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Welcome to Enjoying Everyday Life with New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer.On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series, Pursuing What Matters Most.
Our personal relationship with God sets the tone for everything else in our life.Seeking Him should be our top priority, and the best way to do that is to spend time in His Word.
We get to know Him by learning His Word and then applying its principles to our daily lives.Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching.
How many things are you letting make you cry yourself to sleep at night?Or give you depression?Or discourage you?Or torment you?And it's nothing that can be fixed unless you come to terms of peace with yourself.
Who cares who don't like you if you like you?I mean, you spend more time with yourself than you ever will anybody else. God likes you.He not only loves you, He likes you.And I think that's a lot.God not only loves you, He likes you.
He likes to hang with you.He likes to talk with you.He likes to do everything that you do, if it's clean.Thought I'd better throw that in there.Accept yourself. except that you're not gonna be strong in every single area.
Oh, let me tell you, it was such a relief to me when I finally gave myself permission to have some weaknesses.And I'm not talking about just doing sinful things, but I'm just talking about weaknesses.
Probably as long as I live, my mouth will get me in trouble occasionally.I talk a lot. That's just what it is.I've come a long way, but I've not arrived, and I don't know if I've got enough time left to get to where I need to be.
But I didn't, you know, look at all the lines where they were handing out personalities and decide to get in the line to get the one I've got.This is what I got.Amen?Is anybody home out there tonight? Come to terms of peace with yourself.Make a list.
What is it about you that you don't like?And then just say, that's it, I'm done with it.God, if you want to change it, I'd love to have you change it.But if you don't, I've decided to like me anyway because I cannot live any longer with no peace.
Come on, give God a praise. I mean, I don't advocate being overweight, but let me tell you something.
If you weigh 20 more pounds than you'd like to, and you just, for whatever, you're not gonna lose it, you can't seem to do what you need to do, then you know what, the world's not gonna end if you weigh 10 pounds too much or 20 pounds too much.
I mean, don't ruin your life over it.Amen?And I'll be honest with you, some of you, if you'd quit worrying about it so much, you probably would lose weight. Honestly, you probably would.Get off a diet and just get on a good eating plan.
Eat to be healthy and you'll be surprised.You'll start weighing what you ought to weigh.But if you think you're on a diet all the time, you just focus on food and it just makes you hungry.Well, that's another message.We won't go there.
Have peace with God.Have peace with yourself.And then have peace with people.Wow. Let me give you just a few tips on how to have peace with people.Just a handful.Be stingy with your criticism.I mean, just be as stingy as you can be with criticism.
Mind your own business.Give your opinion very sparingly. Even when people ask for your opinion, usually they just want you to agree with them.
Not suggesting you be dishonest, but you gotta keep in mind that I'm saying even if you only gave your opinion when people ask for it, even half the time they ask for it, they don't really want it.
So there's really no point in giving people our opinion when they've not asked for it, because it's never gonna hit them the right way.And I can be pretty opinionated.Matter of fact, my whole family's opinionated, We won't go there.
Don't try to control people.They don't like it.Everybody's not like you.Give them some space.Now, now we're going to talk about the main thing I want to talk about tonight.The other thing that steals our peace is the storms of life.
There's big storms, little storms, long storms, short storms, storms that aren't in the forecast, and we need to learn how to live ready. Now, we looked at 1 Peter 3, 11, but let's look at Psalm 34, 14.What is our job during a storm?
It's not to fix the storm.It's not to make the storm go away.It's to actually hold onto our peace.
If you wanna become a powerful person, you learn how to hold your peace in the storm, and when you can do that, the devil does not know what to do with you. Psalm 34, 14.You say, well, it's just too hard.I just get too upset.
Well, see, that's our first mistake, saying that we can't do what God tells us to do.Depart from evil and do good.Seek, inquire for, and crave peace.Pursue it. and go after it.
I wish that I could convey to you what this scripture and 1 Peter 3.11 meant to my life when I realized, now listen to me, that I could no longer just stand around and wait for peace to fall on me.
That I wasn't getting it by wishing for it, I wasn't even getting it by praying for it.Because to be honest, a lot of times we pray for things we've already got.
And so we're praying prayers that are just useless because they're not prayers that God can answer.To say, give me peace is not the right way to pray.Here's the way to pray.God, help me walk in the peace that you've already given me.
that's inside of me.I have peace.And the more you believe that you have peace, the more you'll be willing to access that peace and walk in it when you need it.Peace protects you.Peace gives you power.Peace gives you authority over the devil.
When you hold your peace, it is the most powerful position that you can have. When we get rattled and upset, we are doing exactly what the devil wants us to do.Did you hear me?
