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, Right and Wrong Mindsets. We can learn to think positively about absolutely everything. It takes practice saying no to negative thoughts. But when we replace stinking thinking with the word of God, we'll start winning the battlefield of the mind. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching. Right and wrong mindsets. You know, your thoughts can take you somewhere where you'd really like to be, or they can keep you somewhere where you don't want to be. They can take you where you'd like to be, and they can keep you where you don't want to be. The Israelites spent 40 years trying to make what the Bible says in Deuteronomy was an 11-day trip. Wonder how long we mess around going around the same mountains, the same problems, over and over and over, finding different ways to really disobey God. Can I tell you no matter how many times you avoid what God has told you to do, He's not going to change his mind. You can just go around the same mountain 5,000 times, and his answer is still going to be the same when you come back. So the best plan is just do what God tells you to as quick as you can, no matter how hard it is or how much it hurts or what you have to sacrifice, and please always keep in mind that God is never trying to take anything away from you. He's always just trying to get you in a position where you can be happier, where you can have more peace, where your life can be more fruitful, and where you can be equipped to help as many people as you possibly can help. You know, those of us that are already saved, we know where we're going. Our future is secured, but we have a job while we're here, and that's to mature as Christians and be an example to other people. And the Holy Spirit has sent into our life to help us grow up and mature. So I have 10 wrong mindsets that can be turned into right mindsets, and last night I did one. So we may be in a little bit of trouble today, we'll see. But if I don't finish it here, I'll finish it on television. Amen. So one of the main scriptures I want to put before you again today is Colossians 3, verse 1 and 2. If then you've been raised with Christ, seek those things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And now it's getting ready to tell you how you seek things. Set your mind, and I like the Amplified says, and keep it set. On things that are above, or we might say, set your mind and keep it set on right things, because if our minds are full of right things, then when the devil comes along with his lies, there's no room for him to put the wrong things in us. I think too often we teach people what not to do, and I think we should put a greater emphasis on what to do, and then if we're doing things right, there's not going to be any room for the wrong thing in our life. I wrote a book about habits, and I didn't call it Breaking Bad Habits. I called it Making Good Habits and Breaking Bad Habits, because honestly if you focus on making a good habit, then there will be no room for the bad habit to function in your life. But we focus so much on trying to get rid of the bad, and we just end up in a wrestling match with the devil, and we never get around to doing what's right. So set your mind where you want to go, not where you've been or where you are right now. Have a vision for your life. Have a vision for your children. Have a vision for your home. Have a vision for your ministry, and don't back down and give up on it. Wrong thinking causes us more problems than what we can even possibly imagine. And the first thing, what I did actually years ago, I don't know about you, but I can't go to a point where I was tired of sitting in church and hearing about all of the promises of God and never actually experiencing them in my life. I heard about joy, but I was unhappy. I heard about peace, but I didn't have any. I heard about prosperity, but I was broke all the time. I heard about all kinds of things, and I believed them. My heart believed them. I could see them in the Word. I believed them. But something was just missing. And see, one of the things we have to understand is, yes, there's promises, but there's also conditions. And so, for example, we can't just pray away every problem we have. Most of the time when we pray, God will show us something that we need to do. Not all the time, but a lot of times. Maybe something's not working right in your life. You can't seem to get anything to work right. Your prayers aren't being answered. And maybe if you listen to God, he'll whisper to you, well, you've got unforgiveness in your heart. Come on, don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. You know, there's probably more people sitting in here today as sweet as you look. And I know that you have got a right heart, or you would not be coming here on a Saturday to listen to me do this all day. You're a great person, but you're mad at somebody. Mmm. Don't make me ask for a show of hands, because I can tell you there's more people in here that have got something stuck in you. And that's why things aren't working for you. Because the Bible says plainly, when you pray, if you have anything against anyone, anything against anyone, it doesn't leave out anybody, doesn't leave out any situation. You can't get by with any kind of an excuse. Well, you just don't know what they did to me. You just don't know what they did to me. To be honest, it doesn't matter what they did to you. It matters to God and he wants to fix it, but he can't if you won't forgive him. And forgiveness is not a way you feel about somebody. It's a choice that you make