Seasons In Life-FULL SERMON | Joyce Meyer
Discover how to navigate the changing seasons of life with wisdom and grace in this insightful talk by Joyce Meyer. Learn how to let go of what God is finished with and embrace new directions, even when change feels uncomfortable. Gain practical advice on trusting God’s timing and finding peace in every season. – – – – – – – Follow Joyce: WEBSITE: https://joycemeyer.org FACEBOOK: / joycemeyerministries INSTAGRAM: / joycemeyer X (Formerly Twitter): https://www.x.com/JoyceMeyer/ – – – – – – – Joyce Meyer, one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers and New York Times best-selling author, shares encouragement and advice to help us enjoy our daily lives. With a heart to share Christ and love people, Joyce’s messages help people in all walks of life to grow in their faith, learn to study the Bible, find healing from the wounds of life, get answers to life’s questions and encounter the love of God in a powerful way. #JoyceMeyer#EnjoyingEverydayLife
[Music] I want to talk to you this afternoon about the different seasons in our lives and how to discern when a season in your life is changing you know there’s there’s nothing worse than hanging on to something that God’s done with amen and and you know just because you’ve done something for 10 years or 20 years and it’s been God the whole time that doesn’t mean that God can’t suddenly get done with it and want you to go in a different direction and um so I’m just going to tell you a story and maybe help you understand a little bit about what you can watch for when it’s time for a change in your life first of all let me say when something is changing in your life when it’s obvious that there’s a change maybe there’s a change at your workplace and there’s nothing you can do about it you don’t like it but they’re changing something and it’s going to affect you and you can either sit there and be unhappy or you can go along with the change well I heard this one time and I think it’s very good when something is changing the first thing you need to do is change your your mind about the change see because if you’re like I don’t like this and I’m not going to be happy with this if it’s going to change anyway then you might as well change your mind and say I I can get used to this it it’s going to be okay you know things are changing in our lives all the time I mean there’s how many of you have had really good relationships at some point had a friend that you saw a lot for maybe 10 15 20 years and now you don’t ever see them see even people there’s certain people that are right for our lives in certain seasons and it doesn’t mean it’s bad when they’re no longer in your life it’s just time for a new season you know maybe sometimes you’ve been helping somebody for a long long time and that’s over God doesn’t want you helping them anymore he wants them to stand on their own two feet we had that situation with my brother he lived with us for about four years and we got him all nice and healthy and he got off of drugs he was addicted to and got his life straightened out and was working for the ministry and my brother was the kind of guy that he did every he did okay as long as somebody was kind of making him do what was right watching over him but he didn’t do too good when he was on his own well he was a grown man and to be honest I didn’t want to take care of him the rest of my life I didn’t didn’t think that was would even be good for him and so the time came when it was time to stop helping him and that’s hard to do sometimes and to be honest he didn’t do very well when we stopped helping him but I couldn’t just keep taking care of him his whole life just so you know you you can’t give your whole life up to help somebody else stand on their two feet who won’t do their part God wants us to help people but he never wants us to do so much far somebody else that they never end up having to do anything for themselves amen and there’s a lot that I can say about Seasons but I I’m trusting God to pick out some bullet point things that maybe some people here really really need today even your own kids you know things have to change with your children you you go through a period of time where you’re telling them everything and then you go for a period of time where they don’t want you telling them anything and the time will come when you will have to disengage from trying to tell your kids what to do all the time and don’t give them advice unless they ask you for it because they don’t want it if they don’t ask for it and so you have one type of relationship with your kids when they’re little and at home a different type when they become teenagers you have to gradually turn decision making power over to them in their own lives and you let it go a little bit of time a little bit of time I want to encourage you today and this may sound odd at first but don’t be the kind of parent that your children are your whole life [Applause] you know why because someday they’re going to leave and go about having their own life and if you have put everything into them nothing into your marriage nothing into developing any other kind of relationships or interests or Hobbies you are going to be very sad and may even get mad at them for leaving me when it’s a natural thing you’ll leave your father and mother and cleave until your wife now we have very good relationships with our four children and I’m particularly really close to them and I either see or talk to every one of them almost every day I feel like mine never left home but they two of them live within well one of them lives within one minute of me and the other one another one lives within three 3 minutes of me and the other two are about 15 20 minutes away our sons work for us and so we we came out of it good but you know I had to I had to make some changes and I had to make some adjustments as far as letting my kids live their own lives and not trying to tell them what to do all the time and if you have multiple children you will even have different relationships with each one of them come on and you have to let each one of them be who they are and you have to meet them where they’re at and not expect every one of them to be like you are no no you know Paul said I love this that the Apostle Paul said he said I’ve learned to be all things to all people whatever it takes to win them so Paul had the ability to kind of quickly locate what a person needed or kind of where they were coming from in life and he instead of expecting them to adapt to him all the time he was spiritually mature enough to be the one who adapted