Calm Down and Cheer Up – Part 3

Welcome to Fifteen Minutes in the Word with New York Times bestselling author, Joyce Meyer. On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series Calm Down and Cheer Up. The Bible is full of Scripture describing God's love for each one of us, and it tells us how, through salvation in Christ, we can know true joy. But keeping our joy isn't always easy when the difficulties of life creep in. So how do we remain calm and cheerful when circumstances are worrisome? Today, Joyce shows us practical ways we can calm down and choose God's joy in every situation. Let's discover how his peace and joy can transform our lives. Now here's Joyce with today's teaching. I started yesterday talking about calming down, and I mentioned just how good even that word sounds calm. Just saying it makes me feel calm. There's so much turmoil in the world, and so many things that people can be angry about and upset about. But I have some good news for you today. Just because you have something to be upset about doesn't mean you have to be upset. I want to say that again. I just thought of that right before we started this program. Maybe that's the first lesson we need to learn because I know parents who think they're not even good parents if they don't worry about their kids. But that's not true at all. You don't have to worry about your children. It's something that you decide to do. And our emotions can begin to flare up or sink down, but we don't have to go with them. Jesus said he left us his peace, but in the amplified Bible in John 14, 20, 6, 27, he said, stop allowing yourselves to be upset and disturbed. So I think before anybody can have long term, consistent peace, that the first thing they have to learn is that they have to take responsibility for that peace and understand that they can't keep waiting for all their circumstances in the world to change. That's exactly why Jesus said to live life one day at a time and not spend today worrying about tomorrow because tomorrow would have troubles of its own. We don't have very many days that goes by that something doesn't happen that we would rather that it wouldn't have happened. And so we have to be stronger, trust God more, and make a decision that we're not going to live in that zone of upset all the time. Proverbs 14, 30, "A calm," I love that word, "accom and undisturbed mind and heart are the life and health of the body. But envy, jealousy, and wrath," which is strife and upset, are like rottenness to the bones. So this tells us that all this stress and upset and anger that we're experiencing in the world today affects our health in a very negative way. And it probably would be safe to say that there are more sick people a day than there ever has been, more medit people take more medicine than they ever have. And I do believe that all the stress that we have in our lives because of choices that we make, and I know some of you are saying like, "I'm waiting a minute, I can't help it." Well, let's just take our schedules. If I ask how many of you have more to do than what is humanly possible, most of you or many of you would go, "Yep, that's me." Well, you know, you can change your schedule. You can learn to say, "Node of some things." You don't have to load up our lives to where we just don't have one second left for anything. Proverbs 14 and 30, let me read it again because it's so good. "A calm and an undisturbed mind and heart is the life and health of the body, but envy, jealousy, and wrath are like rottenness to the bones." So you might say that every day that you stay calm is like a day of having an IV drip all day long of health and nutrition. Waiting on God, rather than taking emotional action, gives us the strength to do whatever we need to do when God does give us direction. We can't hear from God, we're in a state of upset. We have to calm down and wait on God. They still know that I am God. As they have 4031, we all know this. It's one of our favorite scriptures, but it's so true, but those who wait for the Lord. And what does "wait" mean? We talked about it yesterday. To expect, look far and hope in Him. See, waiting is not a passive thing. It's a very spiritually active thing. You're believing, you're trusting, you're expecting God to show up in any moment. Shall change and renew their strength and power. They shall lift up their wings and mount up close to God, as eagles mount up to the sun. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk, and they shall not faint or become tired. Do you know some of you are just tired all the time because you let your emotions rule your life? I know that because that's the way I lived a lot of the years of my life. You know, we're called to be a witness to the world. And to be a witness is a different thing than just telling people about Jesus. It's living the kind of life that Jesus would live or did live when He was here on the earth in front of people. I think it was Francis of Ascissi that said, "Preach at all times and if necessary, use words." In other words, let your life be a sermon to people around you. And I think one of the best ways we can do that is to stay calm in situations when everybody else is upset. Let's just say that you hear there's going to be a lot of layoffs at your place of employment. Well, naturally people are going to be getting