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 stinging thinking with the word of God, we'll start winning the battlefield of the mind. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching. Okay, I'm going to tell you a secret. You're not going to like this part, but here it comes anyway. If you want to have real victory, you're going to have to be willing to hurt a little bit. Applause And see, the Israelites didn't want to hurt, and we don't want to hurt. The devil gives us nine different ways to get out of hurting. And you know, even if you just take complaining, you know, if you're going through something and you just keep your mouth shut about it, and you're just talking to God about it and not murmuring and complaining, it's hard. It's like there's no relief valve for the pressure in our soul. But if we can just tell somebody, how bad we got it and how bad we feel and oh my gosh, if they would just feel a little sorry for us, now the flesh is like, you got your fix and then you go around the mountain one more time. And if you agree, it's hard when you're hurting just to say, God, I just want to get through this and get it over with. And so I'm going to just talk to you about it, not grumble and complain. There's all different kinds of suffering, but I just, I'm very concerned because it seems to me like, and of course it's not everybody, there's a lot of you out there that are very strong and you stand firm and you stand your ground and you're awesome mature Christians. But I think we all know that the majority are not like that. And I think that people are just getting wimpier and weaker and, you know, they just can't take very much and they're ready to quit. And, you know, if you don't do this today, God, then I'm out of here. I can't do this anymore. Everything's too hard. And, you know, we've got to understand that you got to be ready for war. The minute that you declare that you're going to walk with God, the devil comes after you. I'm not going to stand here and tell you if you receive Christ tonight that all your problems are over. Some of them are over, but a different kind is going to begin. And you say, well, then why do I want to receive Jesus? Because your worst day with him will be better than your best day ever was without him. Because here's the thing. Without Christ, you're stuck in the place you're at. And your life is nothing but misery from now until you draw your last breath. And if you haven't received Christ by the time you do that, then the real misery starts. Yes, there's a place called hell. We don't talk enough about that either. I'd rather scare the hell out of somebody than to sit and watch them go to hell. Amen. And every once in a while, a good message, hell, fire, and brimstone, like they used to call it, would be good for us. Amen. What do people think they're doing? I mean, the amount of time that you have here on earth is absolutely nothing. It's like one grain of sand on all the beaches in the world compared to forever. And we need to spend our now time here getting ready for there. And I tell you more than anything, we need to get our eyes off of ourselves. Get your mind off yourself and onto what you can do for somebody else. I love the song that Natalie sang tonight. You can be a miracle. Everybody wants a miracle, but how about being a miracle? How about being one for somebody else? And yes, if you do that, you will live a sacrificial life. But you'll be so full and fruitful on the inside. You see, a wilderness can be a literal place like a desert, but many people have a wilderness in their soul. Everything is dry and barren and no matter what they do, even people, there's so many unhappy Christians. And really, that's an oxymoron. I mean, Christians should be the happiest people on the face of the earth. And yet they're not. And it's because we really just forget that the enemy is after us all the time. He's not going to win. The purpose that Jesus came was to destroy the works of the wicked one. We've already got the victory, but we are going to have to stand our ground. And we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us. That's why we need to get a little bit sassy with our souls and say, well, I sow downcast on my soul, get a smile on your face, body, and get out there and count your blessings and stop whining over every little thing that goes wrong in your life. You say, well, Joyce, if you had my life, you wouldn't be standing up there saying that. Well, you don't know what my life is like. You don't know. I tell you, there's a lot more to it than this little part right here. That I can tell you for sure. If you think the devil gets after you, you ought to try preaching this stuff and see if he gets after you. So you got to set your mind. I am going all the way through to victory. I am not going to quit. I am not going to give up. By the grace of God, I am going to be who God wants me to be. Do what he wants me to do and have what he wants me to have. And that's why it doesn't matter anything that's happened to you previous to this moment right here. If it's bad stuff you didn't like, you need to let go of it. And you need to say, this is the first day of