and tried to meet them where they were at like one of my children might want my advice on everything and then another one might not want my advice on anything so I’ve learned to not bother they’re trying to give my advice to the one that’s going to be offended by it and one I can say anything and they’ll say no I don’t want to do that or yeah I think that’s good and that’s fine we don’t have we don’t have any problems and so um just make sure you realize that whatever kind of relationship you have with your children now it’s going to change as time goes by and you got to have something in your life besides just your kids don’t be one of those people that mourn for five years with the empty nest syndrome you know be at a point where when it’s time for your kids to go you’re glad it’s like don’t come see me bring the grandbabies but don’t stay long you know what I mean I’m just having fun with you how many of you agree with that it’s not wise to just put everything in one thing and I think even in a marriage I think of course different people are different there are some people that can do every single thing together every day of their life I need a little space and uh Dave needs a little space so after 52 years you get things worked out really good it’s just like I mean I used to get so mad when he’d go out and play golf and now I’m like don’t you want to go play golf in other words if you want to have good relationships with people stop trying to make them be what you want them to be and learn to love who they are amen okay so we had a a couple that lived with us for 18 years they um it was when the ministry was first starting and we didn’t have any money to hire any kind of help and the ministry was still in the basement of our home then and um this couple God put it on their heart and he put it on our heart to ask them to come and work with us and help us and it would have been a volunteer position at first and so we asked them to meet us for dinner and when we asked them how they’d feel about getting involved in helping us they said God already put it on our heart we’re ready and so you see when something is right you don’t have to try to make somebody do something God will prepare everybody’s heart and it will be an easy smooth transition well they started by just coming out to our house almost every night and they’ do laundry or this or that or whatever needed to be done which left me free to study and yeah I mean I teach a lot now but I mean I used to be like almost like a crazy person I mean I would teach 20 25 times a month and every message was different and if I wasn’t preaching I was studying to preach or putting together messages or writing a book and so I didn’t have time to do much else and so as the ministry grew they spent more and more time with us and then as we started to travel they stayed with our kids sometimes we’d be gone overnight or on the weekend and so 18 years they lived with us and they did everything with us they went out to eat with us everything and it was just wonderful we never had a problem never had arguments never had issues between us we just loved them they loved us it was perfect situation and then the season was up and it was the hardest thing because all of a sudden just them being there annoyed me and then I would get mad at myself because I felt that way because I didn’t understand why I felt that way how many of you know sometimes things are changing and your feelings change and you just don’t understand why you feel that way and you even think well it’s me something’s wrong with me and I mean I went through everything from thinking I wasn’t a loving person to I wasn’t appreciative and all these different things well it took a lot longer than it should have for us to make the change but two years and finally all four of us got it it was time for a change yes sir and and we’re still friends today we love them they love us but we used to see them every day of our life for 18 years and now we see them maybe five times a year something like that but you know we’ve got a relationship with deep roots we would do anything for them if they ever needed help they would do anything for us but you have to be willing to let things change now I’m going to make a statement that has really impacted my life in the last couple of years and I hope that it will mean something to you only a fool thinks he can always do what he’s always [Applause] done only a fool thinks he can always do what he’s always done let me tell you something you’re aging from the moment you’re born you’re aging now I asked my trainer I have a trainer that works with Me 3 days a week with weights and um I asked him I’m 76 now and I said okay uh if I keep this up three days a week I’ve been working out like that for like 13 years I said if I keep this up uh when I’m 90 will I still be able to do exactly what I’m doing right now and he said no I kind of like well how do you know you know and uh he said no simply because he said you’ll still be able to work out but he said you won’t be lifting as heavy of Weights as you do now you might not do quite as many reps he said because you’re aging and by the time you’re 90 no matter how good a care you take of yourself you’re not going to be as strong as you are right now so I asked him the other day I said how about 80 can I still you know and he said yeah 4 years from now you’ll probably still be able to do pretty much you know what what you’re doing now and I’m part of the reason why I’m doing these physical things is to keep myself in shape if if you want to keep moving then you got to keep moving you know you can’t just go sit down somewhere and expect to feel like doing things 5 or 10 years from now be as active as you can as long long as you can without hurting yourself and you can be around for a long time doing lots of things old is a mindset aging is a fact of life we’re all getting older all the time and you will get to the point where there’s some things that doesn’t interest you anymore are some things you used to really love to do now you don’t want to do and we have to not be afraid to let things change in our life because that is actually the natural cycle of life change is natural it’s normal and if you are resistant to change how many of you don’t like change well too bad because it’s going to happen and to be honest I mean some changes I don’t like but I don’t mind change because I think it’s what keeps life interesting you know if everything is the same same same old same old same all forever and ever it gets kind of kind of tiresome and so one of the ways you can tell when God