever guess by looking at my life now, or many of your lives, what you went through in the earlier years of your life?
Who could possibly imagine some of the things that you have gone through and where you are at now? You came out—you do not even smell like smoke.
Pregnant with Promise
So, you know, we can think of a woman who is pregnant. We are pregnant, so to speak, with so many good things. So many good things on the inside of us.
A woman who is pregnant actually, while she is in labor, has pain and joy at the same time. Her joy of bringing a child into the world overcomes the pain because she will actually go do it again. Figure that out.
Women will pray for their labor to start. Are any of you praying for your spiritual labor to start?
Praying for Spiritual Growth
Would anybody just go home and say, okay, God, I am tired of being a namby-pamby, baby, whiny, up and down, happy when things go my way, sad when they do not.
I am tired of getting my feelings hurt all the time and being jealous and getting mad all the time. I want You to do something in me. Let my labor start.
Oh, it sounds a lot more exciting here than it will be when you get home by yourself. I mean, we have got the lights, the music, we have got the crowd. Woo! Lord, have mercy.
Trials bring out a lot of stuff before they get around to bringing out the good stuff.