Authentically, Uniquely You – Part 2 | Joyce Meyer
Authentically, Uniquely You – Part 2 | Joyce Meyer
“Spending time with God is the key to our strength and success in all areas of life. Be sure that you never try to work God into your schedule, but always work your schedule around Him.”
― Joyce Meyer
Find the freedom to be the amazing you God desires with today’s resources authentically, uniquely you and Joyce’s children’s book, Uniquely You in authentically uniquely, you be encouraged to overcome comparison and people pleasing while learning how God has given you unique talents and abilities to fulfill his purposes for your life.
And in this picture book, uniquely You Joyce shares an empowering message for chill that encourages them to embrace their wonderful, unique God given identities together.
You and your Children will discover the message that God made each of us for a reason and we are exactly who He meant us to be authentically, uniquely you and uniquely you are available today for your gift of $35 or more.
Connect with us. Now visit online at Joyce Meyer dot org or call 1 807 092895.
This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Joyce Meyer ministries.
Paul said in Galatians 1 10, am I trying to win the approval of human beings are of God and boy, that’s a good question to ask yourself today.
Are you trying to please people or are you trying to please God.
Well, thank you for joining us today on enjoying everyday life.
And, you know, I believe that when you really make the Word of God a priority in your life, that you will enjoy your life much better.
Because God’s Word teaches us the things that steal our joy and the things that add to it.
You see, I really believe that God wants us to be authentic in the world we live in today.
There’s, there’s a lot of phoniness and a lot of pretense, but that’s not the way God wants us to live.
And sometimes there’s a lot of pressure put on us to do things that we really don’t feel like we should be doing and we end up not living authentic lives because we spend our time trying to please other people rather than really doing what we believe God wants us to do.
So today we’re gonna talk about being set free from people pleasing.
Now that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to please people, but it does mean that we can’t live to please people if we’re not pleasing God or if we’re actually going against our own heart, self, rejection leads to people pleasing.
When we don’t accept ourselves, we assume that other people won’t accept us either because we think and believe that we are not acceptable, we behave in ways that actually cause people to reject us.
Now, that’s I said quite a bit there. You’d have to really think about it.
But it’s so important how we think about ourselves.
If we fear that people will reject us, then we will lose our authenticity by trying to please them in order to gain their acceptance instead of being who we genuinely are.
We will say yes to things that we really don’t want to do.
The world is full of controlling people who prey on the insecure because they are starving for love and acceptance and therefore can be easily manipulated.
The person who is confident and loves themselves as God loves them won’t put up with controlling people, they will confront them and set boundaries that must be honored if the relationship is to continue.
Now, I know that there must be people watching right now and there’s someone in your life that you’re letting control you or maybe more than someone, maybe it’s not all the time thing, but you find yourself doing things that you really don’t want to do because you just didn’t want to make this other person angry or you didn’t want to upset them.
My father was a controller and a manipulator.
He controlled people with fear and he was never satisfied with me or really anyone else no matter what we did.
So I learned not to ever be satisfied with myself and certainly could not believe that God or anyone else would ever be satisfied with me.
Either Mark Twain said, and I think this is a wonderful quote. So please listen to it.
The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself. Wow. Think, think about how bad that feels.
If you’re not comfortable in your own skin, you’re not comfortable with yourself.
And you’re always pondering what you think is wrong with you.
That can be the worst loneliness in the world.
We are to live to please God not to please ourselves are to please other people.
Now, here again, that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to please people.
God actually tells us to live to please people.
But here again, not if pleasing them means that we’re gonna be going against what we believe.
God is leading us to do Colossians 3 22 through 24 slaves or servants obey your earthly masters in everything and do it.
Not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.
So you see what you’re saying, don’t do it just to get them to like you but do it with a sincere heart because you really believe you’re doing it unto the Lord, whatever you do work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward is the Lord Christ.
You are serving you see when, when we do what we do in obedience to God because we believe that that’s what God is leading us to do, then we will have a reward coming from God.
But if we do things to please people and in the process, we’re having to go against what we really believe.
God wants us to do, then there is no reward. We lose any reward that God would give us.
Hebrews 11 6 says, and without faith, it’s impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he is and that he is the reward er of those who diligently seek him.
Look forward to the reward that God has for you.
If you’re following his leadership and guidance in your life. Proverbs 16 7, when a man’s ways please the Lord.
He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
And Acts 5 29, Peter and some of the other disciples had been teaching the word of God and they were put in jail for it.
And at midnight, an angel came and opened the jail doors and they were free and they went right back to preaching again and they were confronted by the religious leaders and said, we told you not to do this.
And in acts 5 29 Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than man.
I went to a church one time where the minister taught on that scripture.
Acts 5 29 I think for about six weeks and it got drilled into me and I’ll never forget it.
We must obey God rather than man. I want you to get that today.
We must obey God rather than man.
If what man wants you to do is gonna cause you not to obey God, then you must choose God above people.
Only God pleases will be able to fulfill their destiny. God has a destiny for each person.
And that means a place where we’re to finish up.
God has a destiny for me to preach the gospel around the world.
Maybe his destiny for you is to raise three or four kids that are gonna end up doing great things in their life.
God’s destiny for each of us is different, but you will not fulfill that destiny.
If you’re a people pleaser Paul said in Galatians 1 10, am I trying to win the approval of human beings are of God and boy, that’s a good question to ask yourself today.
Are you trying to please people or are you trying to please God? Are, are you just living for yourself?
And as long as you’re happy, you don’t care what people are God thinks or am I trying to please people?
If I were still trying to please people, I would not now be an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ man.
