We can be tempted to doubt God’s love for us when we’re going through hard times. But the truth is, God will never fail us! Learn the rewards of staying hopeful and positive on this episode of Enjoying Everyday Life with Joyce Meyer.

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god had the audacity to tell us that

trials actually are good for us and we

should get excited about them

it’s amazing how spiritual we can be

when everything’s good

[Music]

and how we can resurrect that old man

when things aren’t so good

[Music]

this morning i want to talk to you about

not being offended by trouble

[Music]

not being offended at god

because your life hasn’t turned out the

way you thought it should or you had a

rough beginning or

you didn’t get to go to college or you

didn’t get

the raise you wanted or you’ve wanted a

child and you haven’t had one yet or

you’ve been believing to be married for

25 years and you’re still single and

whatever the case might be

trials can make us bitter but they don’t

have to

they can actually turn out to make us

better

because

a lot of the bible that we know is just

theory until we have to put it to

practice in our lives

and when you have to put it to practice

then you really get to know god you

don’t just know about god but you get to

know god in a deeper way than what you

can ever possibly imagine

mark chapter 4 beginning in verse 14

therefore the sower sows the word

the ones along the path are those who

have the word sown in their hearts but

when they hear

satan comes at once

and by force takes away the message

which is sown in them

it’s good to come and hear the word but

it’s even better if you take that word

with you and you keep it in your heart

and you meditate on it and meditate on

it

but it’s very like satan the minute you

leave to throw something at you that’s

going to distract you and get your mind

off of what you just

almost learned

to make sure you don’t really learn it

and begin to apply it to your life

the ones along the path are those who

when they have the word sown in their

heart satan comes at once

satan is alive and well on planet earth

and he’s out there trying to make sure

that we don’t grow spiritually

amen

he’s not happy you’re here but if you’re

going to be here he’d like for you not

to get anything out of it

and they have no real root in themselves

everybody say root

and so they endure for a little while

and then when trouble or persecution

arises on account of the word

they immediately are

what

offended

they become displeased indignant

resentful and they stumble and fall away

now every one of those words are very

interesting words resentment offense

indignant you know

that indignation is just a little wealth

shouldn’t be happening to me why is this

happening to me

it’s amazing how we’re okay if things

are happening to everybody else

they should trust god but just trust god

but when it happens to us

[Applause]

