Staying Strong-FULL SERMON | Joyce Meyer

In this full sermon, “Staying Strong,” Joyce Meyer explores the challenges of anger and its impact on our emotions, spirit, and relationships. Through personal stories and biblical insights, she reveals how unresolved anger can lead to harmful behaviors and provides practical steps to overcome it. Learn how to break free from anger and find healing with God’s help. Discover the resources in this video Strength For Each Day Devotional: https://www.joycemeyer.org/StrengthDevo Strength For Each Day Study (Free) (Available 12/1/24) https://www.joycemeyer.org/StrengthStudy – – – – – – – 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 00:00 Introduction 00:30 Staying Strong Pt 1 09:15 How to have less emergencies 18:30 Facing difficulties 28:19 Anger really weakens you 37:58 God delivers us from our enemies little by little 45:38 Two of the hardest things I faced

it takes effort sometimes it takes

money sometimes it’s

inconvenient but you see we’re very bad

at wanting something over here on this

end but not wanting to do what it takes

to get

[Music]

it okay well I know there’s lots of

things that you can preach when you’ve

been doing it as long as I have when you

go to a place but I never just go to my

little message drawer and pull out a

message and come and show up and speak

it a lot of times I’ll put together

things that are new

and few weeks ago actually I’ve had this

message a couple of months and just

waiting for the right place to preach it

just about the importance of staying

strong just staying strong and I I want

to make a statement here in the

beginning and

I I hope this will mean something to you

most people don’t do their maintenance

and they end up being controlled by

emergencies just think about that they

don’t do their

maintenance so they end up being

controlled by

emergencies I’ll give you a little

example about my dentist

how many of you really aren’t real crazy

about going to the dentist and just

getting your teeth cleaned or just

getting the checkup you know so you just

wait until you have a bad toothache and

then you have to go okay well I was like

that I remember many years ago when we

were first starting the ministry and I

was so busy and just had so much going

on and I never wanted to go to the

dentist to get any kind of checkups and

I had some different issues with my

teeth and so I was somebody who needed

to go and I get a lot of plaque buil up

on my teeth so I need to go and get that

taken care of but I didn’t want to go so

then I’d get a bad toothache and maybe

I’d be going out of town on a conference

and I’d call my dentist and I had an

emergency is there any way you can work

me in so my poor

planning ended up pressuring

him come on

now our poor planning can end up

pressuring somebody else who then we put

in a position of having to take care of

our emergency because we didn’t do what

we should have

done to start with and to be honest

that’s really not walking in

love and so that happened about three

times and then my dentist just said to

me the last time I went in for an

emergency he said I don’t want to be

rude to you but he said if you’re not

going to get your checkups and get your

teeth clean then I’m just going to have

to ask you not to call

me when you have an

emergency and so don’t want to stretch

that story too far but I don’t think it

would be out of line to say that maybe

God is wanting to say that to some of us

today now I’m not saying God won’t help

us when we have an emergency but

sometimes we do have to learn things the

hard way if we won’t learn them the easy

way and so if there’s things that God is

telling you to do telling you to do

telling you to do showing you to do

showing you to do and you keep just not

doing it not doing it not doing it then

maybe when we have an

emergency God might have to just say

well not this

time you need to learn a little

something people don’t like to do

maintenance on their

car they don’t like to do maintenance on

their who wants to change the filter on

your air conditioning he’d rather sit on

the back porch and have a nice

tea I mean who in the world wants to go

get a colonostrophy just to make

sure that later on you don’t have a

problem nobody wants to do that you

know I’m going to tell you something

that I have not thought of for a long

time but maybe this will help

you you know

28 29 years ago it’s been so long and I

