Call my wife. Calling UK wildlife. Voice assistance not working for you. BlackRock Investment Trust has a lot working for you. Get to know them at blackrock.com. Capital at risk, marketing material. BlackRock Investment Management UK Limited, authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Welcome to 15 Minutes in the Word with New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer. On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series, Pressing In and Pressing On. To press is to push beyond opposition. It means leaving the comfort zone and doing whatever it takes to attain what God has for us. We must let go to grow. Now here's Joyce with today's teaching. I was talking about peace earlier and I didn't even know what peace was until I married Dave. And after watching him be stable and constant for a few years, I thought, I want that. I don't want to be up and down. And every time my circumstance change, I'm, you know, getting mad all the time and throwing fits and I mean, I wanted peace. Well, I prayed for peace. Oh, God, give me peace. Give me peace. Give me peace. And nothing changed. You know why? Because Jesus said, I leave you my peace. Now stop allowing yourselves to get upset and disturbed. So he's already given us what we need. We have to activate it and call on it. And it took me a few years, but I got determined that I was going to live in peace. And so I started. The first thing I started doing was paying attention to what upset me. I had to kind of back into my problem because, you know, sometimes you just mad and you're angry before you even really know what's happening. And so you maybe have to kind of back into it and say, what's the root of this problem? What's going on? See, I believe some people just because they're grieving over something they lost 20 years ago, it comes out of them in anger. We have to learn how to let go of the things that are behind and let God bring us into new beginnings. God has got a new beginning for every single one of you. Thank you. Matter of fact, I wrote a book called You Can Begin Again, and we brought it so you can buy it if you want it this weekend. You can begin again. You're not at a dead end. It's not over for you. You're not too old. Come on, don't give me that old stuff. I'm going to be seventy six in two months and I'm still up here. So. I mean, yeah, there's a few things that don't work like they used to. And. You know, I'm getting a little help in the meetings. I used to do everything myself, but I'm. I've just said, whatever I got, God, you're going to get it. And then they don't tell me you're too old to do something or I got too many kids. I started the ministry when I had three teenagers and a baby. They quit looking at your circumstances and say, well, that's impossible. That's too hard. All things are possible with God. And then. I'm going to try really hard to get a few people stirred up. All right. Second Peter one, three, three, seven, I really, really like these scriptures. To really understand about it, to slow down, probably and spend more time on them than I want to. So I'm going to ask you to study them on your own, but it says God's divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. So God has given us by his grace, everything that we need to live a wonderful life. Through. The knowledge. Of him who called us. To his own glory and excellence. So all these wonderful promises are there. But you have to have knowledge. Of him, not just know about him, but know him. See, there's a big difference in going to church on Sunday and knowing God. Amen. And there's a difference in knowing about him and really knowing him, knowing his character and being able to discern when something is right and when it's wrong and when it's God and when it's not. By which he has granted unto us his precious and very great promises. So that through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that's in the world because of sinful desire. For this reason. I mean, have you seen what that says? Do what? A what? A what? Oh, I have to make an effort. Oh. So you need to start by just pressing through to get out of bed in the morning. Pressing through to do the dishes, pressing through to not spend more money than what you make. Come on, I love you. Pressing through to not eat that last piece of pie. Listen, I started 13 years ago working out with weights. And still there will be mornings. When my trainer came the other day, first of all, I'm not really a morning person. I'm like, just don't make any noise in the morning and don't require much out of me. Just let me get locked up with Jesus for about an hour before I come out. My trainer came and I said, you know what? I'd like to say I'm glad to see you, but I'm not. I don't always feel like doing it. A lot of days I don't feel like doing it. Look at me. The only way that you're ever going to really have the life you say you want is if you will start now doing the things you don't want to do because you know they're the things that you should be doing. Do I need to say that one more time? The only way you're going to have the life you say that you want. I'll tell this side to the only way you're going to have the life you say that you want. Is if you will make a decision right now from this night on with God's grace and help, I'm going to do what I know I should do, not what feels good. Well, some of you are giving a little half hearted clap, but some of you are with me. And for this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and that means high moral behavior and with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness. That means not giving up instead fast with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. Our goal is to be able to love people like Jesus loves them. But you got to start at square one. And that is you believe the promises of God and then as God leads you into and through different areas, how many of you know God works in our lives in one area and then he works in another area and then another area? Oh, don't you dare ever think you've made it because then you'll and then finally you get to love. I'm going to read a little list here of things that we may have to press through. And then I want, I'm going to ask for a show of hands of how many had like maybe three or more of these things that you've had to press through. So, rejection, betrayal, abandonment, unforgiveness, offense, self pity, wanting to take revenge. Hard times and trials, trouble you don't feel like you deserve, self centeredness, jealousy, the desire to give up, discouragement, disappointment with people, disappointment with God, and people pleasing. I mean, have you had more than three? Okay, I got a confession. I looked at the list and I had 15 out of 16. That doesn't mean I have them all now. Thank God I've gotten through some of them, but every single one of those things, I've had to majorly confront in my life and not let them take me out. Now I know you want to know which one I didn't have. And you won't be able to sleep good tonight if I don't tell you. The only one of these I did not have was disappointment with God. I don't know why, but for some reason I never blamed God for any of my problems. And I'm glad that I didn't because I didn't have too many friends and I really needed him. You know, some people, the first thing they do when things don't go right is they get mad at God. When 9-11 happened, the news people were saying, well, where was God today? And Dave said, right where you put him? Out of the country. Amen, out of the schools, out of the... You know, we want to take God out of things and ignore him and then when we have a problem, we want to know where he's at. God is not causing our problems. He is the answer to our problems. Now that was the introduction. What I really want to get across to you tonight is it's time to press into a new beginning. And some of you need a new beginning right now. How many of you need a new beginning right now? Okay. Well, gee, that's the whole crowd. I don't need... I don't need you to have to say the other thing I was going to say. You know, you may need a new beginning in getting out of debt. Maybe you've tried before and it's just a problem for you. You just keep spending money you really shouldn't be spending. Maybe you need to a new beginning with a bad attitude. You have a bad attitude. No, nobody here with a bad attitude. Okay, I'll try something else. Maybe you need... Maybe you're the one that needs to forgive somebody. Maybe. If not, you could try to buy this teaching for somebody else. Maybe you need a new beginning and eating better. People look at me and say, how can at your age, how can you be in that good a shape and be so little? Well, I don't eat everything I want and I work out three days a week. And for a long time I walked five miles a day until I started having trouble with my feet. I can't do that anymore. So I'll just find some other way to get the devil. Amen. Thanks for listening. Pressing into and through things is a very important life principle because God is always calling us up. He requires us to leave where we are and press toward the next level. Matthew 7, 13 and 14 are some great scriptures that say, enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction. And many are those who are entering through it. This means it's easy to stay on the broad path. But if we want to be on that narrow path, we are going to have to do some pressing. Ministry's app. Search Joyce Meyer in your app store and download it today. Thank you for listening to 15 minutes in the word with Joyce.