well how

i don’t know why this is happening to me

and what we got to be very careful about

the thing of well god i go to church

every week and i tithe and i pray and i

do this and that can i tell you

something god doesn’t owe us anything

amen

that’s just the truth

if we all got what we deserved we’d be

in serious trouble

and they stumble and they fall away they

stumble

and they fall away you see the

definition of offense

means

that it’s a stumbling block

and it will cause you to fall

away in other words if you get a fence

in your heart then you can no longer

grow spiritually and if you’re not

growing see in god’s kingdom there’s no

such thing as being static you’re either

going forward or you’re going to drift

backwards

you got to keep going forward or you’re

going to drift backwards you’ve got to

use what you’ve learned or pretty soon

it will become dormant on the inside of

you love has to flow in order for it to

really

be love

love comes in from god it’s got to go

out to other people it comes in it’s got

to go out this is an active religion

we’re to participate and be active

the other definition of the word offense

that i read and talked about a lot last

night

very interesting it says it’s the part

of the trap on which the bait hung

that lured the victim the animal victim

into the trap so let me just say that

that offense being offended whether

you’re offended at somebody else or

whether you’re offended by trouble

you’re having or

tonight we’re going to talk about not

offending yourself and that’s going to

be an interesting message for all of us

some of you think what why in the world

would i offend myself

well you gonna find out

resentments makes such bitter

resentment is an inner attitude that

basically says i am offended that this

is happening to me

and who are we offended at well we can

either be offended at god and you know

most people are not going to outright

say i’m mad at god

but i can guarantee you as sweet as you

all are

and as amazing as it is that you wanted

to come to the house of god on a friday

morning

we have

some people

hopefully not many but some people

sitting here today and when this goes on

tv a whole lot more

that are even

using

trouble that you’ve had in your life as

an excuse

not to believe in god

you know the biggest majority of people

that won’t believe they won’t believe

because they can’t

they can’t balance out in their mind

a god who loves us with the suffering

that we see all around the world well

suffering is not god’s fault man did it

not god

god created a world where everything

would be wonderful

didn’t last very long but that was his

goal and desire and he’s in the process

now of trying to

restore that

and so

we’re going to have issues in the world

we’re going to have things that we have

to go through and we can’t be getting

mad at god because everything in our

life doesn’t go the way that that it

should the best time in the world to

trust god is when you have trouble

otherwise it’s just some sermon you hear

a few scriptures you’ve underlined in in

your bible

trust god i’m writing a book right now

and trusting god and i tell you what

after 40 years of being in the word i’m

convinced that that simple little

two-word thing trust god is the answer

to every single problem that you have

everything

everything but in order to do that

you’ve got to believe that god is good

the devil’s bad god’s good

and even if god doesn’t get us out of

something that we know he could get us

out of he lets us stay in it longer than

we think we should

we trust god that he’s got a plan that’s

bigger than ours and that ultimately he

will not only work a good thing in us

but he will bring us to even a better

place in life because we didn’t give up

on him going through problems

[Applause]

don’t get mad at god because he hasn’t

given you a soft cushy

comfortable

sweet

life

now sometimes too i want to talk about

this for a minute

sometimes when we’re having trouble we

kind of get offended at other people who

are being blessed

and we could even get a little

self-righteous attitude well

i’m better christian you are

[Applause]

i mean i i do this and that and you do

blah blah you know self-righteousness is

a sneaky wicked

thing

i actually had to repent twice in the

last two weeks

for being

self-righteous and i just thank god for

his conviction but it was it was over a

situation that

somebody that i know

sinned and it was a pretty serious thing

and

man

i had to sit on myself to not just keep

thinking about all right can you believe

i just can’t believe that i mean i would

never i would never i would never and

boy that’s when you got to back off and

say but for the grace of god there go

out now that doesn’t mean that we don’t

deal with things in people’s lives and

help them come through to repentance and

restoration but we we dare not start

thinking that we’re better than somebody

else and are like in this case of well

why why am i having trouble and you’re

not

you just need to leave all that alone

let me ask you a question how do you

behave when god doesn’t pick you

you wanted to be the worship leader and

you didn’t even get picked as a backup

singer

[Applause]

matter of fact they had the audacity to

ask you

if you’d like to make sure all the

worship people have water

wow

well that’s a test isn’t it

so you can do what get offended

get self-righteous

really hurt yourself spiritually or you

can trust god if this is where you want

me right now god i’m going to serve with

a smile on my face and i know if you

want to put me somewhere else you’re the

only one that can do it in the right

time

let’s think about a few situations in

the bible that just amazed me

you know god made a covenant with a man

named noah

noah built the ark

did everything that god asked him to

do when the earth flooded and it was

time for noah to come out of the ark god

said i’m going to make a covenant with

you this will never happen again in the

earth the whole earth will never be

destroyed again with the flood and i’m

going to set this rainbow this beautiful

rainbow in the sky as a promise to you

that every time it rains you see that

rainbow and you know no need to worry

god’s not going to destroy the earth

well abraham

a few chapters later

he’s a man who makes a covenant with god

god said i’m going to take care of you

i’m going to do this and that

i’m going to make you wealthy and you’re

going to have land and blah blah blah

and

this is what i want you to do is your

part go circumcise yourself

now i don’t know about you but when i

get circumcision and somebody else gets

rainbows i’m not real happy about it

[Applause]

i mean i just say it you know

[Applause]

well

you know

i tell you what

don’t misunderstand this but god hasn’t

been just real easy on me

i mean i don’t just get a bunch of like

miracle deliverances no not me i have to

walk them out

and they used to just aggravate me

because i would see all these other

people well

[Applause]