is wanting to change something is you just you just won’t like it anymore it’s just like it doesn’t fit anymore it’s just not right and I don’t suggest that every time you don’t like something that you think you need to go do something totally different you might not like your job one day that doesn’t mean you need to quit and go get another job but if it persists over a period of time then you need to start asking yourself is it time for a change and sometime you don’t even have to have a reason for why it should change sometimes we just need to change sometimes we just need to do something different or sometimes we don’t have any idea why God wants us to leave one place and go to another place but maybe you know maybe you’re in a church you’ve been in for X number of years of your life and May maybe maybe you know too much to stay in that same place anymore maybe you need to go somewhere where people don’t know as much as you know and God might want to be able to use you there where where you’re at right now he doesn’t need you hello I worked at a church for 5 years and God started dealing with me that it was time to leave only I didn’t know that was what he was up to and I just started getting un happy I didn’t I just didn’t like it anymore I just didn’t want to go I dreaded going and I worked there and I things that I used to love like staff meetings and things like that I dreaded them couldn’t wait from to get over with didn’t didn’t didn’t realize what God was up to you know you always start by thinking something must be wrong with me what’s wrong with me and one Tuesday night I went to church we had Church on Tuesday night I was sitting in my seat on the front row and I heard God say just as plainly what are you doing here and I thought well I’m in church it’s Tuesday night and you know the next thing I heard I don’t need you here anymore he needed me somewhere else and see we need to be now listen what I’m going to say we need to be where God needs us not where we want to be you are you there we need to be where God needs us not where we want to be maybe you’re at a job and you’re the only believer there and you don’t necessarily want to be there but God needs you there have you asked God to use you uh-huh well what if he’s trying to but you don’t particularly like the place he’s decided to use you you know if you’re the only Christian in a place you shouldn’t Grumble about that you might be the only hope of ever seeing Jesus amen and I don’t you know you can be somewhere that is not particularly thrilling to you and still have a peace about being there and know it’s the place that you’re supposed to be you might be in a difficult marriage and still know that it’s where you’re supposed to be and I believe if you’re where you’re supposed to be that God can give you the ability to enjoy your life right in the middle of something that would drive most people crazy hello come on this is good so the Bible pretty much says there’s a season for everything and so I’m going to read very quickly some stuff in Ecclesiastes that we’re all you know pretty used to but but Ecclesiastes 3 beginning in verse one and I’m not going to read every word of this I’m going to skip through it pretty quick there’s a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens a time to be born a time to die a time to plant and a time to uproot A Time to Kill and a time to heal a time to tear down a time to build up a time to weep A Time To Laugh A Time to mourn a time to dance a time to scatter Stones a time to gather Stones a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing a time to search and a time to give up I thought that was an interesting one a time to keep and a time to throw away H we got to stop there for a minute a time to keep and a time to throw away this the word in due season somebody needs to go home and have a throwing away party come on how many of your junk collectors you just keep everything you can get your hands on well I’ll throw away anything I can get my I don’t throw it away I give it to somebody send it to some needy place my husband on the other hand he likes to collect stuff Everything Is Beautiful in its time but out of season it can just be an absolute mess there’s a right time and a wrong time for every matter Under the Sun and when we mature enough to be able to discern the seasons it’s a very good thing in our life how many of you have a difficult time letting go of things see I feel for you I I’m not well some things I’m worse at than others you know now that I’ve aged a little I haven’t gotten older but now that I’ve aged a little I’ve had to let go of some things at the office things that you know to be honest technology is so far ahead of me now that I’d be dumb not to let some of the younger people handle it because I don’t understand it don’t want to understand it don’t have any interest in learning it it’s just I’d much rather pay somebody to do it for me here my phone’s not working thank you my computer don’t work thank you can you just come over and do that for me thank you so but I’ve had to even in the last couple of years make some big changes like you you may notice that I have somebody helping me a little bit here now Pastor Mike sometimes Ginger does it and uh you know it was just time for me to stop doing everything sometimes you just can’t do everything or you get to the point where you can’t do any of it well and I was just tired and I have a right to be tired because been doing this for a long long long long time and I kept it up so long trying to keep keep doing everything you know cuz everybody had well you know it’s better if you do it and if do it you know so I kept trying to do it and I finally made myself sick and I didn’t have any choice sometimes you won’t change unless you come to a crisis point in your life and that crisis forces you to change but hopefully we’ll get smart enough to recognize the signs and make the changes while we can still make them because we choose to and not make them because we’re forced to and have no choice amen how many of you don’t get enough sleep you know what the answer is to that go to bed I mean to be honest a lot of our problems would not be that hard to solve well I know I should go to bed but I know I should drink more water but I know I should start saving some money for when I retire but I know I should mind my own business but I probably shouldn’t say this but come on we need to get the Bucks out of our life and start just doing what we know that we should do let’s just make a decision here today that we’re going to get a lot better at letting things