This Ramadan, the first plate isn't for you. It's passed across the table. And when the first bite is for someone else, what you cook with matters. V.T. Megabasmati extra-long premium rice. Chosen for its quality. Extra-long grains. Soft texture in every dish. And chosen for moments that matter. V.T. Megabasmati extra-long premium rice. Made for sharing. 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 form. Peace, confidence, love and courage. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching. Tonight I'm going to talk about moving beyond worry and anxiety. Does that sound even remotely good to any person here? How many of you have something in your life right now that you could worry about? And be very anxious about if you just didn't decide not to. Most people do. And if you don't have anything today, you might have something tomorrow or the next day. And that's not like a negative comment. That's just life is real. And we never know exactly what's going to come our way. But we do know God. We don't have to live in fear because He's with us. And He's on our side. And I've learned a lot of bad things happening in the early years of my life. And I got to the point where I was afraid of bad things happening. Proverbs 15, 15 calls that evil for boatings. Where you just kind of have this sensing around you that you're waiting for the next disaster. And I've learned instead of doing that to expect something good to happen in my life and to expect it on purpose. You can choose your own thoughts. You don't have to just think whatever falls in your head. You don't have to think about the wrong things and choose right things. And worry actually begins with a thought. Faith, I believe, starts in our hearts, a gift of God. But it's released through us thinking and speaking right things. And when we have a problem, we can either do what the devil wants us to do. And worry about it and get all anxious and try to figure things out. worry, anxiety, reasoning, three major torments in our life. We can do what God wants us to do. And we can choose to trust Him. We can think loving, trusting thoughts and think about the promises of God. worry enters our life through thoughts. But the Bible teaches us to cast all of our care on God. Because He cares for us. Every time we have a problem in our house, Dave has one answer. Dave and I have been married 44 years. And in 44 years, every time we have a problem, Dave has one answer. I don't even need to go ask Dave what he thinks because I already know what the answer is going to be. If I have a problem and I talk to Dave about it, I already know what the answer is going to be. So if I want to hear any other answer other than the one he's going to give me, I go talk to someone else. Because what Dave always says is, cast your care. Cast your care. You know the word cast, if you look it up, means to pitch art to throw. So it seems like if we're going to get rid of these worries and anxieties, we're going to have to get a little bit violent with them. And maybe some of you have just been putting up with some nonsense from the devil. And you need to just get a little more violent. It's okay once in a while to be a violent Christian if you're being violent against the kingdom of darkness. The Bible says the kingdom of God has suffered violence, but the violent take it by force. So tonight I'm going to give you permission to be a little bit violent in the right way. And to say I am not going to put up with worry and fear and anxiety and every kind of mental torment any longer, those are from Satan, from the pit of hell. And I am not going to let Satan steal what Jesus died to give me. And if you don't do that, and if you don't do that, then he'll continue to steal from you because no matter what I believe, it's not going to help you unless you believe it. And no matter what the Bible says, it's not going to help you unless you believe it. And just knowing it won't help you, you have to act on it. We cannot be passive. Passive people want something good to happen and they're just going to wait and see if it does. They've got a lot of wishbone and no backbone. They don't do much about anything except think somebody else should solve the problem. It's good to read a good book once in a while on spiritual warfare because you're reminded that you have to be aggressive against the enemy. You can't just hope he leaves you alone. He hates you. He doesn't like anything about your walk with God. He doesn't want you making any kind of progress. And if you are going to attempt to be a Christian, he's going to try to keep you a miserable Christian. So nobody wants to look at you and have what you have. Amen? Well, worry sees the problem but it doesn't see God. I don't think it's wrong to see the problem. Matter of fact, I think we should look at our problems squarely. And then we need to tell them where they stand in relationship to God. Worry sees the problem but faith sees the God who can handle the problem. Let's look at Romans 4 verse 18. And don't ever just say, well, you know, I'm just a worrier. I can't help it. I'm just a worrier. I just worry about my kids when they go out at night. Some people don't even feel like they're good parents if they don't worry about their kids. I don't worry about mine. I sleep. Because you know what, whatever they're going to do, you worry about it and go stop it. You pray, you trust God, and you go to sleep. Romans 4 18. For Abraham, human reason, for hope being gone, hoped on in faith that he would become the father of many nations just as he had been promised. God had told him, numberless, shall your descendants be, but there was a problem. Abraham and his wife Sarah were both old, like really old, like 90 and 100 old. And Sarah was long past childbearing years and she'd never had a child. And yet she'd already had what we now call the change of life. And Abraham was too old to father a child. So they had a rather impossible situation. In verse 19, it says, Abraham did not weaken in faith when he considered the utter impotence of his own body. He didn't weaken in faith even when he looked at himself and said, this looks quite