Joyce Meyer - Do Enough But Not Too Much - Part 2

So, I started this ministry, and I was trying to run. I was trying to run my race. And I was so stressed out, unhappy, stressed out, sick a lot because I was so stressed out. Well, God didn’t call me to that. So, something had to be wrong, but I didn’t know what it was. I just kept trying to run. But what I needed to do was learn how to sit first. You can’t do anything and enjoy it if you don’t do it from a place of resting in God. Are you all with me? See. But it’s an inside thing. Pay attention to what’s going on inside you. When you feel all stressed out, what are your thoughts like? What’s your attitude? Do you have unforgiveness? Are you doing things that are bothering your conscience all the time?

Those are the things that give us the stress. It’s not the work that we do. Yes, you get physically tired from work, but you can get a good night’s sleep and get over that. But real stress comes from all the junk inside of us. Do you know one full day of anger is probably equivalent to 40 hours of hard labor? It wears you out to be angry. It wears you out to be full of unforgiveness. Don’t give the devil any more space in your life. If somebody hurt you and did you wrong, do exactly what the Bible says. Forgive them, pray for them, bless them, and let God be the one who does the dealing with them. Amen? Why should you continue to let the devil make you unhappy? He used somebody to hurt you and now you just keep hurting you.

You say, «But you don’t understand. You don’t understand what they did to me». To be honest, and I don’t mean this to sound wrong, it just really doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that we obey God and forgive 'em and let it go. And you can, but I’ll tell you what most people do. They pray to forgive somebody, but they never pray for the person. And if you will really start praying for people that have hurt you, I mean, praying for them on a regular basis and asking God to bless them. And I’m sure you think like I did. «I don’t want them to be blessed». «How can I pray for them to be blessed when I don’t want them to be blessed»?

Well, God’s not gonna bless them with a new house and a new car, but he might bless them with some truth. Amen? And if you get a chance, nothing makes the devil madder or does him more injury than if you help somebody that has hurt you. Well, good, I got one person who thinks that was, you’re like, I am serious. Send your enemies gifts. «What»? You know what happens? It sets you free. Somebody told me one time about a man and a woman that were talking really bad about me in a restaurant. Well, they didn’t know it, but this man and woman happened to be somebody that we did business with and they made quite a bit of money from us. Well, I thought, «Huh, they’re not getting any more business from us. I’m gonna this and I’m gonna that and I’m gonna and I’m gonna». And in the middle of the night, God said, «You ain’t gonna do any of that». I said, «Well, what am I gonna do»? He said, «You’re gonna send them a present and pray for 'em». Ugh!

Well, I tell you what, my flesh tried every way to squirm out of that. «Okay, if I’m gonna send them a gift», I wanted to send them my book, «Me and my big mouth». I mean, I had the hardest time not sending them that book. My flesh was like, «Well, if I’m gonna have to do this, I at least want them to know how kind I’m being». Right? And then I thought, «Well, maybe I could just send them gift certificates to the restaurant where they were talking about me. Maybe that would work». I ended up not doing any of that, but I did what God told me to. And you know what? Laying in bed that night, the minute that I decided that I was gonna do what God told me to do, every bit of pressure lifted off of me. It was gone. The hurt stopped right then.

So, you can stop, some of you, you’re letting people that hurt you 10 years ago still hurt you today. But you can make a decision not to do that because you have a free will. «Jesus ascended on high and he sat down at the right hand of the majesty, there to wait for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet». «Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties: again, and again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool». You know, we do what we can do. The Bible talks a lot about standing. And it says in Ephesians 6, it says, «Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the devil’s schemes».

Everybody say, «Stand». «For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world and against the spirit forces of evil in the heavenly realms». You know, we’ve got such a huge mess in the U.S. Today. I would have never ever thought I would have lived to see today when the things that are going on in our world were going on. It’s like it’s just beyond stupid. It’s like, don’t even know how to think about it let alone talk about it. But you have to keep in mind that it’s the devil behind it all. And he is having an absolute royal fit right now because he knows his days are short. And we have to remember to not, yes, people are responsible for letting him work through them. He works through evil people. But really just being mad at the people, we have to stand against the devil. And the only way, now listen to me, the only way to stop the devil is through love.