forget when it was I had breast cancer

and I ended up having to have a

mastectomy on one side

and three years before that I had gone

to the

doctor for a mamogram which nobody likes

that either and they said they saw a

little

something on the test they weren’t sure

what it was but they highly

recommended that I come back in 3 months

and get it checked again I don’t want to

do

that I’m busy serving God I’m busy in

Ministry so you know what we do a lot of

times is I I’ll just trust God to take

care of

that well can I tell you something

sometimes that’s just an

excuse it has really nothing to do with

real

Faith it’s not even anything God’s

really put in our heart it’s just an

excuse we use to not have to deal with

something so I didn’t do what the doctor

told me to do I waited three

years and when I went back I had breast

cancer now I tell you that because I

believe that God not only uses miracles

to heal us but I think he also uses

wisdom and common

sense I don’t know least that may may be

quiet in here

today it just might be quiet today I’m

dealing with something right now with my

back got some arthritis and each one of

my discs they said one of them is a

bulging disc and so we’re dealing with

that but in the process of looking at my

spine I went to a doctor that does a lot

of preventative care also and he said

well even if we take care of this

immediate problem he said I’m going to

highly recommend that you do some

certain

treatments and do some certain Physical

Therapy that will keep you from having a

problem later on well I don’t want to do

that first of all these treatments I

think might be a little painful and I’m

not looking forward to that and I

already exercise and work out and walk

and I don’t want to now add physical

therapy to it and I’m busy and I’m

serving

God but I do believe that a lot of times

God will put some information in front

of us now come on listen to me I believe

God will put some information in front

of us that if we will do the maintenance

now see one of my great

dreams is to finish my

[Applause]

race I don’t even know how to tell you

how important that is to me that’s this

has been a long journey for me and I’ve

been teaching the word 42 years and I

really hope and pray it is a great

desire of mine that I can still be

sharing the word in some farmer

fashion right until God is finished with

me and he takes me home well you see I

know that in order to do that I got to

do a whole bunch of stuff behind the

scenes means to stay

strong takes my time it takes effort

sometimes it takes

money sometimes it’s

inconvenient but you see we’re very bad

at wanting something over here on this

end but not wanting to do what it takes

to get it let me ask a question are you

a gambler or an investor

you know what a person who kind of has a

gambling Spirit does and I’m not even

necessarily talking about the casino

type thing I’m talking about you you

kind of

just don’t do the right thing and kind

of sort of hope you get by with

it but the Bible says that we reap what

we

sell and so I think that we need to

start doing a whole lot more

maintenance and instead of just waiting

until we have a major disaster in life

and trying to Quick get

strong let’s talk this morning about

staying strong let’s talk about doing

what we need to do when there is no

emergency but it’s just wisdom to do

it and then you know what we’re going to

have a lot less emergencies and to be

honest with you it’s going to be a lot

less painful and in the long run it’s

going to take a lot less time

to deal with things a little bit at a

time than it

will you know I didn’t take care of my

teeth for a long time part of it was we

didn’t have the money but then part of

it was I just didn’t want to and I’ll

just be honest and tell you I have six

teeth in my whole mouth that don’t have

crowns on them so do what you need to do

when you need to do it and even now I’m

one of those kind of people that get a

lot of plaque on my teeth they want me

to come get my teeth cleaned every four

months I don’t want to get my teeth

cleaned every 4

months I mean I’d be happy to go once

every two or 3 years but here’s the

thing if I wait even seven or eight

months when I go to get my teeth cleaned

it really hurts because they have to

really dig around to get the plaque off

if I go every four months doesn’t hurt

at all come on how many of you are

understanding what I’m saying

[Applause]

