Staying in Your Own Lane – Pt 2 | Enjoying Everyday Life | Joyce Meyer

God doesn’t want us to be envious of other people’s gifts. On this episode of Enjoying Everyday Life, Joyce Meyer shares a message to help you value the gifts God has given you.

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.

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As long as you’re trying to be something you’re not, God cannot really use you.
He has something that he wants to use you for, but you’ve gotta be willing to be yourself.
And if that means being different than everybody else, then you’ve got to be willing to do that.
I’m Joyce Meyer. I’ve seen God’s power transform my own life, and he will do it for you.
As leaders we need to help people, not We need to not force them to do what we want them to do, but we need to help them find what they’re comfortable and gifted and anointed to do, and by the way, that’s your job as a parent too.
Train up a child in the way they should go according to their individual gift are bent.
The amplified Bible says, not try to fulfill your unfulfilled dreams through them and make them do what you never got a chance to do.
Get in your own lane and stay there.
Enjoy your life.
You know, Jesus said that he died that we might have and enjoy our lives.
I mean, that turned my world upside down when I saw that many many many years ago.
We’re not just here to make it through till Jesus comes back. We’re supposed to enjoy this.
Enjoy our journey. Enjoy everything that we do.
Even Adam and Eve were told to enjoy all the food in the garden.
We’re supposed to enjoy one another.
Enjoy the life that God tried to give us. Romans 12, 3 through 8.
For by the grace given unto me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned to him.
Now, this is a good message in itself because it’s saying, okay.
Whatever gift you have, whatever grace God has given you to do what you do, don’t make the mistake of thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to by thinking that it’s you doing it.
Because it’s not you doing it, it’s God doing it through you.
That’s exactly why no matter what we do our who is what’s important, It’s who we are in Christ and everybody in Christ is equal no matter what you do or don’t do.
Amen? And if you if you don’t realize that what you’re good at, you’re good at because God has enabled you and gifted you to be good at it, you will fall into that trap of thinking that everybody else should be able to do what you do.
Anybody know what I mean? Yes.
Do you ever have anybody that’s just gotten aggravated with you because you couldn’t do what they do? Yes. Yeah.
Come on. I’m gonna find somebody to talk to in here. Yeah.
Can you imagine how it must mess a kid up if they have a parent who is constantly railing on them because that kid can’t do what they do or what that parent thinks they should do, Or the worst thing comparing your kids with each other.
Oh, why can’t you be like your sister? Why can you know?
Why aren’t you as smart as your brother? Don’t ever compare your kids with one another.
Matter of fact go to the other extreme of telling them you’re not supposed to be alike.
God’s created us all uniquely different. Come on.
I hated myself for too many years and I finally got over it and I want to help you get over it too.
For as in one body, we have many members and the members do not all have the same function.
No matter how bad you want to, you just can’t do everything that everybody else can do.
I love you. Thank you. That must mean you need this.
I can just feel that some of you uptight people.
Come on. We don’t come to church to impress each other.
Let me tell you something, as long as you feel the need to impress somebody you are never free.
Never free.
You’re only free when you can be completely impress you.
That’s why I can enjoy what I’m doing and just love you.
And I really just feel in my bones that somebody is just gonna get a breakthrough today.
That I mean you’re gonna get it, I’m okay. I am okay.
There is nothing wrong with me because I am not you.
There’s nothing wrong with me because I weigh 10 more pounds than you do and no matter what I do, I can’t lose it.
Don’t you love those people who forget to eat?
I may forget a lot of things, but I never forget to eat.
Amen?
For as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function, so we though many are 1 body in Christ and individually members one of another having gifts that differ.
Everybody shout out, I’m different. I’m different.
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.
And let me just say this, you can have 10 people that have the same gift, but the strength of that gift may be different in each one.
You may have 10 people that have a lovely voice, but one who just is really just like stands out.
You have one pastor that can pastor a church of 300 and then you have somebody else that can minister to the whole world.
If your gift is service, then serve.
I have the gift of helps but it’s not in helping other people it’s in getting them to help me.
Now I can I can help people like this, spiritually preaching?
I love this, but if you make a mess, I’m not gonna be the first one to go grab something to clean it up, but I’ll tell somebody else to get something clean up.
Hey, I don’t apologize for what I what I am.
That’s not the gift God gave me.
I tried for a while to clean my pastor’s house and I hated it.
Was just trying to impress him, I didn’t really wanna clean his house.
Oh, it feels so good to just tell the truth, don’t it?
If you’re a teacher then give yourself to your teaching.
And I love this part of these verses, it says, whatever your gift is, come on, give yourself to it.
Come on, whatever your gift is, give yourself to it.
In other words, focus on that.
Why do we keep trying to be good at things we’re not good at?
You know, if you’re a 2 at something, you can struggle all your life and maybe become a 4, but if you’re an 8 at something you can focus on that and work with God and you could become a 10 real quick.
The way to stand out is not to be halfway maybe a little bit decent at 20 things, but it’s to take 2 or 3 things that you’re really gifted for and pour yourself into that and become outstanding at those things.