Romans 12:21 says, «We overcome evil with good». Good is stronger than evil. See. So, everybody’s talking about everything bad that’s going on and all the bad people. Well, talk about some of the good stuff. Amen? We just talk about it, talk about it. And if we believe what the Bible says, the more we talk about it, the worse it gets. Now people need to be informed and they need to know what’s going on and they need to vote responsibly and do their duty. But from the spiritual standpoint, we already know that God wins in the end. Come on. You already know God wins in the end. So, no matter how big a fit the devil throws or no matter how bad things get, we know that God wins in the end because we have read the end of the book. It is over. It is finished. Come on home.

It says, «Put on the full armor of God» and this armor that God gives us is not normal armor or weaponry like you would think of, but it’s a good analogy because it says, we’re to «Put on the breastplate of righteousness». Know who you are in Christ. It covers your heart. Don’t ever say, «Well, God, don’t you love me»? Just because you’re having a little trouble. First time you have trouble, you say, «God, I know you love me and I know you will take care of me and I know that you will work this out for good. This is gonna end well and I know that you will strengthen me and get me through it». Amen? «Put on the full armor of God, so when that evil day comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you’ve done everything, stand». Stand firmly.

So, it just keeps telling us to stand, to stand, to stand. And that just means to have the attitude. «I’m not giving up». «I will not give up». «One thing I will not do is give up». And I can tell you, I think that’s probably the greatest thing I’ve had going for me is I am just downright bullheaded and I am not gonna give up. I will finish what God has given me to do. Amen? And people ask me all the time, «When are you gonna retire»? Well, I guess when I’m dead. I don’t have any plans to retire. Now, God may change my mind. You know, if I got to the point where I couldn’t work, then I wouldn’t work. But you know what? Even if I wasn’t doing this, I would still be just as important to God. I don’t wanna ever hear anybody say, «Didn’t you use to be Joyce meyer»? No, I am still Joyce meyer. Thank you. «Having done all [the crisis demands], stand».

Well, what does that mean? Do what you can do. Do your part, if there’s something you can do, do it. But don’t keep trying to do things you can’t do. A lot of people don’t know when they’re finished. You have to learn when you’re finished. Anybody who thinks that things will always be the way they’ve always been is a fool. Because things keep changing all the time. Pastor John was talking about the trips he went on with us. Well, I used to do three large long trips like that a year out of the country and hold big massive crusades and you know, who wouldn’t want to stand on a platform and look at half a million people or six hundred…? That’s awesome. But then the time came where I started kinda dreading the trips instead of wanting to do them.

And see, God starts to change your heart, but if you’re not finished when he’s finished, come on. A lot of times God’s finished and you’re still, you know, if the horse has been dead for ten years stop trying to push it uphill. And so, I find that as I have, I’d say since I hit my seventies, things are just gradually changing. We used to do thirty-six conferences a year, now we’re doing two. And I do most of my TV from my studio or I come to wonderful churches like this and they let me have the footage for my TV program and that’s good because I’d much rather preach to people, you know, talking to a camera is not all that much fun. And if you say anything funny, they don’t laugh.

And so, that’s kind of a downer. But things will keep changing and I know that. They’ll continue to change. I need more rest than I used to. So, I’m really trying to listen to God about what I can do and what I can’t do so I can be here for the long haul and just help as many people as I possibly can because you keep overcoming evil with good. Amen? But even while you’re standing sometimes you gotta sit. Are you understanding this, are you getting the spiritual content of this? Okay? Sit, stand, walk, run. Don’t try to run if you don’t even know how to sit. You can’t stand against the enemy if you don’t even know how to rest in God. It’s not going to work because when you’re having trials and difficulties and you’re standing your ground and refusing to give up, let me tell you something. You’re gonna have to sit a while every day. You with me John?