today you say well this is sure a lot of

practical stuff I came to get a word

from God you’re talking to me about my

teeth and I call an oopy

and you know what that’s what’s wrong

today sometimes we go to church and

everything is just so

spiritual that we go out and we don’t

know how to live practical everyday

life

amen oh the service today was

so it was

wow well what’d you

learn

uh I don’t know but man I had a lot of

Goosebumps it was

great wow staying

strong all right Proverbs

18:14 great scripture the strong Spirit

of a man will sustain him in bodily pain

and

trouble but a weak and a broken Spirit

who can raise it up or who can bear it

if we stay strong spiritually then

really no matter what comes against us

we will make it through that doesn’t

mean it’s going to be

easy that doesn’t mean there’s going to

be no pain

involved but truly truly we can do all

things through

Christ who is our

strength yes you can make it through

whatever you’re going through right now

and you know what you can get so strong

in spirit that you can be going through

really really difficult things and while

you are you’re still reaching out and

helping other people and they don’t even

know what you’re going

through did you hear me

we don’t have to be the kind of people

that every time we have a problem we

fall

apart we can be strong in the Lord and

in the power of His might but it’s going

to take some maintenance some regular

doing of what we should be doing not

just waiting until all of a sudden we

feel like we’re falling apart and quick

quick trying to get to where we need to

be Ephesians chapter 6 is a chapter in

the Bible about how to defeat the Devil

and we all love those kinds of messages

everybody likes to think that they’ve

got the power and they can defeat the

enemy and in Ephesians 6

11-18 it teaches us about putting on the

full armor of God and putting on peace

and you know all the different facets of

armor that we can put on which causes us

to be victorious against the enemy but

verse 10 is one that we might not pay as

much attention to as we should and that

precedes all the others and it simply

says be strong in the

Lord be strong to your un Union or your

Oneness or your

fellowship with him draw your strength

from him that strength which his

boundless might provides so the first

thing to realize today before we go even

further is whatever strength you hope to

have in life it’s got to be in God he is

our strength he doesn’t just give us

strength he is our

strength and the minute that you have

any sign of difficulty even before you

have difficulty every day pray early God

give me the strength today to deal with

whatever I need to deal with because I

believe that I can do all things through

Christ who is my strength

and I like what the Amplified Bible says

about that scripture it says I’m ready

for anything I’m equal to anything

through him who infuses Inner Strength

into me let’s be the kind of people that

are ready for anything we don’t even

know what it is yet but we’re ready for

whatever comes our way and we already

know we’re going to have the victory

before we ever have the

problem what does it mean to be more

than a

conqueror I believe that’s what it means

means that you are so convinced in

spirit of who you are in

Christ that you already know you’re

going to win The Battle Before the

battle ever even comes your

way see not one of us in this building

today knows exactly what our future

holds we don’t know what’s going to

happen this afternoon tonight tomorrow

we trust

God but we don’t know we don’t know what

what we may be called upon to endure or

to go through and we need to be strong

minded we need to be strong mentally we

need to be strong in God we need to be

we need to stay strong in spirit because

the world needs to see a body of people

that are stable that are not just up and

down and all over the place depending on

what their circumstances are they need

to see a smile on our face when we’ve

got the same kind of problems that they

have God doesn’t guarantee us faith in

God relationship with God doesn’t

guarantee us that we’re not going to

have problems it doesn’t mean that we’re

not going to deal with some of the same

things that other people deal with but

it does mean that there is a place in

him Paul said it was his determined

purpose to know him and the power of his

resurrection that lifted him out from

among the dead even while he was in the

body he didn’t say I’m believing to

never have a problem he said I’m

believing that when I have problems I

can rise above

it you know the Apostle Paul went

through a lot of things and the whole

time he did he still ministered to other

people

amen David went through a

time which if we think about this for a

minute it’s found in 1st Samuel chapter

30 I’m not going to turn there I’ll just

tell you the story but David and his men

I guess had been off to some kind of

battle and they came home to

zigg and you know when you’ve already

been in a battle and you come home you

don’t want to come home to some big

disappointment I mean even at the end of

a day’s work you don’t want to come home

to some big disappointment you want to

come home and rest and relax so they’d

been fighting a battle and they came

home and they found out that their

enemies the amalekites had raided their

city and burned the whole thing with

fire and had taken the

women and the children

captive and David even found out that

his own wife had been taken

captive and so not only did they have

this disappointment to deal with the

loss of their family the loss of their

city but now all the men turned against

David they blamed him because their

families had been killed and I love what

the Bible says in verse 6 just think

about what David was going through at

this point and it says and David was

greatly distressed for the men spoke of

stoning him because the souls of them

all were bitterly grieved each man for

his sons and and daughters and David

what did David do David encouraged and

strengthened himself in the Lord his

God the minute that we have problems we

don’t need to go to the phone we need to

go to the

throne what whatever you need to

do whatever you’re facing right now and

some of you are going through some

really difficult

things whatever it is that you’re facing

right now I want to tell you you can do

it you have got what it

takes come on you have got what it

takes I said you can do

it you have got what it takes

come on we got to get rid of this weak

wimpy pitiful pathetic it’s too much for

me kind of attitude God is on your side

you are more than a conqueror you are a