but i understand fully now why god made

me walk the path that he made me walk

because he wants me to really understand

and relate

experientially to what people are going

through so i can give them hope in their

battles that they’ll make it

so listen to me sometimes god will let

you go through something that doesn’t

make any sense at all to you

expressly for the purpose of using you

in that area to bring other people

through to freedom at a later time in

your life

there’s a lot of stuff in the world that

i don’t understand but i do i’ve made my

mind up to this god is good

and i trust him

god is good

and i’m going to trust him amen

another

example in the bible two sisters rachel

and leah

now rachel was the beautiful

wonderful

desirable

sister

the bible says it real nice it says leah

had dull weak eyes

that basically means that she was the

ugly sister

well

leah got the man

and rachel had to watch for seven years

then rachel got in on it and

jacob buried her too

they got to do multiples back then i for

the life of me can’t imagine why anybody

would want more than one of these

no thank you

[Applause]

and uh

having children was extremely important

to them

rachel’s womb was shut up and she

couldn’t get pregnant but leah just had

one kid after another one after another

one after another one and so by studying

that i kind of learned something

interesting

see

leah wasn’t the most beautiful one

but she got the guy first and she got

the kids

rachel was gorgeous

she got the guy second and finally after

many years of watching leah have babies

she finally had a child

everybody gets something and everybody

doesn’t get something

so you have something that somebody else

doesn’t have so there’s no point in

getting jealous of what they have that

you don’t have because you have

something they don’t have

amen

and i can’t imagine what it was like for

the disciples you know peter james and

john seem to be have a little different

position with jesus

than the rest of the guys

now i don’t know about you but that

would have probably been annoying to me

and

you know those were the three that got

to go up on the mount of transfiguration

and the other guys had to wait at the

bottom of the mountain now i’m quite

sure that those three guys were not so

spiritual

that they came down and just

didn’t want to make the other guys feel

bad so they didn’t say nothing at all

about what they saw i bet they came down

you will not believe

you would not believe what we saw up

there

[Applause]

so can i just tell you if you ever want

to have any peace in your life do not

compare

your blessings or your trials with other

people’s blessings or their trials

hebrews 12 15.