impossible. Even when he looked at Sarah and said impossible. His body was as good as dead because he was about 100 years old, nor when he considered, when he thought about the Baroness of Sarah's dead and womb. He says, no unbelief or distrust made him waver doubtingly questioned concerning the promise of God. But he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God. I like to use this story about Abraham as an example because it amazes me that he had such a huge problem, really impossible situation. And yet he saw beyond the problem. He didn't just worry about the problem. He hung on to the promise of God. And that's what we have to do. And whatever situation you're in right now in your life, whether it's something with your kids or your marriage or your finances or you think you're never going to recover from your past or your fight. And was some kind of an addiction or some kind of a sin that keeps trying to cling to you. Whatever it is, you have to know that God is greater than any problem that you have. And you have to not worry because when you pray and then you worry, the worry nullifies your prayer. Prayer is something you do instead of worry. It's not something you do with worry. It's what you do instead of worry. I want to make sure you understand that. If we pray and then worry, we're saying with our mouth that we're depending on God but we're saying with our actions that we don't really believe that God's going to come through so we're going to worry and have a backup plan just in case he doesn't. Now I know about worry because I had lots of problems with worry and in particular I had a lot of problems with reasoning. We're going to get around to that in just a minute. Faith sees God and faith knows something that it can't see. Faith sees God but it doesn't see God with its natural eyes. It sees God with its heart. And the Bible says in Hebrews 116 that without faith it's impossible to please God and those that come to God must believe that he is. I want to stop there just a minute. Must believe that he is not just that he is somewhere out there in the sky. But do you know that he is right here right now? God is here. Right here right now. And when you leave the building to go to your car he's with you. And when you go home he's with you in your home. And when you go to bed he's there and when you wake up in the morning he's there. And when you come back in the morning he's here. And the wonderful thing about God as a spirit is he's intimately with every one of us all the time. He never leaves us, nor forsakes us. He is the great I am. He is. And I was thinking about that today in the hotel room and I thought you know I'd like to take the next week or two and just really meditate on that a lot. Just stop several times every day and say God is here. Anybody want to join me in that little goal? Why did you just try to stop at least ten times and just say out loud? God is here. God is here. We talk last night about fear and all over the Bible it says fear not. Why? One reason only is ever given for I am with you. We don't have to know what God is going to do. We don't have to know when he's going to do it. All we need to know is that he is and he has a plan and at the right time. Not our time, but at the right time God will execute that plan. Matter of fact I'm going to tell you something that's just bubbling up in my heart right now. God is working in your life every single one of you. God is working in your life right now in ways that you cannot feel, don't see and don't understand. And just because what's going on in your life right now doesn't feel good doesn't mean God's not working. And everything that we go through we need to lift up our voice and say God I believe you're working in my life right now. I'm expecting something good. Don't let the devil drag you into that worry and fear and mental torment that's going to steal every day that you have. Exodus 3 9 through 14. Now behold the cry of the Israelites has come to me and I've also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore he's talking to Moses and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people the Israelites out of Egypt. This is just a side note but I think it's interesting that when the Israelites were crying out to God. God had to find a man that he could work through in order to bring deliverance to them and every time somebody prays for help. God's looking for somebody probably a lot of you are a lot of you watching by TV and he wants to work through to bring that help. God doesn't work apart from man he works with man we are partners partners with God and it's an amazing. It's an amazing thing. Why would God need me to preach the gospel or why would he even let me preach the God? Why would he let me be part of this? He could preach the gospel through angels. But he wants to work through people and Moses said to God who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt. And God said I will surely be with you and this is the sign to you that I have sent you. The sign that God has sent us is when he's with us. I know that God is with me when I preach the gospel. I know that. I don't see him. I don't maybe feel him in the way that we might think about feeling but I do feel him in that I know that there's no way that I could do this if it wasn't God. And God is with you in your situation some of you are in very difficult situations and yet in the midst of that you have joy and peace and you have hope and only God can give us that. God is with you. 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 a 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 JoyceMire.org. Well I hope that you feel that I'm a partner in your life by teaching you the Word of God and I'm asking you to partner with me in helping us continue reaching out not only to you through this program but to so many people around the world that still don't know Jesus. Together we can do so much more than what we can do by ourselves so please become a brand new partner with us today. To join us in partnership right now go to JoyceMire.org. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to 50 Minutes in the Word with Joyce.