warrior you have authority over the

enemy and I’m telling you that you can

do whatever you need to do through

Christ who is your

strength the

moment and I have to practice this the

moment that you hear any kind of I

can’t the mind is the battlefield Satan

puts thoughts in our mind and if he can

get us to believe them then we’re

already on our way

out I I can’t the minute you hear that

you need to open your mouth and say I

can do whatever I need to do through

Christ who is my strength I want to pray

something over you today and I just want

want you to receive it this is something

I think that we could and should do on a

regular basis and I like to pray this

over people when they’re in a service

like this Ephesians 3:16 Paul prayed

this for the church at

Ephesus so receive this I pray that God

would Grant you out of the rich treasury

of his glory to be

strengthened and reinforced with Mighty

power in the Inner

Man I pray the Holy Spirit would indwell

your innermost being and your

personality and that you would be strong

in the Lord and able to face anything

you have to face and still be

victorious in Jesus name how do we stay

strong in

spirit well first of all the word of God

is the food you need for your spirit

just

like I’m thirsty so I had to drink of

water well you know what Jesus said I’m

the living drink if you drink of me

you’ll never

thirst he said I’m your living food if

you take me as your

food you’ll never

hunger always respect the word of God

and when you hear the word of God the

words going forth out of my mouth right

now they’re not just words they’re God’s

words and so that means there’s power

the Bible says there’s inherent power in

the word of God so just like when you

eat food and you chew it and you swallow

it the nutrition is released if you

really listen you don’t just put your

time in in church to think that you’ve

made God happy because you showed up for

45 minutes but you you you come with an

attitude of your word is powerful your

presence is powerful this is helping me

this is strengthening me this is healing

me this is making a difference in my

life see everything that you get in a

church service is not up to the preacher

a lot of it is up to the attitude that

you come in

with you need to come hungry you need to

come excited you need to come and

realize what a precious treasure it is

to sit around other believers that have

an anointing on their life and to hear

the word of God come on let’s thank God

for what he’s done in our

lives this a good place to be so the

word strengthens us in spirit God’s

presence you know something that you

could

do I do this from time to

time how many of you can kind of tell

when you’re starting to run on empty I

mean your system is just kind of

like you’re running on empty well you

know what instead of just continuing to

push

yourself and getting cranky and grouchy

and blaming everybody around you and you

know it can just go from bad to worse

you know that don’t you it can just if

it’s already bad it’s going to get worse

if you don’t do something about

it I I don’t care if you just have to go

lock yourself in the

bathroom just go and sit somewhere or

stand somewhere even just take three

minutes and

just God I need

you strengthen me

Lord help me just calm

[Music]

down

H okay feeling better now come on do you

understand

that I mean it’s just good practical

advice just get somewhere by yourself

zip your

lip you know when you’re frustrated the

more you talk the worse it’s going to

get just get somewhere for a minute get

quiet calm down collect yourself get

yourself together as we tell other

people you just need to go somewhere and

get yourself

together God’s

presence prayer but I want to talk to

you specifically about yes we need to

pray about everything don’t do anything

until you at least mention it to God

first

but

repentance you know one of the things

that keeps us weak in spirit is hidden

sin

stuff that we know is there and God

knows is there but we’re just not

talking about it we’re just not dealing

with

it David prayed that God would clear him

from hidden and unconscious

faults things that were there that he

had managed to ignore long enough that

although he was still feeling the weight

of them do you know that we can

compromise to the point where we have

major sin in our life and we don’t even

really know what it is that’s bothering

us

anymore and you know sometimes if you’re

just not feeling right in your life you

just something’s wrong I’ve got a

heaviness and don’t there’s no joy why

don’t you just go and get by yourself

somewhere and just ask God a question

that he’s just waiting to answer and

here’s the question God what is really

wrong in my

life come on

not like he may not tell you it’s your

circumstances see we always think every

time we’re unhappy it’s our

circumstances but a lot of times it’s

our

attitude or it’s something going on in

us or something that we need to take

care

of that we’ve not taken care of I recall

a time when I wasn’t sleeping good it

was one night I wasn’t sleeping good I

tossed and turned and I’d sleep for a

few minutes and I’d wake up and it got

to be about 5 5:00 in the morning and I

really wish that I would have asked God

sooner so I could have gotten some sleep

but I waited till 5 and I finally just

said God what is

wrong come on that’s a good question to

ask

God what is wrong and immediately he

showed

me something that I had done the day

before I had hurt somebody’s feelings

and just glossed over it didn’t do what

I should have done didn’t take care of

it didn’t asked God to forgive me didn’t

ask them to forgive me

and I repented immediately made a

commitment to make things right with

them the next day and it was almost time

to get up anyway but I did get about 30

minutes

sleep come on God what is wrong come on

this is good advice what’s wrong what’s

going on we run so fast in life that

many times we’re just dragging all these

problems along with us and we don’t even

take the time to stop and ask God what’s

really going on on how about uh

guilt don’t be carrying a bunch of guilt

around with you man that weakens us woo

it’s hard to stay strong in God if you

got a guilty conscience and a bunch of

stuff that’s bugging you

inside how about knowing who you are in

Christ boy I tell you the devil gets

afraid of you when you know who you are

in Christ Peter talked about it this

morning that was great what he shared

who are you do you know who you are if

you know who you are and the devil knows

you know who you

are then he’s going to be running from

you instead of you running from him but

you know what knowing

[Music]