Sometimes when you try to talk to people in the spirit about stuff you’ve got to make sure they’re getting it. Because I’m using a natural analogy to get a very important spiritual principle across to you. When you start feeling stressed out, go have a seat. And I’m not talking so much about going and sitting down physically, although I enjoy that too, but I’m just talking about just sit back down. You know if somebody at work got the promotion you think you deserved and now, you’re all in a huff and you’re jealous of them and you’re mad at your boss, just take a seat. Just, shh…Sit down. Go back to God, «I trust you, if that promotion was mine, you would have given it to me. And since you didn’t give it to me then you must have something better in mind».

Learning how to trust God is equivalent to this sitting. He sat down and we’re seated in heavenly places with him. So, you stand. You stand against temptation, you stand against the enemy, and you walk, and you learn how to walk. And the most important thing to me in my life right now and has been for a good number of years is learning how to walk in love. And you gotta race to run, every one of you do, some kind of race to win. And it may not be on the pulpit, it may not even be considered somethin' spiritual. Maybe you’re great at organizing and God wants you to help people get their lives organized, I don’t know. There’s so many different gifts in the Bible, so many different gifts.

And you just need to find what yours is and start flowing in it because you’re always going to feel like something is missing if you’re not doing what you’re, God’s not called you to do what everybody else thinks you should do. And everybody thinks that everybody should do what they’re doing. An intercessor who prays five hours every day thinks everybody should pray five hours every day. I’m a huge word person so I think you should just study the Bible every day. Worship people think you should worship all day long. You gotta find your niche and all of that is part of our life, but you gotta find what God wants you to do and do what he wants you to do. And while you’re doing it, when you get tired, have a seat. I think you’re getting it. If you get it, I can go home. Doesn’t that sound so much better?

«Excuse me everybody, I just need to go have a seat». God loves you and he’s got a good plan for your life and don’t you ever forget this, Jesus came that we might have and enjoy our lives. And the last thing he said, well, I don’t know if it was the last thing he said, but it was said close to his suffering. In the garden he said, «My peace I leave with you. Not as the world gives do I give unto you, but my [own] Special peace I now give and bequeath unto you», his part, he’s done. So, «[stop allowing yourselves to be upset and disturbed: and stop allowing yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and upset]».

John 14:27, Amplified classic. So, he has a part and we have a part and it’s always that way. God will always do his part, but he won’t do our part. And we can’t do his part. When you start trying to do that, you really make yourself miserable. So, I just want all of you to take a look at your life. Write down everything you’re doing and then ask yourself why you’re doing each one of them. 'cause half the stuff you’re doing, you hate. You don’t even wanna do it. Don’t like it. And so, why are you doing it? «Well, I didn’t wanna make aunt Susie mad».

Some people even stay in churches where they’re not learning or getting anything 'cause they don’t wanna make grandma mad. Some people do things for wrong motives. They’re not doing 'em just because they really believe God directed them to do it, or, to love God, they’re doing it because, I don’t know, they want to or they wanna be in with the right crowd of people or whatever the case may be. Let me tell you somethin', and I’m just about done. Slow down. People say all the time, I’m gonna write a book on this, too. «Where did the time go»? Ever say that? «I can’t believe», I mean, pastor doesn’t believe it’s August. He thought it was April. He sure don’t know where the time went. But we say that all the time.

«I can’t believe it’s almost September». And you know why? Because we live life too fast and we don’t, half the time, even know what we’re doing. It’s like we’re doing everything so fast and we’re trying to do so much and keep up with everybody. Are we really enjoying it? You know, God created (blah, blah, blah, blah) and then he sat back and looked at it and said, «This is good». Everything he created, he sat back and he enjoyed it for a little bit. «Ahh, this is good». And you need to do that. You need to take time to just sit back. I mean, if you have a lovely house, I have a lovely home, and sometimes I just like to walk through it and say, «Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord». Amen?

Father, I pray in Jesus' name that everybody here gets this, not just in their head, but let it fall from their head to their heart and become Revelation and let 'em learn how to take a seat anytime they need to, learn how to rest in you and not let all not be led around by emotions and thoughts and stubbornness. Father, I believe that decisions are being made here today and that people are gonna enjoy their lives so much more in Jesus' name.