go so God can Usher in the new thing that he has for us it doesn’t really make any sense to try to keep hanging on to something that God’s done with because once God’s finished with it you’re never going to enjoy it right amen am God’s even shown me about giving things away that one CE he asked me to give something away if I keep it after that there’s no longer any anointing on it for me to enjoy it I may keep it and look at it but I won’t enjoy it because it doesn’t belong to me anymore God’s already said give it rushing through one season to get to the next one causes problems too maybe you’re in a waiting season you’re tired of waiting so you’re going to do something about it or maybe you are at a job that you don’t like and you’re just tired of waiting on God so you just decide you’re going to quit anyway you know a lot of times we just get tired of waiting and we just go make decisions that are foolish you need to stay put until God releases you and when God releases you then you need to go I had a job one time in Ministry and I wasn’t being treated properly and I wanted so bad to get out of there and go do my own thing but I knew in the depths of my heart God did not want me to go yet because he had not released me well by the time God told me to go I’d gotten to the point where I liked it and then I didn’t want to go so you don’t always get to do what you want to now here’s an example about rushing through seasons one year in Missouri we had a very warm winter well during the winter we thought it was great this was cool man it’s not even cold this winter we’re this it’s almost like not even having winter and we thought it was all great until we discovered in the spring that it never got cold enough to kill the bugs so we had bugs bugs bugs and more bugs that spring and we had an epidemic of ladybugs and we we had lady but you know like how Pharaoh had frogs in his driveway frogs in his ovens frogs in his bed well we had ladybugs everywhere I’m not exaggerating to say we had hundreds of ladybugs in our house and you know sinus and allergy sufferers didn’t like it because it never got cold enough to kill off the stuff that bugged them in the spring so it may seem like fun to be able to skip through one season and get to the other one but a lot of people for example they want to skip through the season where God deals with us and chastises us and changes things in us and they want to go straight from being born again to you know some great big thing in their life but they you know you can have Charisma that will get you somewhere but not enough character to keep you there once you get there come on you want me to say it again [Applause] you know when I was teaching 20 people in my living room floor I could preach then just like I do now and I used to watch people on television preachers on television and I remember thinking well I don’t know why God’s Got Me stuck in my living room I can preach better than that well that was why I was stuck in my living room it wasn’t that I couldn’t preach but I had an attitude come on I’m talking to you you know you may sit out there and think well I I applied for a job on the worship team and they didn’t hire me and I can sing better than anybody up there well until you lose that attitude you’ll keep sitting right where you’re sitting because God is much more concerned about our attitude and our character than he is what we can do to impress [Applause] people so a lot lot of times if you know that you’re real gifted and you don’t understand why God’s not using you maybe you better do a character check ask yourself how do I treat people how am I when it comes to criticizing and judging other people you know those are the things that are important to God man looks on the outside but God looks at the heart amen God sees our heart and that’s why sometimes God will use somebody that you can’t figure out why in the world he would be using them because the package doesn’t look too impressive but God knows they’ve got a heart of gold we need to pay more attention to our inner life than our outer life listen if we spend as much time getting spiritually ready to go out as we do changing our clothes five times and putting on a pound of make [Applause] makeup you know it takes me about 45 minutes in the morning to get it looking from the way it was when I got it out of bed to to now well thankfully I did learn a long time ago I spend usually a couple hours with God before I ever get around to trying to dress this thing up but there were years in my life when I didn’t do that and you know I might have put make up on it and made it look good but it was ugly to God because of the way I acted [Applause] hello no matter how pretty somebody thinks you are at work God looks at our attitude our character how we treat people how we talk to people how we talk about people and you will have seasons in your life where God just turns you Every Which Way but Loose [Music] [Applause] seasons of chastisement seasons of nothing going your way just to see how you’ll act plowing up the fow ground there’s plowing seasons in our life just imagine if you were a field full of dirt that had never been plowed and all of a sudden a farmer brought in a plow and started going through that field and plowing it up if you could feel it wouldn’t feel very good and the F ground in our life the hard rocky soil in our in our life has to also be plowed up how many of you want God to use you okay well here’s the thing there’s a lot of stuff God has to do to you before he can do very much through you amen [Applause] oh my Lord if I could even begin to explain to you what all I had to go through to be standing where I’m standing today oh my gosh so I had such a bad attitude from the way I’d been treated I felt sorry for myself I had a chip on my shoulder the world owed me I was rebellious especially toward any kind of male Authority and God just kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and you know what I didn’t understand why God wasn’t turning me loose on the world and I look back now and I am so glad so glad that God made me wait I am so glad that he didn’t let me get into a position where I would have made a complete fool out of myself and brought shame to his name don’t be in such a hurry to to get where you’re going take the time to let God do what he needs to do in you and when the time is right he will be able to do something through you but your spiritual maturity is much more important than standing on a platform somewhere sharing your gift amen the plowing season Once you put your hand to the plow the Bible says Don’t