maintaining a righteousness

Consciousness in your life it takes

hugging up close to God and staying in

the word because there’s anything the

enemy wants to do to you he wants to

make you feel guilty and condemned and

like you’re no

good you guys out there

am I right how many of you have to fight

that battle it’s

like well you didn’t this and you didn’t

that and you’re not and you’re not do

you ever get tired of the devil telling

you what you’re not then get in the word

and let God tell you who you

[Music]

are and then another thing that really

weakens people is

anger

Wow fight for

yourself and refuse to let anger steal

the spiritual strength that you need to

deal with things in your life I’m

telling you staying angry at people will

just zap it right out of you then one

last thing I’ll say about this section

is let’s all work together and just see

how many issues we can have in our life

and still hold our peace while we got

them that’s that’s a new goal I told

Dave day I said okay I’ve got a new goal

I really love peace and and I do pretty

good most of the time but lately I’ve

just let a few stupid things aggravate

me anybody ever do that you just let

some really dumb stuff just get you all

rattled and and and it’s it’s it’s not

anything

that’s going to be Earth

shaking doesn’t really matter that much

and I had about three or four of those

things last week it was just like silly

stuff and I just let it

and you know what I’ve discovered once

you get really

upset you’re not going to get over it in

5 seconds when when you get really upset

at least when I do it takes a toll on me

and sometimes it takes a while for me to

calm down so it’s just a lot less effort

to just not get

upset come on I’m telling you something

valuable it takes a lot less effort to

just not get upset than it does to get

upset act bad have to repent the devil

condemns you you know all that stuff

then you got to go apologize to five or

six

people it’s like God no I don’t want to

do that anymore I just my new goal is

just do your best devil but I’m holding

my

peace stay tuned for a candid

conversation with Joyce

[Music]

