Call my wife. 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, The Fierceum 4. When we feel discouraged, defeated or overwhelmed by the pressures of life, chances are we're being hit by what Joyce calls The Fierceum 4. Fier, guilt, worry and insecurity. The devil uses these obstacles to keep us from God's calling. But with Christ, we can defeat all of them and reach God's perfect plan for our life. Be empowered with today's teaching and learn to embrace God's fearless 4. Peace, confidence, love and courage. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching. Please listen to me. I went through all the years of trying to find some way to live where I had enough faith, where I never had those problems. Where when I did get a problem, I could rebuke the devil and believe God and make that problem go away. And I just about killed myself with frustration. And finally, I decided, oh, I'm supposed to trust God. And if God doesn't get rid of it, then I trust God to take me through it. We trust God's timing. We trust His wisdom. We trust His ways. And by doing that, guess what happens? We can enjoy every single day of the journey. We don't have to just be happy when we arrive and get it all our way. We can enjoy every single day even of the weight. Now, that's what I call real bold mature Christianity. You don't have to be a believer to be happy when everything is going your way. That you need a major dose of the Holy Ghost to be happy when not much of anything is going your way. Matthew 6.25. Everybody say, I'm finished with worry. I'm moving beyond it. Therefore, I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy, anxious and worried about your life, what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink, about your body, what you're going to put on. Is life not greater in quality than food and the body far above and more excellent clothing. Look at the birds of the air. And maybe we should stop and do that. I've never seen a bird sitting on a branch having a breakdown. There are people that are bird watchers. Maybe there's a reason. They're not sitting on a branch going, wonder where my next worm's going to come from. God is so amazing. He upholds and maintains this entire universe. The Bible says in Hebrews. He keeps all the stars and running into each other and all the planets from banging into each other and everything rotating around everything else is just astounding the majesty of our God. And then we think we have to worry about some of these little silly things that we worry about. We don't need to worry about what people think of us. We don't need to worry about what people think of us. We don't need to worry about what people think of us. We don't need to worry about what people think of us. Come on, somebody must need that. We don't need to worry about what people think of us. You know why? They're going to think what they want to anyway. Thank you. Look at the birds of the air. They neither reap, nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they are? Turn to the person next to you and say, I'm worth more than a bird. Okay, I love verse 27 and which of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure to his stature? If you're short, you're short. I'm short. Period. I love people that are confident and really know who they are in Christ. I love Zacchaeus in the Bible. He was a short little guy. Really short and Jesus was coming and he so wanted to say Jesus but he was too short. He couldn't see all over all the other people and I love what he did. He didn't go sit down and have a pity party and so on. Tell you if I just wasn't short. I get left out of everything because I'm short. I don't want to be short. I want to be tall. He didn't do that. He ran on ahead of the crowd and climbed up in a sicklemore tree. And when Jesus came by, Zacchaeus, come on down here. I'm going to go to your house for dinner. You know why I love that? Instead of whining about what he thought was a problem in his life, he had a positive attitude toward it and instead of worrying about what he couldn't do, he found something he could do and God so loved that spirit of determination that he said, I'm going to go home with you. Don't stop worrying about what you're canton. Looking at everybody else and comparing yourself with them and wishing you with them and being jealous of them and envious of them and just say, it is what it is. And I'm going to deal with it. Whatever I don't have, God's going to make it up to me. I don't do anything but talk. That's all I do and it's working out really well. I don't do anything else fancy. I mean, I've got a lot of good common sense and some business sense. I mean, I can manage people, that kind of thing, but mainly I talk. Why does he just start doing what you can do? Trusting God to make it work in your life. You can't even add one inch to your height by worrying. Why should you be anxious? Verse 28 about clothes, consider the lilies of field, learn how they grow. They need to toil and they're spent yet. I tell you Solomon and all of his magnificence and excellence, dignity and grace, was not arrayed like one of these. You know, it is amazing how you're just reminded of the majesty of God. When you take the time to really look at some of the things that he's created in nature. I watch a lot of like nature shows and animal shows. I love to watch shows about lions and tigers and leopards and bears. I like to, I like that planet earth and life and now they've got one about great migrations that's been on TV. And I'm just, I am astounded. I mean, I am astounded when I see how God has given every animal, every bug. No matter how little that bug is and seemingly insignificant, a way to protect itself. God has taken care of everything and we are the height of his creation. He considers us to be the cream of the crop and he's trying to give you a message here. If I take care of the birds, am I not going to take care of you? If I made the flowers, am I not going to take care of