the rest of my life. And I am not going to live the rest of it like I've lived the previous part of it. Mind sets are an interesting thing. You need to, we set ourselves up sometimes for just a bad day. Yeah, I don't want anybody to take this wrong because I know sometimes the anniversary of the death of a loved one can be painful for people. But my aunt, who's gone home to be with the Lord, she, every year, I mean, this was still like 15, 20 years after my uncle passed. And he was a Christian man. She knew he was in heaven. She would plan to have a bad day on that day. I mean, she would tell me two weeks out. Now, you know, honey, next so and so is when Uncle Marvin passed away. When Uncle Marvin passed and you know, that's going to be a hard day for me. Well, I understand that things like that can be hard, but I also understand that a little bit of right thinking can change that. Amen. How many of you agree that sometimes we just set ourselves up for disaster just with our own thoughts? Okay, so my husband is great at right mindsets. Matter of fact, he's so good at it that when I'm having a bad day, he can be quite annoying. If you ever want anybody to feel sorry for you, don't call Dave Meyer because it won't happen. And so I love you, Dave. That's right. Dave says that God put him in my life to crucify my flesh and he's really pretty right. Because you know what? I mean, the honest truth is if he would have just done nothing but feel sorry for me way back 30 and 40 years ago, I wouldn't be here today. I'd still be going around the same mountain somewhere. And I thought he was the meanest human being on the face of the earth. But you're going to find out later that Jesus didn't feel sorry for too many people either. He told them what to do to get out of their mess. And that was what he did. Now, I'm not saying we don't have compassion on each other, but we don't want to give people this disabling pity to where we just enable them to stay in that same place all the time. Amen. So Dave is just, he's an expert at this right mindset thing. And so he loves to play golf. We all know that. And you know, we're getting a little more mature. We don't say old. We're a little more mature now. And so, yeah. You might not clap if you were in the gym with me and walking with me and doing all this stuff. Now I'm in physical therapy from my back. And so I've added another hour a day of exercises. And so it's like, yeah, yeah, whatever you got to do to stay on your feet to preach until you draw your last breath. Amen. And that's, that's part of that war because I could have easily said a long time ago, like, you know, I just can't do this anymore. I mean, I've had two hip replacements in the last three years and a back surgery. And I just say every time I, I got a mouth. If nothing else works, I've got a mouth. Amen. Come on. My goal is to finish. How about you? You want to finish your race and finish it well. So I said the day of one day, I said, so Dave, how's it going to be for you if you would ever get to the point where you can't play golf? And he said, oh, I've already thought about that. And I've just made my mind up that I'll just be happy anyway. Now, you know what most people would do? Oh, I don't know what I'll do if I can't play golf. My gosh, I'll be so bored if I just, you know, he's like, no, I've already made my mind up. I can be happy anyway. You know what? Some of you need to take that little bit of advice right there. And instead of deciding you can't be happy if your situation doesn't change. Come on. The minute you say, I cannot be happy if this doesn't change, you've thrown down the gauntlet in the devil's face. And he's going to turn the heat up. Remember the guys in the fiery furnace? The furnace got turned up seven times hotter than before. The minute you say, if this doesn't change, I can't be happy. The enemy will come against you with everything he's got to make you unhappy. But what if you say, if nothing ever changes, I'm going to be happy? What if you, what if you say, if nothing ever changes, I'm going to be happy because my joy is not in my circumstances. It's in the Lord. You say, well, what does that mean? I was thinking about this the other day, the joy of the Lord is my strength. You know, be joyful in the Lord. What does that, what does that really mean? Well, if we just think about what Jesus has provided for us and what he went through to save us for our sins, what, what God led his only son go through to save us from our sins and think about the fact that you're not going to go to hell. You're going to live forever. And you're going to see him face to face. Amen. 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. We all go through hard times and it's so easy in those moments to focus on the problem. But what if you were able to see the trials of your life the way God sees them and respond to them the way he teaches us in his word? Joyce Meyer wants to show you how in her new book, Blessed in the Mess, even in the middle of life's difficulties, God's kindness shines through. Blessed in the Mess, order your copy today at Joycemyre.org. Thank you for listening to 15 Minutes in the Word with Joyce. .