Joyce today in our candid conversation

where we talk a little bit more

intimately I I know that you are

speaking to many people who are watching

who are going down the path of emotional

healing that you’ve been down so I would

love to talk about some of those things

that you faced that were the most

difficult challenges um

that maybe would encourage other people

that they’re going to make it through

those hard times too well I think the

one of the first things I would say is

that it’s really hard to face the truth

about your own behavior MH you know for

so many years I

blamed my bad behavior on the fact that

I’d been abused and I used that as an

excuse uh I mean everything

from fits of self-pity to whatever I

would just say well if only I wouldn’t

have been abused and you know as long as

you’re making excuses for something you

can’t get free from it now I want to say

that again yeah as long as we’re making

excuses for

something we can’t get free from it

because we’re giving ourselves

permission to keep it so excuses like

it’s not my fault it’s not my fault I

deserve to feel this way it’s because I

was abused any body that’s been through

what I’ve been through would yes would

behave this way yeah and uh I had a real

problem with self-pity I mean among many

other things but I particularly had a

problem

with every time things didn’t go my way

or I didn’t feel like Dave was paying

enough attention to me or whatever I

would sit and feel sorry for myself

and you know God spoke to me you can be

pitiful or powerful but you can’t be

both I was trying to minister already

and

you know I’d be in the Pulpit talking

about being a powerful woman and yet

having these pity parties and I said

well you know you know how we talk to

the Lord I mean I said well I anybody

would feel sorry for themselves that

they’ve been through what I’ve been

through and he said well you have a

reason but don’t let the reason become

an excuse to stay that way so how is

that affecting you behind the scenes you

be on stage and and you know you’re

teaching and God is using it but what’s

happening at home well that’s what I’m

saying you know at home I would be I

mean not a totally different person but

I would uh um the thing that happened

with me a lot is what God was teaching

me is what I would be preaching one lady

said you’re just letting us eat off your

plate yeah so sometimes I was teaching

people but it wasn’t yet perfected in my

own life and the Bible says in John 8

that if you continue in my word you will

know the truth and the truth will make

you free but it’s the truth

applied that makes you free so you know

just to those that are watching today

the first thing that you might want to

pay attention to is am I stuck in a

place because I just keep making excuses

for

it are

blaming you know blaming everybody else

and so really no matter what you do or

you do or you do I’m still responsible

for my own behavior even if somebody

doesn’t treat me right I’m still

responsible for my attitude toward them

yeah and that’s hard and that’s true for

for everybody oh yeah it’s I mean it’s

it’s easy to face truth about somebody

else how often do we hear a message and

think well yeah so and so really needs

this when really we’re the one that that

needs it right some of the things that

were the most challenging for me was um

learning how

to be a submissive wife M you know and

you know not in a weird way where I had

no mind of my own or no choices or you

know where Dave was trying to control me

because he’s not even the kind of person

to do that but I just because I’d been

mistreated by men I didn’t have respect

for men and makes a lot of sense and I

didn’t I didn’t trust

like if a decision needed to be

made I didn’t know how to trust that

Dave would make a good

decision for me as well as him because I

men had always used me and so I didn’t

it was very hard for me to

believe that you’ll make a decision

that’s in my best interest and I

remember Dave saying to me one time why

do you act like I’m your

enemy and so that but that was your

experience that that that was my

experience and I think that something

that we all have to learn and this this

was a challenge for

me you have to learn how to act on the

word of God rather than

reacting to whatever is bringing that

emotional upset to you right you know

like

if if Dave would be or anybody else

would be the least bit Stern with me

because my dad was so mean I would

immediately get you know like you’re not

you’re not going to treat me that way

yeah and you know some people just have

stronger personalities they don’t

they’re not trying to be mean or

something but I was I was very overly

sensitive and so I’d like for people

that are listening today to remember

that if you’ve been hurt a lot you

probably are going to be overly

sensitive to certain things that you

need need to be careful about and to

take responsibility for your own

behavior and this was big to be

patient because when you have the kind

of mess in your life that I had in

mine no matter how much you want it to

it’s not all going to change overnight

it’s going to take time and you’re going

to have setbacks you’re going to have

times where you know you feel like

you’ve gotten free in an area and then

all of a sudden it comes up again and

you know like if you’ve ever peeled an

onion which I know you have it’s comes

off in little tiny layers and sometimes

you think am I ever going to get to the

good part of this and that’s kind of the

way emotional healing can be sometimes

because your emotions are they’re a

hidden part of you and so that’s a great

way to explain it yeah it it it’s on the

inside of you and so we can

pretend that everything is okay but

still just be having really bad bad

thoughts about people and bad attitudes

behind the scene and God really wants us

to face truth the psalmist David said

God desires truth in the inner being so

he wants he wants us to be

authentic and genuine and real and it

just takes time Philippians 1:6 says

that Heath begun a good work in US is

well able to complete it and bring it to

its finish Deuteronomy 7 says that God

delivers us from our enemies little by

little and that onion is a great example

right because as you peel off those

layers and deal with different things

and get deeper they going to be a lot of

Tears it’s going to stink a little bit

now and then so that’s really a very

good way to look at it and when you say

to have patience you’re talking about

having patience with your yourself and

and others too I’m sure as you walk

through this but did did you have those

times that you’re like God when am I

going to get there when oh my gosh yeah

Ginger I had I probably gave up 1,000

times you know and sometimes I’d even

try to get God to feel sorry for me well

that’s it I just I can’t I can’t go

through this anymore I just give up and

it’s almost like funny because you’re