you? Because those things really are fairly insignificant compared to the height, the top of God's creation. If you've wasted already a lot of your life worrying, why don't you make a decision and not you going to give it up and move past it? So is there only a little pod of people right over here that agree with that? How about the rest of you? Now, you know, my husband does intend to ward be in a worrier, but I did. And I know that worry is torment. How many of you have a tendency to worry? How many of you have a tendency to try to figure things out? Okay, then I got the right group and those of you who didn't have your hand up, you can feel sorry for the rest of us. I don't know, maybe you're too tired to put your hand up. I worry about every one of my kids, they all made it. So many things you're worrying about right now and you're going to happen anyway. Verse 31, therefore don't worry and be anxious saying, what are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? What are we going to wear? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? At the women's conference this year, I had them make me a little devil. And he sat on my shoulder. And he talked to me and then I'd talk back to him. I believe the devil sends out a little demon every morning to sit on your shoulder and scream in your ear, well, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? What are you going to do? What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Somehow we always feel like we're supposed to come up with answers that we don't have. And I'm going to tell you, real faith will get you to the point where you are totally comfortable not knowing. How many of you want to be comfortable not knowing and not to have to be embarrassed to say, I don't have a clue what I'm going to do. I don't know what I'm going to do. But when I need to do something, I guess God will tell me. Oh, I was really, really, really bad at reasoning. I thought I had to have everything figured out, everything in a nice little slot. And even as far as anxiety is concerned, I believe that anxiety is trying to figure out tomorrow today. It's wasting your time today trying to figure out something that's not here yet. And I think I got in the habit of that when I was a kid and I lived in such a volatile atmosphere. And I felt very unsafe and never, ever, ever knew what was going to happen because my dad was very unstable. And I think that as a measure of trying to make sure that I was protected and taken care of, I would in my mind try to out guess what he might do so I could maybe not be there in that place or not do that thing that might set him off at that particular time. And it's been very difficult for me to learn how to live in the now. That has been one of my great goals is that he is here right now. And I want to be here right now enjoying him and with him. I don't want to be somewhere else where God's not. I want to be right where he is. And it's something that we have to learn how to do on purpose. Let's just look at verse 34. Well, we might as well read 33. But seek at aim at and strive ever first of all, his kingdom and his righteousness, his way of being and doing and all of these other things will be added unto you. So don't worry or be anxious about tomorrow because tomorrow we'll have worries and anxieties of its own. Suffice for each day is its own trouble. You know, we should not even think that we're smart enough to figure out our own problems. And as long as you think you're smart enough to figure out your own problem, then you'll keep worrying about them trying to figure them out. They have come to the point now where I pretty much know that anything I come up with is not going to work unless it's God's idea. Now there's nothing wrong with thinking about things. I like what the Bible says about Mary when the angel appeared to her and told her she was going to have a child and she knew she'd never been with a man. The Bible doesn't say that Mary worried. It doesn't say that she reasoned. It doesn't say that she became anxious. It says that she pondered all of these things in her heart. And I believe that we can ponder things. But I tell you when it's gone too far, when you start getting confused, you start getting upset, you start having mental torment, then you need to say to yourself, I've gone too far and I've gotten outside the realm of God and I need to back off here and just trust God. Probably 3537 is a wonderful group of scriptures, trust in the Lord with all your heart and mind and lean not to your own understanding. I'm sure that many of you have something that you could certainly stay up all night and try to figure out. And it's possible that if you've been here since last night and maybe you haven't had an opportunity to have meals with friends, you may have discussed what you should do with them. Well, what do you think I should do? You've tried to figure out what you should do. Now you're asking other people what you should do. I don't know why we keep going to people. Most of them don't even know what they're doing. Let alone be qualified to tell us what we should do. Amen. We need to go to the throne, not the phone when we got a problem. Trust the Lord with all your heart and mind, lean not to your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. Be not wise in your own eyes. I know this statement's been around a while. All of for some reason it missed me and I've been hearing my daughter say this lately. It is what it is. So deal with it. And I really like that. Thanks for listening. Despite the challenges we may face in life, when we put our trust in God, we receive an incredible promise from Him. Second Timothy 117 says that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind. This promise gives us the strength to look at our problems and know that God is on our side. He wants to give us His peace as we face whatever lies ahead. For more resources from Joyce, visit joysmire.org. 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