this is a very good scripture that

really shows us the

the problem that resentment can be

if we don’t catch it early

exercise foresight

and be on the watch to look after one

another

to see that no one falls back from and

fails to secure god’s grace

his unmerited favor and spiritual

blessing in order that no

root of resentment

rancor bitterness or hatred shoots forth

and causes trouble and bitter torment

and many become contaminated and defiled

by it

i love that scripture he’s saying look

if if you let

like for example

i was bitter and resentful and had all

kinds of bad attitudes because my father

had sexually abused me

well

a lot of them were just buried down deep

in me and they were affecting my

relationships affecting my attitudes

affecting the way i thought they were

affecting every area of my life but you

see i thought because i left home when i

was 18 that i didn’t have the problem

anymore but the thing was i took the

problem with me in my soul

and so there’s an inner work that needs

to be done in us that only

jesus can do well because i had that

root of resentment in my life that was

affecting my marriage

it was affecting my children it was

affecting all my

relationships it was affecting my daily

life so just like this scripture says if

you don’t get it stopped it’s going to

just spread

and it’s going to affect every area of

your life and some of you if you really

will take to heart what i’m saying this

morning

this can be

life-changing for you

don’t live your life bitter and

resentful and full of hatred and

bitterness over something that happened

to you that you cannot do anything about

but god can if you’ll let him do it

now the bible actually tells us god had

the audacity to tell us that trials

actually are good for us and we should

get excited about them

it’s amazing how spiritual we can be

when everything’s good

and how we can resurrect that old man

when things aren’t so good god wants us

to be stable

stable stable stable

going to talk about stability for a

minute

i was so unstable in the earlier years

of my life

i never knew how i was going to behave

until the devil told me

if he said i was depressed i was

depressed if he said i was mad i was mad

i didn’t know anything at all about

controlling my emotions

i just did whatever i felt like doing

well you know emotions

can be good sometimes but they can

really be dangerous because you never

know

when they’re going to come and when

they’re going to go

and you have to make sure the right ones

are guiding your life

i’m particularly fond of psalm 94 12 and

13. so let’s take a look at that

blessed happy fortunate and to be envied

is the man whom you discipline and

instruct o lord and teach out of your

law okay so this is saying that when god

is disciplining you you are blessed

blessed blessed blessed

that you may give him power to keep

himself calm

in the days of

adversity until the inevitable pit of

corruption is dug

for the wicked

so this is saying god is going to

continue to deal with us and deal with

us and deal with us and deal with us and

part of that means that he is going to

let you get in some uncomfortable

situations that are going to bring

hopefully the best out of you

but

i don’t know where you’re at i mean the

bible says in james 1 that trials bring

out patience well they brought a lot of

stuff out of me before we ever got to

patients

i mean like nasty stuff

and it took about 25 years for me to get

stable

now i don’t know if any of you are as

slow as me

but it took me oh there’s one lady two

got a few out there

you know we’re supposed to have the mind

of christ you’d think we could learn a

little faster than what we do if god

gives you a test and you don’t pass it

you get to take it again

and again and again and again and again

until you pass this

god will keep letting us

deal with stuff and deal with stuff and

deal with stuff and these are not things

that are gonna

they don’t even really

get into the category of real suffering

i mean these are just uncomfortable

irritating

things just stuff things that happen

people say something that hurts our

feelings we didn’t get the promotion we

wanted it work we didn’t get to

sing in the choir you know whatever the

case might be my goodness if we can’t

even deal with that kind of stuff what

are we going to do if things get really

difficult and he said this is going to

keep on

that you

that god would give us power

to keep ourselves calm

in the day of adversity

everybody say i have to learn to keep

myself calm

you didn’t sound excited i’d like you to

do it again

i have to learn to keep myself calm

[Applause]

second timothy chapter four beginning in

verse three these are

awesome scriptures

for the time is coming when people will

not tolerate or endure sound and

wholesome instruction

but having

ears itching for something pleasing

and gratifying they will gather to

themselves one teacher after another to

a considerable number chosen to satisfy

their own liking and to foster the

errors that they hold

verse 4

and they will turn aside from hearing

the truth

and wander off into myths and man-made

fiction

verse 5. but as for you now he’s talking

to timothy who’s a preacher of the word

as for you be calm and cool and steady

and suffer unflinchingly every hardship

do the work of an evangelist fully

perform all the duties of your ministry

now

here it really gets good

verse six paul says for i am already

about to be sacrificed

my life is about to be poured out as a

drink offering the time of my spirit’s

release from the body is at hand and i

will soon be

free

i

well i’m more excited about that than

you are i think but

i mean i get what he’s saying

he’s saying look being here in this

earth in the times we’re living in and

trying to serve god in this fleshly body

it is not always easy

it’s not always comfortable it doesn’t

always feel good but boy the day is

going to come when our job here will be

done and we’ll get a release from this

body and we will be totally and

completely free and can i tell you

something that’s when life

[Applause]

[Music]

begins life isn’t fair but in spite of

that we don’t have to let anger and

unforgiveness destroy our happiness and

relationships

discover the freedom that comes from

forgiveness and how to resolve anger in

a way that’s truly healing with joyce’s

book do yourself a favor forgive

along with the book you’ll also receive

joyce’s four-part audio teaching series

understanding your triggers and avoiding

the trap of offense

you can listen in the joyce meyer

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god’s help you can find true peace and

forgiveness these resources are

available for your gift to the ministry

of thirty dollars or more connect with

us today visit online at joycemeyer.org

or call 1-800-727-9673

[Music]

let me give you a great example of how

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[Music]

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[Music]

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well i have it on my heart today to pray

for those of you who need

guidance you’re in a situation and you

really need god to show you what to do

so let’s pray together and believe that

god is going to speak to you

father you sent the holy spirit

to be our guide

to show us what to do in life

whether to go to the left or the right

or

to say yes to something or no to

something and

you guide us by peace

by wisdom

by your word

and you also speak to us you speak to

our hearts

and i believe that there’s a lot of

people watching today that they really

desperately need an answer

to something but maybe they’ve tried so

hard to get that answer that they’ve now

become so confused that they can’t even

hear you

so i pray that people will

calm down

breathe

rest in you and i’m asking you

to guide them

and show them what they should do in the

situation that they’re in

and i pray that you will give them the

courage and the boldness to believe that

they can hear from you and be led and

guided by you

we don’t have to live in confusion

thank you father for speaking to people

in jesus name amen

all right god bless you you have a great

day and expect to hear from god

we hope you have enjoyed today’s program

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