You don’t have to do what everybody else does. You don’t have to do what everybody else does.
If you’re an exhorter then give yourself to your exhortation.
You know, Mike is our staff pastor.
Mike stand up a minute just so they know who we’re talking about.
He’s our, um, we we got enough employees.
We gotta pastor them because, you know, Christian people are not all perfect and believe it or not, they can argue and, you know.
So Mike’s in charge of, uh, what do we call it? Conflict?
Oh yeah. Mike’s in charge of conflict resolution.
And and he’s good at it, But now, Mike knows the name of every person in our building.
He probably knows all their family’s names.
I run into people sometimes somewhere and they’ll say, hi I work for you.
Oh, how long have you worked for me? 12 years? And I don’t know.
And you say, well that sounds terrible. Well, I don’t have the gift of running around the building.
That’s not my gift.
My gift is to pray and preach and study and write and get these messages and do Will you just get happy doing what God has called you to do?
Oh, I better behave some of you are looking at me funny.
Come on just admit it. Don’t you just get tired of the pressure? Yes.
Does anybody just get tired of the pressure? You know what?
Every pastor’s wife doesn’t have to play the piano and lead the ladies group at church.
And every woman doesn’t have to like to cook.
I know you know I know you know.
Wow.
Boy guys, I think I just ruined your meals.
You know who Darlene Sheck is, most of the world knows who Darlene is.
She says to me, don’t you just love to cook in your off time? And I’m like, no.
Why would I want to do that?
I tried it once.
I mean I used to cook all the time when my kids were little, I mean I cooked big meal every night, packed lunches, and cooked breakfast but I’ve been there done that, I’m done with that.
Amen?
Hey, but if you’re good at it I’ll take yours.
What are you good at? What do you enjoy?
God will not call you to a career that makes you miserable.
If you try to do something that you’re not gifted at it will only frustrate you and you’ll forfeit your peace and your joy and you know what else you’ll do?
You’ll make the other people that you’re in relationship with unhappy.
Because if you’re unhappy, it comes out of you and gets off on other people.
And I think a lot of times when people are doing what they’re not really gifted for, and they’re unhappy, they always look for something around them to blame it on.
Yeah. It’s good. It’s good. Yeah.
I don’t know if you’ve watched me very much. You’ve heard some of my stories but I can’t help it.
I just gotta Because this is just when I look back I think how dumb can you be and still breathe?
You know, I I had I had a big call on my life.
I felt like when God called me, he told me I was gonna go all around the world and preach the gospel.
And which sounded stupid. I mean, I was somebody from nowhere with a broken past and a 12th grade education, barely passed English and I think I’m gonna preach to the world.
And, um, so for 5 years I taught home bible study and then God said, behold I do a new thing.
Don’t you love those words from God? Behold I do a new thing.
So I quit the bible study, laid that down thinking, now I’m going to the world.
And so for the next year, I did nothing.
It was like God just set me on a shelf and it was one of the biggest testing years in my life, but you know really when I look back you live life forward you understand it backwards.
When I look back I understand now that it was that year in my life that God taught me that I had to stop trying to be like somebody else.
God was not going to let me into the ministry that he had for me if I was not gonna get up here and not try to be Kenneth Copeland or Marilyn Hickey or somebody else, but if I would just be me.
God doesn’t want a bunch of clones of everybody else, he wants a fresh approach. Amen?
But I had a lovely neighbor who just could do so many things that I couldn’t do.
She played guitar, I tried to learn to play guitar, my fingers were too short. It just doesn’t work.
Besides which I came next to English, I came very close to failing music.
So that that wasn’t good.
I can play a harmonica a little bit and I played a kazoo once in a church play.
That’s as far as it goes with me.
And, um, but she was so she was Susie Homemaker, I mean, to the max.
She growed stuff in her garden, she canned tomatoes, she made jelly, you know, she she made her kids clothes, made a lot of her own clothes, and just she mowed the lawn, she painted the house, she macrame plant, I mean, she just did it all.
And I just wanted to tell everybody what to do. That was my gift.
Let me tell you what to do.
And uh, so during that year when I wasn’t God wasn’t letting me do anything, she talked me into doing a bunch of this stuff that she did.
She talked me into trying to grow tomatoes and can tomatoes with her and so I talked Dave into digging up a garden and and, uh, uh, and she thought I should learn how to sew, so we got me a sewing machine, I went to some sewing classes.
Anybody remember stretching sew? Anybody? Alright. There’s a few people that are old as me and you remember stretching sew.
And it was just like this real stretchy material and and so I made Dave a pair of shorts, it took me forever.
I made them a pair of shorts.
They were gray and had black piping on them and when I got finished with them the pockets were longer than the shorts.
And then when you made mistakes you sat with this little picker thing and you had to pick out one stitch at a time.
I hated that sewing machine, I hated it all, I hated that garden, but I was trying to be the right kind of woman.
Come on. Because I just did not fit the mold.
I wasn’t what women are supposed to be.
My pastor’s wife was a beautiful sweet little submissive blonde that just adored her husband.
Did everything he told her to and I’m like, I ain’t doing that.