Look Back Luke 9 62 Jesus said to him no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom when you’re working hard don’t think about how hard it is think about the Harvest amen when you’re going through things that are hard don’t just oh this is so hard I don’t know if I can take this I I’m going to quit God I’m going to give up if this doesn’t stop if I don’t get a breakthrough today God I just can’t go on Lord if Joyce doesn’t call me out and give me a word I don’t think I can stay saved well I I’ve got a word for everybody in the building today grow up and I say that to myself too I never say anything to you though that God hasn’t said to me you can be sure of that amen the Bible says that we’re to plow in hope you know what hope is Hope is an expectation that something good is about to happen at any minute I love that you we should live with that kind of expectation and when things are hard in our life we need to go through it with hope not a bad attitude we need to say this is going to work out for good this is happening for a reason yeah I need this I may not feel like I need it but God’s going to work it out for my good this is going to help me grow up this is going to help me mature I’m getting experience that I can use later on in life amen you know there’s nothing that trumps experience you know one of the reasons why you believe what I say is because you know that I’ve been through what I’m talking to you about I didn’t just go buy a Dollar sermon book and make all these messages up I’ve I’ve lived this stuff and when I tell you that God will work everything out for your good if you trust him I know from experience that God will work everything out for good if you trust him to do it when I tell you that if you won’t quit and you won’t give up your time of harvest will come I can promise you that your time of harvest will come and while you’re plowing you can plow in Hope 1 Corinthians 9:10 does he not certainly speak for our sake it was written for our sake because the plowman should plow in Hope and the thresher should thresh in Hope of sharing in the crop I love that fou ground has to be plowed up and when it’s being plowed up it’s not that much fun it’s difficult learning how to obey God is difficult but once you learn how to prompt and quickly obey God life gets sweet sweet know the answer to every problem is find out what God’s saying and do it Hosea 10:12 seow for yourselves righteousness reap steadfast love break up your fow ground for it is time to seek the Lord that he may come and Reign righteousness upon you that means get prepared for blessings maybe right now your fow ground is uh you’re angry at somebody and you just won’t let it go I wonder how many people there are in here today that need to forgive [Applause] somebody okay let let me tell you something the biggest problem that we have as believers is unforgiveness staying offended being mad at people I mean it is the number one problem in the church if we would all learn how to forgive quickly as Christ forgives us come [Applause] on what would happen in the world if Christians actually started to love each other wow imagine that then our bumper sticker might mean something to somebody but as long as all we’ve got is a bunch of stuff hanging all over us that says I’m a Christian I’m a Christian all we do is get watched so if you’re going to put bumper sticker on your car you better not break the speed limit and and cuss at people come on you know you may not like everything I say but you won’t be [Applause] confused come on let’s Camp here for a minute it’s time to forgive it’s time to let it go it’s time to get over it and get on with your life well you don’t know what they did to me no I don’t know what’s been done to you but I do know what was done to me and I know what’s been done to a lot of other people and I also know what we’ve done to [Applause] Jesus there’s no reason for anybody you cannot find an excuse good enough to hang on to anger come on you can’t find excuse well you just don’t know but you see it’s not that what happened to you is not important but here’s the thing when you forgive you’re not doing your enemy a favor you’re helping yourself you I wrote a book on forgiveness and I called it do yourself a favor and forgive we’re helping ourselves when we obey God everything that God tells us to do you say but I just can’t get over it okay maybe you can’t get over the feelings right away but I’ll tell you what will happen if you’ll start to do what God tells you to do you start praying for the people that you’re mad at and see how long you can hate them come on you start praying for them every day you pray for them to be blessed you pray for God to bless them and if an opportunity comes along and there’s something they need and you can meet that need you go meet that need even if it gives your flesh the creepy crawlies you go and do it cuz that’s exactly how you break the power of Satan off of your life when you start acting like [Applause] Jesus amen come on if you’re the pastor of a local church and somebody that you’ve nurtured up in the Lord and been like a son to you in the Lord he takes half your congregation and moves down the street buy him a new sound system come on you can’t you can’t love never fails hatred resentment bitterness always fail but love never fails God has given us a weapon like no other weapon and it’s the Warfare of [Applause] love and not only that it’s just flat out fun it’s just fun to make the devil mad and have him have to sit around and watch you love somebody that’s mistreated you woohoo what season are you in now or is God dealing with you about being less selfish no answers okay um how about being more disciplined how about getting out of [Applause] debt well then you got to quit flipping plastic everywhere you go it’s so much fun to say put it on my account but the bill comes amen how about God been dealing with anybody about it’s time to get healthy time to start taking care of yourself how many of you God is dealing with you to stop eating junk all the time so don’t F the seasons of your life and remember that don’t ever think that you can always do what you’ve always done because things are going to have to change and when they do don’t fight it it just makes you miserable if you fight it so tonight I’m going to teach on embracing each season of your life every season of your life I don’t know about you but I want to love my life mean if I’m going to be alive and breathe I want to love it I want every day to be I I want to love it and uh I don’t want to just you can’t just love parts of it you can’t