When we get rattled and upset and start saying all kinds of... Come on, you know, when you get upset, the mouth goes to work.How many of you think that it's possible that you could learn to be peaceful in the storm?
Some of you are just like, I don't know. You don't know me, well I know me.You know, I used to have so many tantrums.Oh my gosh, I was just like a pressure cooker waiting to blow.My mother cooked in a pressure cooker a lot when I was a kid.
If you've ever seen one, you know when it builds up steam inside, then that little thing on top goes... It's threatening just looking at it. spurting out steam every once in a while.
And I remember her saying all the time, don't touch it, don't touch it.Whatever you do, don't take the lid off, don't touch it.And I was kind of like that.It was like, I was just like, just waiting for somebody to push me the wrong way.
But you know why I was like that?It was because of all the stuff going on inside me.I wasn't protecting the kingdom. that is within me.I didn't know who I was in Christ.I didn't have peace with God.I didn't believe God loved me.
I didn't even believe he liked me, let alone believe that God was actually pleased with me.I was insecure.I was fearful.All the wrong things, I didn't have to be, but why was I not getting victory over those things?
Because I was pursuing kingdom benefits. I wanted my ministry to grow.I wanted my husband to change.I wanted my kids to change.I wanted to be in this certain social group at church.I wanted, I wanted, I wanted, I wanted.
Give me, give me, give me, give me.I'm just telling you the truth.I wasn't chasing after the right thing.And if you chase the wrong thing, you're never going to end up with the right thing. Amen?That's a keeper.
If you chase the wrong thing, you'll never end up with the right thing.If you want peace, pursue it.If you want to walk in love, you got to study love.You got to put on love.
You got to get up every day and you got to plan to go out of your house and love people.You got to be ready to give.You got to have stuff prepared to give.If you want to walk in love, you can, because God will help us walk in love.
He's called us to walk in love, and I want to love people. I want to be peaceful, and I am determined that I'm going to enjoy my life.I mean everything about my life, not just the vacations, not just the paydays, everything about my life.
How many of you are ready for some of that?But storms come.You never know exactly when they're going to come.John 14, 27. Peace I leave with you.My own peace I now give and bequeath unto you.Not as the world gives do I give to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.Now how many of you are seeing that next sentence coming up?
Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.Now, let's be clear that we're not going to do anything without the grace of God.Nothing.
Apart from you, we can do nothing.Our job is to believe. And God's job is to do.So I believe that God can help me do everything that he's told me to do if I'm willing.And I can't be just a little bit willing.I've got to be radically willing.
It's amazing what I've seen happen in my life in this area of temperament. just by focusing on something like I'm determined, I'm not going to live without peace.And it took me a good number of years.
I had to really start backing into, well, okay, what is stealing my peace?I found out when I have to hurry that I'd lose my peace.So then I had to stop hurrying.
I found out that if I worry about stuff all the time, that I'm not going to keep my peace.So I had to dig in with God and pray and study the word of God enough to get to the point that I realized how useless worry is.
Worry is like sitting in a rocking chair and rocking all day.It keeps you busy, but it gets you nowhere.You don't make any progress.It's useless.What is it that steals your peace?You say, well, my kids steal my peace.Well, you got them.They're yours.
They're going to be there until they're grown and gone. Sorry, that's, you wanted them.These kids are driving me crazy.Well, yeah, kids can be challenging, there's no doubt about it.
You got three or four teenagers in the house, you need every book I got, trust me.But here's the thing, you weren't any different when you were their age. except those few of you that were angelic while you were growing up.
I mean, how many of you did some double dumb stuff when you were a kid?I mean, I used to do stupid stuff like hold my breath till I'd pass out.Play chicken with cars out in the street.
Me and my friends would lay down in the street and see how close the car could get to us before we'd roll out of the way. Last one to, yeah, people are going.Well, you know, I had a lot of guts way back then.I just wasn't too smart about it.
I did stupid stuff, dumb stuff.You're all shaking your head at me.What did you do?And you know what?I'm still here. And I love God, and I've got a fruitful life.I'm doing some good things, and you're still here, and you're growing up in God.
And you know what?Your kids are a lot more likely to make it if you pray for them and stop nagging them all the time.
It's time we truly experience the joy that comes in the morning and make spending time with the Lord the best part of waking up.If our inner life is strong in God, what happens on the outside doesn't matter as much.
We can live a life of goodness, peace, and joy, but it's crucial we pursue what matters most, God. Thank you for listening to Enjoying Everyday Life.Your partnership with Joyce Myer Ministries allows us to share the love of Christ around the world.
