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 of you can think of just a few things that maybe if you would be willing to do in your home, that maybe, just maybe, you could have a little more peace than what you have now?If you'd just be a little willing.
Okay, so if you know what you could do, and you won't do it, there's only one reason.Peace is not important enough to you Peace is not important.See, there was a time in my life when peace was not important enough to me for me to make the change.
I would have rather been right and been upset all day.Now, what kind of dumb is that, let me ask you?I mean, just what brand of dumb is that?
And so then I had headaches all the time and I was going to the chiropractor, getting my neck adjusted all the time. I didn't know how to let people be who they were.I was determined everybody was going to be like me.
If you are going to live in my house.Come on ladies, anybody ever had that speech with your kids?If you are going to live in my house, you are going to live by my rules.And we are not going to be messy in this house.
Except I had two kids that did well to find themselves, let alone any of their belongings. Don't anybody got something like that?You think, what is this kid going to do when they're grown?How can they ever leave home?
They will never make it out in society.Well, you know what's really hysterical?Out of those two kids, one of them now is the CEO of our stateside office.And the other one helps take care of me. So all my fits were for nothing.
They grew up, they survived, and just think all those years of happiness that I missed because I was determined that everybody was going to be like me.1 Peter 3, 11.Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it.Let him do right.
Let him search for peace. harmony, undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts, and let him seek it eagerly.
Do not merely desire peaceful relationships with God, with your fellow man, and with yourself, but pursue and go after them.Oh my gosh, how valuable is that?All right, let's put that whole scripture back up again.
I want you to look at the strength of some of these words. Let him search for peace, harmony, undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions of moral conflict.Seek it.
Seek means to be willing to sacrifice in order to have, to pursue, to go after with all your strength and all your might.Don't merely want it, but go after it with all your strength.Pursue it and go after it.
Now, this is when things begin to get sweet in your life. when you decide, now listen to me, I'm gonna be peaceful on purpose.I'm not gonna wait for my circumstances to make me peaceful.
I'm not gonna wait for everybody to do what I want them to do to be peaceful.I'm not gonna wait till there's no storms in life to be peaceful.Starting tonight, I'm making a new covenant with God that I am going to be peaceful on purpose.
And if it takes me five years of failing and trying again and failing and trying again, I'll repent every time that I lose my peace, but I'm going to get up and go after it again because I am deciding that I am not willing to live without peace.
I will enjoy the life that Jesus died to give me. You see, if you think about Romans 14, 17, it's just like a, it's a scripture that builds.
The kingdom of God is not a matter of getting, it says the food and drink that one likes, but we're just gonna stop at getting.
The kingdom of God is not a matter of getting everything that I want, so we're gonna lay that aside, but it is righteousness, knowing who I am in Christ, then I can have peace, So we're working on peace tonight.
Then when I have peace, tomorrow morning is going to be easy to get you guys happy.But for me just to say, well, I want to be happy.Well, I can't just be happy if I don't have any peace.And I can't have any peace if I don't have any righteousness.
And I'm never going to have righteousness, peace, and joy if I don't stop seeking the wrong things. Has everybody got the lights turned on in the house tonight?Do you know how much I had to suffer to get these messages?
That you can just sit in your little chair on your little tush and just laugh at and enjoy and just can get your life changed. I didn't have a me.No, I'm like, what is wrong with me?I just want to be happy.
And then God would come along and say, well, then don't be so shallow.Learn how to live deeper.Get yourself off your mind.Quit thinking that you have to run the whole world. You know, running the whole world's a big job.It is a heavy burden.
How many of you got a personality like mine?How many of you were just born sweet?Dave's got his hand up, it's okay, you can be honest.You know what, he ain't as sweet sometimes as you think he is.Now, here, let me tell you.
Our coworkers and friends down here, Mike and Penny, their daughter just became a fairy godmother on one of the Disney ships.
And of course, you know, Penny's in love with Disney, and so she's got a fairy godmother now in her family, so she's just thrilled.
Well, I said something about, I wouldn't make a very good fairy godmother, and Dave said, no, you'd be like the scary godmother.Come on, let's all say boo Dave. I just want you to see what a peacemaker I have to be.