love your life and just love parts of it you got to learn how to embrace it all and the only way that we can ever Embrace things that are painful or seem unjust or unfair or that we don’t like is if we learn some secrets that the Apostle Paul talked about he said I’ve learned the secret I’ve learned it’s a learning process I’ve learned the secret of being content and to be content doesn’t mean you never want change of course we all have things in our life that we don’t like that aren’t fair that aren’t right and we want to see them change but we can still be content and we can still have joy while God is working on those circumstances and situations and I’m going to say something if we really trust God I mean if we really trust God then we will be able to do that so we have to learn how to embrace not just the good things but even the painful things the unfair things and I’m going to share with you tonight some of the secrets of how you can do that some of the things you’re going to know I’m just going to remind you first of all I want to say let’s get the words I hate out of our language I hate to drive in traffic I hate to do the laundry I hate to cut the grass I hate to clean the house I hate my job I hate the way I look how can we ever expect to have a life that we love if we’re going to hate everything that’s a nasty word I don’t even like that word I don’t want to hate stuff so I started forming a habit several months ago of saying sometimes I say it more than once a day I love my life I love God I love myself I love my family I love the work I do in Ministry I just love life and so I want to encourage you to maybe take my practice and start doing that too Genesis 8:22 while the Earth remains there will be seed time and harvest cold and heat summer and winter day and night shall not cease well I don’t know about you but I would much rather have Harvest than seed time cuz when when it’s seed time you’re giving up something when it’s Harvest you’re getting something so I like Harvest cold and heat now different people are different but I prefer heat over cold summer and winter I like summer better than winter and day and night I like day probably better than night and so those are my preferences but I don’t get one without the other and somehow or another by the grace of God I I hope that he uses me to get across tonight that if you keep thinking the only way you can ever be content and happy is When Everything feels good and is the way you want it to be then I mean you are just really in for a rough ride I know because I tried that for a long time I mean you know I come to you now after 41 years of teaching the word and I’m not coming to you with just something I got out of a book I mean I’ve lived this stuff and I started out a real mess and very unhappy and I mean probably just about any kind of problem you’ve got here tonight I had it and I’m really not exaggerating I mean I was a mess I was abused by my dad abandoned by my mother married the first guy that came along he mistreated me so I know what it’s like to have a life that’s all messed up but I know that I know that I know that the word of God works if you work the word but it’s so important for all of us to understand that it’s not just hearing the word that changes Our Lives it’s doing the word that changes Our Lives you can even have most of the Bible memorized and that in itself won’t change your life if you’re not willing to go out and do what you hear amen so I think it’s time to get about some doing I want stability in my life and I finally have it Dave said to me I mean when we first got married I was so up and down emotionally and just all over the place bad mood good mood rarely mostly bad moods and he didn’t he didn’t say this to me at the time but years later after I got better he said you know I used to drive home from work at night and think I wonder what she’ll be like tonight you know that’s that’s not a good way for anybody to have to live and so just loving on you tonight just want to say that if you’re not a very stable person if you’re kind of up and down and your circumstances are up you’re okay and when they’re not you bought them out why don’t you make tonight a time where you make a decision that you’re really going to start letting God into your life in those areas and really let him help you and teach you how you can learn to really love the life that you have you know wishing is useless word’s not in the Bible there’s no chapter on wishing there’s no scripture on wishing you know lazy people wish but determined people go to work and they get it done well I wish I could lose 20 lbs well I wish I was out of debt I wish my house was clean I wish I had your life well I wish I had a Ministry like Joyce’s I didn’t get it wishing I can tell you that amen there’s always seasons of waiting and seasons of harvest there’s seasons of testing and seasons of breakthrough how many of you love to hear a good testimony you know what at lunch today we had lunch with pastor and his wife and couple of other Ministry people here in town and somehow or another it kind of got into testimony time and different ones were just talking about I mean some real amazing things that had happened in their life but you know what every one of those amazing breakthroughs came after a very difficult time that was painful you can’t have a testimony without a test and the thing we want to be careful of is that after the test we don’t only have the Moonies and no testimony is that funny I think that’s funny Song of Solomon 2 for behold the winter is passed the rain is over and gone somebody say hallelujah hallelujah the flowers appear on the earth the time of the singing of birds have come and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land I want to ask you a question are you in a winter right now in your life you know things are kind of gloomy Bleak cold no growth lots of need same old same old same old well can I tell you something spring is right around the corner I tell you what don’t ever let the devil steal your hope I mean hope is the most powerful motivator when you continue to have hope the devil cannot defeat you and the word hope just simply means that you’re expecting something good to happen at any moment I’m expecting something good to happen at any moment you say well I’m sick today we’ll expect to be well tomorrow and if tomorrow you’re not well then expect to be well the next day he said well that’s easy for you to say you don’t feel bad well you don’t know how I feel I’ll tell you about my year so far how’s that first of all October 31st I had my other hip