not going to give up you know once you

really fall in love with Jesus no matter

how hard yeah your days are you’re

always going to come back around to

knowing that you need God let’s talk

about

this

reaction or acting on the word you see I

had to find out that I could feel wrong

and still behave right and that was a

pretty major thing for me when I realize

that and I’ve written a couple of books

on managing your emotions and one called

living beyond your feelings and that

that’s even to forgive somebody you know

when you forgive somebody you don’t

necessarily feel like doing it nor do

you feel like it’s fair or but you you

do it because you love God and that’s

what he’s asked you to do and we need to

be smart enough to realize that God is

always right whatever he tells us to do

is for our benefit and you know so I

would have a lot of these pouting spells

where maybe I mean in the very beginning

of our marriage if Dave made me mad

Ginger I could not speak a word to him

for three weeks three weeks three weeks

now that there weren’t too many three

weers but I would I was very bad at

pouting and staying mad and the reason

why I did that was because I had always

seen my dad get his way through anger

yeah and so I would I would

react the way I had seen him behave sure

and I I had to learn enough of the word

to learn how to act on the word rather

than reacting

and it so what happens is at first you

don’t do it at all and then after a

while you start you’ll recognize it and

so maybe you’ll act bad for a little

while and then you’ll say NOP that’s not

right you change your mind until all the

way up to now I would say the biggest

majority of the

time and I’m not saying never because I

still do sometimes but instead of

reacting to the devil’s stimulus that

he’s trying to use against me I can say

I recognize it’s the enemy and I

recognize that I don’t have to be that

way but if I were to talk about the

thing that probably

was facing truth was really hard what

kind of Truth well just like I mean I

always thought all the problems in my

marriage was Dave if Dave would do this

if Dave would do that if Dave would do

this and one day I was praying for Dave

to change

and the Holy Spirit spoke in my heart

Dave is not the problem and I really

thought I honestly thought well who is

there’s only me and him I mean he had

you know yeah and God revealed to

me what it was like to live with me and

I cried for like three days I think I

was just

so I don’t know just disappointed in

myself didn’t want it to be my fault you

know when you’ve had a lifetime of

blaming other people it’s very hard

it’s painful to say I’m hard to get

along with yeah those are hard words to

come to grips with I have unforgiveness

in my heart yeah you know I I make a big

deal out of every little thing I’m I’m

not merciful it’s it’s challenging to

admit all those things but I want to say

again that is the first step toward

freedom but probably the thing that took

me the

longest to to get over completely was

feeling guilty all the time because I

had always felt guilty about what my dad

was doing to me even though it wasn’t my

fault you know it’s our secrets that

make us sick and so I had this big nasty

secret that I had to keep all the time

and so I always always felt guilty

always and it

didn’t it didn’t matter if it was little

thing or a big thing and then as I got

into a relationship with God and I

started hearing these things about

there’s no guilt there’s no

condemnation I became a very religious

Christian in the beginning to keep the

guilt away well no I was yeah trying to

do everything perfect so I didn’t have

to have that burden of guilt and it it

it took me a good number of years it got

better

mhm that’s the thing that people need to

you know realize and something I’d like

to say to our viewers today is please

please please celebrate your

progress and don’t only think about how

far you have to go yeah that’s a great

encour and some things are going to be

harder than others I mean there may be

some things that you’ll get over much

quicker and then there’s yeah other

things I share that one of the things

that I still deal with is I don’t like

any kind of strife are upset in the

family you know it’s like I mean one of

my sons told me one time he said you

can’t expect us to all work together and

be around each other as much as we are

and never ever have any kind of a

conflict and but see it doesn’t matter I

mean if it’s two of my kids not getting

along or whatever I can’t it’s hard for

me to settle down and be peaceful until

it’s solved and it relates

directly to the turmoil that was in my

house all the time and the the whole

game that everybody played was let’s

keep dad from getting mad right you know

my mother did it I did it my brother did

it and if he was mad then we started

doing I guess what I call the dance you

know where we would just you know try

all these different things to get him

back in a good mood right and so it took

me a long time to get to the point where

I didn’t carry some kind of a burden of

guilt or always be kind

of

um vaguely

you got to be careful about the vague

things in their life your life they’re

not the like right in your- face type

things but I always had like

this feeling around me that just kind of

like waiting for the next bad thing to

happen and U there’s a scripture in

Proverbs 15:15 that talks about evil for

boings right and so it’s like we’ve been

set free from that but I was always

instead of expecting something good

which is what hope is I was more

expecting the next problem because

that’s all I’d

had you know in my life yeah but if you

want to just boil it down for our

viewers to probably two of the things

that were the hardest I would say it was

this facing

truth and you know I still don’t enjoy

it you know who does it’s hard I mean

who wants to say you know I didn’t act

right in that situation and it doesn’t

really matter what you did you know we

always want to saywell I shouldn’t have

acted I shouldn’t have acted that way

but you know you shouldn’t have but God

wants us to get to the point where we

just take responsibility for us and I

think if we can stop playing this Blame

Game it opens the door for God to deal

with the other person if they aren’t

behaving right so I would say that that

facing the truth and the the guilt thing

getting over that were probably two of

the hardest things for me yeah well

thank you very very much I’m sure it’s

encouraging to people when you talk

about having patience with yourself and

knowing that you can stand on what God

says that he will continue that good

work in you right so there’s hope out

there yes there is and I hope

everybody’s been

encouraged have you been looking for a

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[Music]

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 he the God of all comfort and I

am so grateful that I know how to call

on God

[Music]