I don’t feel like doing that. Do it yourself.
Now wait a minute, I’m not saying I was right.
I had to learn some things too, but but no matter how much I learned, I’d never be like her.
But I honestly tried to lower my voice.
I mean, I did this, I had this garden, I had the sewing machine, I tried to talk softer and sweeter, Yes, honey.
And behind the scenes I’m thinking.
You guys act like this is comedy hour I want you to learn something.
Are you learning anything?
Well, the tomatoes came in, we had our canning equipment, I bought all this canning equipment.
We’re gonna can tomatoes. So I went out to harvesting day and some bugs had come through and ate big holes in all my tomatoes.
I mean, crop was ruined. I called her and I said, oh my gosh.
Some bugs have come in and eaten holes in all of our tomatoes.
She ran out in her yard and checked and called me back, she said, my tomatoes are fine.
Well, I got mad.
I said, God, I prayed over my tomatoes, and I don’t even know if she was spiritual enough to pray over her tomatoes.
I mean, I cast devils off my tomatoes, I prayed on my tomatoes and now they have these big holes in their ruin.
And you know what God said to me?
I didn’t tell you to grow tomatoes, I have no responsibility to protect your tomatoes.
Come on now.
So maybe you’re trying to do something and it’s just not working and not working and not working.
Is anybody home in the house today?
It’s just not working and not working and you cannot understand why it’s not working, well wake up and smell the roses, maybe God is opposing you.
Alright.
Now, I’ve learned how to be a submissive wife.
Dave stand up and shake your head, am I not a submissive wife? No. No.
Don’t don’t don’t do that. What am I submissive wife?
Yes, I am a submissive wife.
If you want to eat ever again, I am a submissive wife.
Dave and I have so much fun together, you know why?
Because he just loves me just the way I am.
But I mean, I am absolutely serious when I tell you that I had to go through that before God could use me.
That’s the serious part of it.
As long as you’re trying to be something you’re not, God cannot really use you.
He has something that he wants to use you for, but you’ve got to be willing to be yourself and if that means being different than everybody else, then you’ve got to be willing to do that and if that means you get judged and criticized, then you’ve gotta be willing to do that.
Let me tell you something, when Jesus showed up on the scene, he was very different than anything they had ever seen before.
And he brought a revolution.
He brought revelation that turned the spiritual world upside down and things have never been the same since.
Amen? Now, one other thing.
Oh, Jimmy Christmas. Okay. Listen.
1st Corinthians 12. The body does not consist of one member but many.
If the foot says, because I’m not a hand I refuse to be part of the body.
Would that make it any less a part of the body?
Our body has to cooperate together just like we’re supposed to cooperate together.
Do you know that I cannot get my shoes on if my hand refuses to help?
I tried to think about it today and there is I I mean, it would be impossible for me to get this boot off when I go home if my hand is just checked out and said I’m not doing it.
I don’t want to be a hand anymore, I want to be a foot.
And see really, this whole analogy he’s giving, which I can’t do justice in the little bit of time I have, but the whole analogy that he’s giving is that when we are jealous of one another and we try to be something we’re not, then nothing functions right.
One quick example that God gave me a long time ago, let’s just say that my eye, my eye I got a really nice ring that somebody gave me years ago and especially when I get my nails done, I always do that.
It’s pretty. See? Well, what if one day my eyes said, you know what?
I’m sick of looking at that ring. I want my own ring.
I don’t wanna just look at the hands ring. I want my own ring.
Well, what if God said okay. We want you to be a happy little christian.
So here you go. Have yourself a ring. Okay.
Now Well, now listen. You can laugh later.
I got what I wanted but now I can’t do anything else I’m supposed to do.
Now I’ve crippled myself from being able to do what I’m really supposed to do but I got what I wanted.
And I think a lot of times God just gets tired of hearing us and he gives us what we say we want just to prove to us that it’s not really what we wanted after all.
Come on. Give God a praise.
Life is a journey with many ups and downs and it’s up to us to learn to enjoy it.
John 10:10 tells us that Jesus came so that we might have and enjoy an abundant life.
Discover biblical principles for living a fulfilling and joy filled life with Joyce’s small book, Enjoy Your Journey.
Start enjoying where you are on the way to where you’re going.
Learn to press into God’s incredible purpose for your future.
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Let me give you a great example of how project girl works.
You see, God’s love represented here has totally changed my life.
Now all I need to do is share it with another woman or girl.
How many trips have you been on now?
Uh, this is my 3rd trip with VandaPhoe. Uh-huh.
And what what was the main reason that you did wanna do this?
You said you wanted to travel to help people.
Yes. It’s, uh, it’s a total different work as a doctor here than back in my home country, but it’s really I feel like I really, uh, wanted to do that, to just help people in, uh, poor countries who cannot, uh, have access to medical care.
I do that because I love Jesus, and I hope that the patients feel that.
Sometimes we just pray right at the investigation table with them, so just to make them know that Jesus is the doctor all above us.
We hope you enjoy today’s program.
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This program has been made possible by the partners of Joyce Meyer ministries.