replaced I had this one done two years ago so I now have two bionic hips so watch out and um so you know I mean I did great I was doing great but it’s still a recovery process you got to go through you got all the rehab got pain you got the stiffness you got the swelling all that stuff so I’m 6 weeks into recovery things are starting to get pretty good and on December the 24th I got what appeared to be a sore throat and a cold I had it for seven weeks seven weeks now in the midst of that I had to go to Thailand so I spent 39 hours on an airplane now I did get I I actually thought I was getting well then I got back home and got it again and I think one of the things that was happening was my body was already weak from the surgery so when that hit then that made it hard then I was starting to get well then I did the overseas trip and that weakened me again you know on and on and on but it was hard not to get discouraged and you know one of the things that the enemy tries to tell us and I’ll bring this out a little bit more tomorrow when you have something going on in your life you’ll hear all the time this is never going to end and some of you in a place right now in your life where the you just kind of been feeling like this is never going to end and so then we start this well I just don’t think I can stand this I don’t know how how long I can put up with this we need to replace all that gloomy conversation with I can do all things through Christ who is my [Applause] strength and so what I did what I did during those seven weeks and I’ll tell you I felt really bad a lot of days like really bad and and more so than what I normally would and I just kept saying tomorrow’s going to be better tomorrow’s going to be better God’s healing power is working in me God’s healing power is working then I had to take two rounds of antibiotics then the antibiotics got my stomach messed up so then I had to take some stomach medicine so it’s it’s just been fun but you know what I’m well and I’m Healed for [Applause] Phoenix now I’m kind of not real happy that my off time was like that and I don’t not going to say that I had a great explanation for it but you know I found out in my life sometimes God will let me go through things just so I’ve got something to tell you guys I believe that I think that sometimes we go through things just so when you tell other people I know how you feel they’re actually going to believe you how can somebody tell you that they know how you feel if they’ve got a great life and there’s never any challenges or problems in it all the time amen all right so spring is coming let’s look at what Paul said in Philippians 411 and 12 it’s too good to just kind of gloss over it he said I’m not implying that I was in any personal want for I have learned boy it took me a long time to learn this how to be content satisfied to the point where I’m not Disturbed or disquieted see I like that it doesn’t mean that you don’t ever want change but you can be satisfied to the point where you’re not upset all the time no matter what state I’m in I know how to be abased and live humbly and straightened circumstances and I also know how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret see we’re telling Secrets Tonight the secret of facing every situation rather wellfed or going hungry having a sufficiency and enough despair are going without and being in want Galatians 6:9 and let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint and acting nobly and doing what is right for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap if we don’t loosen and relax our courage and faint and give up what is due time what is the appointed time that’s an interesting scripture well in due time at the appointed time you can you know when I was real young in Ministry and I was waiting for my Ministry to grow and different breakthroughs you know different people would give me words from the Lord and every once in a while there’d be a Prophet come to the church and lo and behold they’d have a word for me and it was always this scripture be not weary and well-doing for in due season you shall reap if you faint not and the first few times I got excited and then I realized I didn’t know any more than I did before because when is the appointed time it’s when God is ready and it’s when God knows that we’re ready and not only that I want you to listen to me whatever it is that you’re believing God for if involves other people sometimes you’re ready but they’re not and you have to wait on them when I was waiting for certain things to happen in our ministry I remember telling God one time God I know I’m ready I know I’m ready he said yes you are but some of the people that you need to work with you are not sometimes you just got to wait on somebody [Applause] else but while we’re waiting what what are we supposed to do be patient don’t you just love that word I told Dave the other day I said okay I’ve just decided that I’m probably never going to be like a totally patient person and so I’ve just decided to embrace that weakness and just take it right on into Glory with me now I’m I’m I’m I don’t get too we doubt about having to wait on God but when I’ve got a goal I’m so goal oriented and I tell you what when I’ve got my headset like I get up in the morning and I’m going to work out and I’m going to walk and I’m going to do this I’m going to get dressed and I’m going to eat a bite and I’m going to get to the office by such and such a time if people start annoying me with silly stuff and my husband loves to aggravate me and so and he knows how I am so he’ll say come and give me a hug well to be honest when I’m in that kind of a mood I don’t even want to hug just I mean just to be downright honest it’s like a hug is not in my schedule for that morning but you know you can’t tell your husband you don’t want a hug so I go over and I get a hug and he knows that I want to get going and he’ll hold me while I’m doing something I’m already like mentally on to the next thing and some of it can get kind of dangerous sometimes the other day I got off the treadmill and left it running and went upstairs I was done I didn’t bother to turn the thing off I kept hearing this noise and I went yeah it was still just going it’s a good thing I heard it the motor would have burned up anyway see we’ve all got our stuff you pray for me okay Ecclesiastes 3 I’m not going to read the whole thing but I do want to read part of it verses 1 through 4 to everything there’s a season and a time for every matter of purpose under Heaven a time to be born a time to die a time to plant a time to pluck