frightened and they're going to be scared. But see, we can live in the supernatural by trusting God that we're in His hands and that He can keep our job or if we lose that job, He can get us one that's even better. We don't have to fret and be worried. We can instead stay calm and trust God. Well, if you do that, it's not very long and people will be saying to you, "How can you stay so calm with all these threats of layoffs?" And then that gives you an opportunity to say because instead of getting upset, I've decided to put my trust in God. I believe He'll take care of me. And you know, when people ask you what's different about your life, then they're open and ready to hear. In Timothy 4, 2, Paul is telling Timothy, "Young preacher, how he should live his life." And they believe that they were living in the last days of expecting Christ to come back at any time. He said, "Herald and preach the Word. Keep your sense of urgency. Stand by, be in hand and ready, rather the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable. Rather, it's welcome or unwelcome. You as a preacher of the Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong. Isn't that so good? You are to show people, not to tell people how many times do you ever go and tell somebody what they're doing wrong and they appreciate you telling them?" Not very often. Most of the time, that's what leads into arguments and strife. And he's saying, "If you live the right way, you can show people by the way you live your life what is wrong with their life." So if we stay calm, I think one of the greatest witnesses that we trust God is to stay calm when really our circumstances dictate that we should be upset. Show people a better life that's available to them through being an example. Somebody wants a better life. Well show them that you can have joy in difficult times. Show them what it's like to be a generous giver. Show them what it's like to be peaceful, to be patient, to have joy in peace and to be kind. You don't have to preach to them in words necessarily, not that there's anything wrong with that, if the door is open to do it. But we can all preach a sermon by living our lives the right way. Stay calm, cool, and steady, and keep doing your job in the kingdom. You know, Jesus stayed calm in storms. And actually his example made the disciples believe in him all the more. Mark 435, that day when evening came, and I want you to listen to this, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Now, when Jesus said, "Let's go over to the other side." He meant we will end up on the other side. Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was in the boat, and there were also other boats that were with him. A furious storm came up. One translation says of hurricane proportion. And the waves were breaking over the boat, and they were nearly swamped in the water. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. Do you ever feel like that you're having a storm in your life, and you think, "Jesus, are you asleep?" Well, he literally was asleep. All of this commotion's going on all around him, but he's asleep. You know why? Because he already knew that no matter what happened in the middle, he'd be going to end up on the other side. The disciple was woke him up and said, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" And he got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet, be still." Now, you know something, he could only speak peace to the storm because he had peace in him. And it's very important that we maintain an inner calm and an inner peace. If you just think about the ocean, which is very deep, there can be a terrible, terrible, furious storm on the surface of the ocean. Waves beating about wind blowing, but down deep in that water is just as calm and peaceful as it can be. And that's why our lives can be. No matter what's going on around us, deep inside, we can stay calm and peaceful if we have our trust in God. He got up, rebuked the wind and the waves and said, "Quiet, be still." Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. And he said to his disciples, "Quiet, be still." And so he said, "Quiet, be still." And so he said, "Quiet, be still." And he just remained calm. And I resented it at first. It made me angry. But then, then, his life showed me what was wrong in mine like the scripture we previously read. His life was a witness to me. And I started wanting the peace that I saw him have. Thanks for listening. Jesus said in John 1427, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." Let's remember these words and resist the temptation to lose our joy, especially in those troubled times. Fear and worry do not have to control us. As we grow closer to Jesus, our trust in him strengthens. And we can choose to remain calm through any difficulty. For more resources from Joyce, visit joysmire.org. We all go through hard times. And it's so easy in those moments to focus on the problem. But what if you were able to see the trials of your life, the way God sees them? And respond to them the way He teaches us in His word. Joyce Meyer wants to show you how in her new book, "Blessed in the mess." Even in the middle of life's difficulties, God's kindness shines through. "Blessed in the mess." Order your copy today at joysmire.org. Thank you for listening to 50 Minutes in the Word with Joyce.