Where I just decided to believe the best and just come on to church and have a good time.Yes, he said that to me on the way to church tonight.No, you would be the scary godmother.But I know he loves me.
See, it's amazing what doesn't bother you when you know that God loves you.I said it's amazing what doesn't bother you When we have that security of knowing that God loves us, it's amazing how we take things differently.
You see, there would have been a day when I would have gotten mad at him for three weeks over that.I mean, honestly, but I knew he was kidding.And I probably would be a scary godmother, I don't know.If you got it, own it.
I do want to tell you, though, that I am very happy for all you people.Well, no, I'm really not, so I better take that back.For all you people that were just born sweet, because I have to work it sweet every day of my life.
I mean, every single day, I have to get up and get with God early before I see any people.Because that's an on-purpose thing for me.I mean, if you've got some things you need to do on purpose.
Peace with God, peace with yourself, peace with your fellow man.This is actually a three-part series if I preach it properly, but you're gonna get this download here in five minutes.
If you're gonna have peace with God, you gotta know that God loves you.You have to know God's character so you can know what to expect from Him.You know that when you sin, He's ready to forgive.You know that He's full of mercy.
You know that you can trust God.You can be open with God.You can talk to God about anything.There's absolutely nothing that you need to try to hide from God because He knows everything anyway.
So if you're gonna have peace with God, don't try to keep secrets from Him.There is no such thing as keeping a secret from God.How silly is that to think we're not gonna tell God something?Peace with yourself. This is another four-part series.
Why don't you once and for all, if you need to accept yourself tonight, quit having a war with yourself.
You don't have any peace if you're constantly picking on yourself, taking a continual inventory of everything that's wrong with you, comparing yourself with other people.
I don't look like this, and I don't look like that, and I wish I had their figure, and I wish I had your hair, and I wish I had your gift, and I wish I could sing like that.Not. We are what we are.
Let's take what we are, which is God's will, He doesn't make any junk, He doesn't make any mistakes, and let's do the best that we can with it and stop competing with other people and wanting a life that's not the life we have.
We can be sour and sad the rest of our life because we're not like somebody else, but that's never gonna make us like somebody else.Be yourself, everybody else is already taken. Amen?
Now let me just tell you, if you don't like yourself, you're in for a rough go.Because everywhere you go, there you are.I mean, you can't go to the bathroom without you.You can't take a shower without you.Think about it.That's a pretty scary deal.
You never get away from yourself ever for one second in your whole life.There you are. Do you know how distracting it is to just even have to spend two hours with somebody you don't like?
So just think about spending your whole life with somebody that you don't like. And I spent years, I didn't like myself.I did not like myself.
And I'll tell you the truth, until you can come to terms of peace with yourself, come on, listen to me, until you can come to terms of peace with yourself, you are not having any joy, you are not gonna enjoy life, you are not gonna get along with people, because how can you have peace with anybody else?
How can you like them if you don't even like you? Well, I don't like the way I look.Well, make peace with your thighs.Make peace with your big feet that you don't like.You know, I used to wonder why didn't I have a nice sweet voice like other women?
Well, this is it, so... Praise God. I could go pick up a phone anywhere and call somebody and they'll say yes sir to me every time I call.Every time.I get so tired of telling people, I'm a lady.And then they start apologizing.
Oh yeah, I'm sorry, we just got a bad connection here.I said, no we don't, I got a deep voice.Did you hear the story about when I called the spa to go get a facial? How many have not heard that story?
I called the spa to make an appointment to get a facial, and the lady says, well, do you have any facial hair?Well, I'm not tracking where she's at at all, so I'm thinking, what?Yeah, I got eyebrows and eyelashes.I mean, that's what I'm thinking.
And then I even thought, well, everybody's got a little bit.I said, Yeah, you know, a little, I guess.She said, no, I mean, do you have a beard or a mustache?
Make spending time with the Lord the best part of waking up with Joyce's brand new devotional book, Mornings with God.It's time we truly experience the joy that comes in the morning.And Joyce has devotions for every day of the year.
Request your copy now for any amount at JoyceMeyer.org. or call toll free at 1-800-789-0089.Your gift today and your partnership with Joyce Myer Ministries allows us to share the love of Christ around the world.Have a blessed day.
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