up what is planted A Time to Kill a time to heal a time to break down a time to build up a time to weep A Time To Laugh A Time to mourn and a time to dance and then talks about a lot of other things but verse 11 says he has made everything beautiful in its time you know even death is beautiful if it’s in the timing of the Lord amen and you know I I’ve told God man I I want to I want to do good at this getting older thing I don’t want to be some grouchy old lady that you know and I want to die well when I go I I want to I want to do it right I want to I want to go out good you know I think we ought to do everything everything that we do the best way that we possibly can do it and how many of you do not like change well you better just change your mind here tonight because I can tell you that things are always changing always my dentist decided to retire last week he didn’t even tell me he didn’t even tell the people that work for him he just decided that he was going to retire and he told him like kind of on the last day well I just I was like and Dave’s like oh you’re going to love the new guy I’m like how do you know I’m going to love the new guy I like the old guy I couldn’t do nothing about it if he decides to retire there’s nothing I can do about it you know you look in the mirror and you got a I’ve tried to stretch them out got pounds of lotion in there and all kinds of stuff and you know what you just are going to get older that’s all there is to it one day I looked at myself in the mirror and I noticed that a lot of stuff that used to be up here was down here now come on people around you change and you can’t sometimes it’s for the better but sometimes it’s not I’ve been friends with some people I mean I’m thinking a one relationship now I was good friend good friends with somebody for like 15 years now the person’s not even in my life anymore and it’s not bad it’s just that season was over in my life and so here’s the thing if we try to keep hanging on something when God is finished with it come I just say this to every section if we keep trying to hang on to something when God is finished with it there’s no point in continuing to try to hang on to something that God’s done with and there’s no anointing on anymore because all it’s going to do is keep you from the next great thing and probably even the next greater thing that God has for you I feel real strongly tonight to tell you guys spring is right around the corner come on don’t give up and don’t be afraid of change and don’t keep trying to hang on to something that’s just not working anymore trust God for something better he’s made everything beautiful at its time I love that every season of our life is part of the whole and it should be embraced yes even the painful Seasons the more we resist the more it’s going to hurt and the longer it’s going to take all you have to do is think about well I’ll put it like this I watch a show about an emergency team medical team EMTs that go out and they tend all these accident victims and stuff and I was just thinking when I was studying for this one of the first things they tell every victim is now take slow deep breaths relax what do they tell a woman when she’s in labor now breathe relax you know why because the more you fight against any kind of emotional pain or physical pain or whatever it is the more it hurts and you I know some people think well surely you know what’s going on in my life is just demonic and surely you cannot expect me to embrace that I’m not I’m not telling you that you have to love the thing but we do need to learn the secret that God has a purpose in everything he permits in our lives and even though we may never understand it we can trust God that his word is true and he always here comes another secret always works everything out for our good to those who love him and want his will always always always always always my gosh I look back at my childhood and the stuff that I went through and all the problems that caused in my life and for so many years I wish that wouldn’t have happened and I hated what happened to me and hated the people that did it to me all it was doing was just ruining my life and somewhere along the way I came to the point where I thought and you know I guess maybe it sounds goofy I don’t know but I can’t even really say now that I’m sorry it all happened you know why because that is what made me who I am today actually come on how many of you it was your problems that drove you to a relationship with Jesus man then you need to thank God for those problems because the thing that you thought was your greatest enemy became your greatest friend amen and so we just need to trust God in things and let him get us to the point where we have a great testimony that can encourage somebody else in the stuff that they’re going through in life have you been looking looking for a 365-day devotional well look no further than the promises for your everyday life devotional from Joyce Meyer there’s a focus verse for all 365 days of the year along with a prayer starter get your copy of promises for your everyday life devotional at Joy me.org 365 devvo the biggest thing that we need to do is learn how to think like God thinks and the only way you can do that is by knowing the word of God in words to live by Joyce Meyer shares how studying the word of God transformed her life experience a deeper and more meaningful relationship with God through the captivating collection of verses in this beautiful hard cover book by Joyce Meyer discover the transformative power of His word words to live by from Joyce Meer get your YouTube exclusive offer today go to Joyce me.org wordss and the number two have you ever been trapped in a never-ending frenzy where every passing moment feels like a blur leaving you gasping for a chance to pause and catch your breath in her insightful book pursuing peace Joyce Meyer explores the importance of seeking peace at all costs this beautiful hard cover Edition is filled with meaningful scriptures and uplifting quotes from Joyce providing valuable guidance for living a peaceful lifestyle so grab a cup of coffee find a comfortable spot and embark on your journey to find peace remember this limited time YouTube off offer won’t last long go to joy.org pursuit to get your copy today and start your Pursuit Of [Music] Peace the Mind actually is the battlefield that’s where we win or lose the war with Satan he said all he gets to say rest of the day is mine you start asking God to heal you and he will restore is the God of all comfort and I am so grateful that I know how to call on God [Music]