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, Blessed in the Mess. Choosing to trust God, despite our circumstances, is the answer to everything. This doesn't mean we sit back and do nothing while God fixes all our problems. It means we can live with joy and be a blessing to someone else while he works things out in his way and in his perfect timing. If we tend to God's business, he will take care of ours. Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching. I found myself thinking today, well actually last night when the building, when I couldn't get in the building, you know that kind of stuff is discouraging for me. And I thought. And I found myself thinking, am I just going to work my whole entire life? Now the, trust God and do good, trust God and do good, trust God and do good. Come on, I'm just being real with you. Doubt is going to come against you. Thoughts are going to come against you. But we have a choice. We have an option. We can trust God. We don't have to spend our lives confused and miserable trying to figure out stuff that only God knows the answers to. We can say, I am not going to try to figure this out. I am going to trust in the Lord with all my heart and mind. I will not lean to my own understanding in all my ways. I will acknowledge him and he will direct my path. Now I'm not suggesting that we go around being stupid. I mean, I always say, God, if there's something you want to show me, show me. I want to learn. I want revelation. I don't want information anymore. I want revelation. I've had enough information to last me 20 lifetimes. I want revelation from God. Trust in the Lord and do good. You know, Jesus did this even on the cross. I was thinking about this and it really blessed me when I saw this, you know, right down to the very end. The last thing that Jesus said was, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And right before that, he said, my God, my God, why? Even Jesus in his humanity said, why? You know, I can ask why, but I don't have to get confused. God show me why if you want to, but if you don't, I'm going to trust you anyway. And you know what else Jesus did on the cross? He not only continued to trust God on the cross when he was hurting the worst that he could possibly hurt. All of us together are not hurting as bad tonight as Jesus hurt on that cross. We can put all of our pain and all of our confusion together and it doesn't even begin to match what he went through. But you know what? On that cross, he was loving people right to the very end. Not only did he say, I commit myself into your hands, but there was a couple of thieves there. He ministered to them, took the time and his pain. You'll be with me today in paradise. You know what else I love? He made provision for his mom. Come on in the midst of his pain. He said, John, I want you to take care of my mother. Right to the very end. He was trusting God and doing good, trusting God and doing good, trusting God and doing good, trusting God and doing good. You know, we worry way too much about what other people are doing to us and not nearly enough. We don't pay enough attention to how we should respond. Do you know that you're not responsible for anybody but you? And no matter how many wrong things somebody does to you, the only thing you're responsible for and the only thing I'm responsible for is my reaction. Amen? Occupy until I come. In the book of Luke it says that Jesus said, will I find faith on the earth when I come back? You know, no matter how big our problem is, all Jesus wants us to do is just believe. Believe simple childlike faith. I don't understand it God, but I believe. I don't understand why I had cancer 25 years ago. I was out preaching faith and laying hands on other people praying for their healing that had stuff like that. But I just kept saying, I trust you God. I trust you. I trust you. And he took care of it. There's a lot of things in my life I don't understand. I don't understand why the power got shut off in the building last night. How dumb is that? I mean, I don't understand that. You know, I'm growing, I'm stretching. Do any of you have any stretch marks? If you're not being stretched in faith. Come on, women get stretch marks when they're giving birth. We need to all have spiritual stretch marks in our life. We need to be giving birth to some stuff. Amen? This is one time when the men get to have stretch marks. God stretches us in our life. How many of you have walked with God a few years and now you have a much greater capacity to trust him than you did before? Amen? Isn't life so much better when we trust God? No matter what your problem is, the answer to it is trust God and do good. I love John 1140. He said, did I not tell you and promised you that if you would only believe, you would see the glory of God? What is the work that God requires of us that we believe? Come on, some of you, when I said everything around you shaking and you, I could see you like, there's pain in this room tonight. You know what? And I understand, I get it. And we get confused about our pain. It's interesting that we never get confused about the good times. You know, I've never sat around and got confused about, wow, I wonder, I