about how to treat them. Even though they've treated you bad, God requires you to love them unconditionally. Ouch, ouch. I don't think we realize how much we try to find little ways to wait for God to give us something easier to do. You know, we put it off until, I mean, we've got good intentions. We're going to do it. We're going to do it. Well, when are you going to do it? How many of you believe that prompt obedience is one of the best things you can do in your life? Amen? So, I'm sure that I could say right now, who's in this building that has an area in your life where you know you're not obeying God and there would be lots and lots and lots of hands go up. So therefore we have no right to complain about our problems. I'm smiling. Come on, you know, I want to help you. I don't want to just put on a nice show here today. I want to help you. I want you to leave with something that can change your life. And if I have to say some things to make you a little bit uncomfortable in your chair, then I'm willing to do that because I actually think if we can go to church and just sit there and be nice and comfortable the whole time and just love everything that's being said, then maybe the right thing is not being said. Amen? I mean, I guess God loves you unconditionally. You're a special person. You're valuable. You're wonderful. God's got a good plan for your life. But if you don't walk in obedience to God, nothing's going to work. And I think we need to get back to a little more of this kind of teaching. You know, we need to realize that this is serious business and God is serious about everything he says. And we can't just disobey God, purposely disobey him and think just because he loves us, it doesn't make any difference. Your disobedience won't stop God from loving you because he loved you before you ever cared one thing about him, but it will hurt you if you keep disobeying God. So having said that, I'll try to press on. So last night I talked about one of the big mistakes that the Israelites made that caused them to spend 40 years trying to make an 11 day trip. Isn't that amazing? 40 years to make an 11 day trip. Well, we're amazed at them, but what about us? How long have you been messing around with the same thing? Over and over. How long have you been mad at that person that hurt you when you were a child? How long have you been mad at your parents because they didn't treat you right? Are mad at one of your sisters and brothers because your parents seemed to favor them and they got it easier than you did? Yeah. How long are you going to keep going around and around the same thing? It's time. So one of their biggest problems, the wrong mindset they had was that they didn't have any vision for the future. They couldn't see beyond where they'd been and where they were right now. And I can tell you no matter what's happened to you in the past or what's happening right now, things can be better in the future. Now, lest I get all excited and try to re-preach that, I'm going to get on over here to number two. Okay, another wrong mindset that they had and a lot of us have is somebody do it for me. I don't want to take responsibility. A right mindset would be I'm willing to work hard and take responsibility for my life. Amen? For example, how about taking responsibility for your own joy? Who are you blaming for not keeping you happy? I remember when the Lord spoke to my heart and he said, stop giving Dave the responsibility for your joy. You can be happy if you want to be happy. Amen? And I can tell you in the first few years that we were married, I mean, I was not a happy person. And I, you know, unhappy people, it almost annoys them to be around happy people. So they try to make other people unhappy so they can all be unhappy together. And so I was always doing things that could have made Dave unhappy and ruined his day, but he would not let me make him unhappy. And it was the most infuriating thing to me. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Now I'm just like, you don't care about anything. You're just happy no matter what. And he still is. The exact same way. But you know what? It finally made me hungry for what he had. If you're married to somebody that's unhappy, don't let their unhappiness make you unhappy. The better thing to do is to be happy around them and let them see that things can be different. Amen? Otherwise we become codependent on somebody else's problem. Responsibility means to respond to the ability that God has placed in you or to respond to an opportunity that's put in front of you. I wonder how many opportunities we miss in life. How many times God invites us to do something and he has to go find somebody else to do it because it's not a convenient time for us. Thanks for listening to today's message. What we think about matters and developing new mindsets takes time. Instead of wishing everything was easier when life gets hard, we can learn to say I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Looking for more? You got it. Each day you'll find more unique episodes of the enjoying everyday life program in the Joyce Meyer app and online at Joycemyre.org. Get your daily dose of encouragement with the Joyce Meyer Ministries app. Catch up on seven days of enjoying everyday life episodes. Grow deeper in God's Word with the Daily Devotional and Question of the Day. And enjoy all your favorite teachings from Joyce in your digital library. Find all this and more with the Joyce Meyer Ministries app. Search Joyce Meyer in your app store and download it today. Thank you for listening to 15 Minutes in the Word with Joyce.