just can't figure out why God is letting me be on television around the world. Why is that? That really confuses me. I've never one time done that. I'm just like, yes. But if he took me off, I'd be confused. You understand what I'm saying? We don't get, you know, our confusion is selective and we're only confused about the stuff we don't like. We're only confused about the things that hurt. But let's trust God with our pain. And some of you take your pain tonight and trust God with your pain and say, God, this hurts so bad, I feel like I can't stand it, but I trust you and I'm going to keep trying to be a blessing to other people because I believe that even if it hurts, you're helping me give birth to something new in my life. There's an interesting thing if you really think about it. Everything things always hurts. I mean, it does. I mean, maybe you're one of those women who had a baby and didn't have any pain, but you're not on my realm of understanding. I don't, you know, and when I had babies, we didn't have those epidurals that they have today. You didn't get nothing except a crazy doctor telling you to push, like make you think push. You need to have a couple of black eyes. Don't listen to the devil. He's a liar. If you're giving birth to something, don't back off from the pain. Bear down and let God do what He wants to do in your life. Amen. Some of you are getting it. You got to have a little depth to get this message tonight. I'm sorry. We're not having dessert here tonight. Maybe some dessert tomorrow. I don't know. Mark chapter five, verse 36. If I could sing, I'd break out in song. Let's just look at Mark 534 and he said to her daughter, your faith, your trust and confidence in me spring from faith and God has restored you to health. Go in peace and be. He owed it from your distressing bodily disease. And while he was still speaking, there came some from the ruler's house and said to Jairus, your daughter has died. Jesus was on his way to heal Jairus' daughter and somebody else came along and wanted his attention. And so while he was giving this sick person his attention, the daughter died. Why bother and distress the teacher any further? Now verse 36 is so good. Overhearing but ignoring what they said. Overhearing but ignoring what the devil said. You know, the enemy speaks through people. Overhearing but ignoring what they said. The devil says, you ain't going to make it. I hear you, devil, but I trust God. God's not going to come through for you. I hear you, devil, but I'm not going to pay attention to you. We pay too much attention to the devil. I had a woman come to me one time and she said, I'm just so upset, sister Joyce. I'm just so upset. The devil's been lying to me all week. I said, excuse me. You know it's the devil and you're upset. You know he's lying and you're upset. Overhearing but ignoring what the devil said. Well, guess what? J.I. God is miracle. Maybe you're just listening too much to what the enemy says and you need to listen more. You know, let's just get all this craziness in our life. You know, all the stuff, the thoughts, the weirdness, the emotions, the crazy dysfunction, the worrying about the past. Let's just get it all down into something we can do. Let's just trust God and do good. Are you hearing me tonight? I can't do all that other stuff. I can't figure out everything out there that I don't know and don't understand, but I can do this. I can trust God and I can be a blessing to somebody somewhere. I can smile. That would be a good place to start. I get so tired of sourpuss people, would you smile at everybody you see? Give a little word of encouragement. Tell somebody their hair looks nice. Give something away. Go help somebody and make the devil really mad and help an enemy. It's big time stuff. Do exactly what you would be doing if you didn't have a problem. Keep a good confession. Pray and be thankful. Study God's word. Keep your commitments. Keep giving. Keep being a blessing. What does it mean to trust God? It means that you can relax and not worry. You don't have to be frustrated or anxious. You believe that God is going to take care of your situation. You've done what you know to do. Now you simply let go of it and you let God be God. John Wesley defined greatness this way. How many of you would like to be a great person? Do all the good you can by all the means you can and all the ways you can and all the places you can and all the times you can to all the people you can as long as you ever can. I'm going to trust God and do good. Amen. I'm going to trust God and God appraise. Thanks for listening. Trials and tribulations are part of life, but if we handle it God's way, He will bless us in the middle of the mess. God uses hard times to strengthen our faith and teach us important lessons. Remember, we gain experience through our challenges, which qualify and equip us for God to use us to help others. Looking for more? You got it. Each day you'll find more unique episodes of the enjoying everyday life program and other exclusive content in the Joyce Meyer app and online at joysmeyer.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 joysmeyer.org. Thank you for listening to 15 Minutes in the Word with Joyce.