That is a powerful statement. One translation says if I were trying to be popular with people, I would not now be an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul was saying that he could have missed his destiny.
And you know, Paul wrote about 2/3 of the new testament and his life.
His ministry was so fruitful, so powerful and yet he could have missed the whole thing If he would have been overly concerned about his reputation with people.
Let me ask you today, are you trying to have a good reputation with people?
Are you trying to have a good reputation with God in John 1242 and 43, it says yet at the same time, many, even among the leaders believed in Him.
But because of the Pharisees, they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.
How often do people turn away from following God because they’re afraid that they will be rejected by their friends or their family or maybe lose their job or whatever the situation might be.
And I can tell you for me when God called me to teach the word, I got asked to leave the church that I was attending.
We lost a lot of friends. Certain family members felt like that. What I was doing was wrong.
They didn’t think that a woman should be teaching.
And sometimes if you want to go all the way with God, you have to be willing to lose some earthly things.
And it was painful. It was hard for me and I had other times in my life where in order to follow God, I had to be willing to be unpopular with people.
Are you willing to do that if you have to King Saul?
In 1st Samuel 15, it’s a great chapter to read.
He disobeyed God and lost his opportunity to be king.
He could have been a great king and he could have ruled for many, many years.
But Samuel had told him to wait for him to get there to make the evening sacrifice.
And Saul went ahead when it came near evening and Samuel hadn’t shown up yet.
The people started leaving and he went ahead and made the sacrifice and did the thing that Samuel had told him not to do.
And when Samuel confronted him about it, he said, well, the people were scattering.
He was more concerned about losing the people than he was about obeying God.
Are you willing to lose a friend?
If that’s what you have to do in order to walk with God, are you willing to even have someone in your family reject you if that’s what it takes in order for you to follow the will of God for your life?
You know, we have to understand that when we receive Christ, he must become everything. He’s not an add on.
We don’t just live our same life and add Jesus onto it.
There will be things over the course of the years that you serve God that will need to change in your life.
But they’re always gonna be things that will work out for the good.
Now, some signs of a people pleaser. Number one, we let people’s expectations control us.
We feel trapped. We say yes to things and then complain privately about having to do them.
Well, that’s a good one. How many times do we find ourselves complaining about having to do this or having to do that?
But it’s really not something that you have to do.
It’s something you said yes to, because you didn’t want to make somebody mad.
You didn’t want to hurt their feelings. You didn’t want them to be mad at you.
The reason for doing them was not a right reason.
You know, I feel that it’s very important for our motives to be right and your motive is why you’re doing what you’re doing.
And I say often God is not nearly as concerned about what we’re doing as he is.
Why we’re doing it. Another sign of a people pleaser, we’ll call it.
No two is we always set aside our own legitimate needs in order to please other people.
Well, where are you on your list of people that you take care of?
If you’re all the way at the bottom, you’re gonna end up, burned out, worn out, bitter, resentful and not happy because you’re keeping everybody else happy, but making your own self sick trying to do everything that they expect.
You to do. Sacrifice is good.
But if you’re at the bottom of the list of the people, you take care of sooner or later, you won’t have anything left to give.
So often we hear about everything that we should sacrifice as Christians.
But you also need to hear that you need to take care of yourself.
And there are times in your life when you need to do some things for yourself, so you’ll be strong to do the things that God wants you to do.
When we sacrifice for other people, we should do it because we believe that’s what God wants us to do.
Not because we’re afraid they’re gonna get angry with us if we don’t do it first.
Peter 58 says be well balanced, temperate, sober of mind, be vigilant and cautious at all times for that enemy of yours.
The devil roams about like a lion roaring in fierce hunger, seeking someone to seize upon and devour, you know what balances you do enough of something, but you don’t do too much of it.
Do you know? Sometimes to do too much of a thing is just as bad as not doing enough of it.
You can actually do too much for people.
You can do so much for them that you’re actually feeding their problem instead of helping them grow up and be responsible for themselves.
You can help people so much that you end up making yourself sick and not fulfilling the destiny that God has for you.
These are things to think about.
I wish we had more time with each one so we could just really talk about it and talk about it.
But you need to think about these things later when this program is over.
It’s not good for anyone, for them to never hear.
No, I want you to hear that.
I said it’s not good for anyone for them to never hear. No. Sure. I like to hear. Yes.
When I ask people to do things, but if I have a real authentic relationship with someone and I asked them to do something, they tell me I don’t have peace about it or I don’t believe it’s what God wants me to do.
I need to encourage them to follow God, not get angry with them because they’re not going to do what I want them to do.
We need to make sure that we’re following God and that we’re staying in balance.
The next sign of a people pleaser is that people, please just feel guilty when their decisions don’t please other people.
Well, did I do the right thing?
Well, maybe I was being selfish, maybe I should have done what they wanted me to do.
People pleasers assume responsibility for other people’s emotional reactions to their decision.
Well, here’s the thing if you ask me to do something and I really don’t feel like it’s what God wants me to do.
And you get angry then that’s not my fault.
Your decision to be angry has to be between you and God is not something that I need to fix.
But like many of you, boy, it took me a long time to learn that and sometimes I still fall into that trap.
You know why? Because not one of us wants people to be angry with us.
We want everybody to like us and approve of us.
Somebody’s anger, unhappiness or disappointment.
It’s not yours to try to fix their negative reaction to your decision is their responsibility, not yours.
People pleasers frequently carry a false sense of responsibility. You can’t be responsible for everyone and everything.
If you’re following God, there are gonna be times when you’re gonna have to tell people know and anybody who wants to hear yes is not going to like it if you tell them no.
But people that are mature in God, people that are following the word of God and people that really love you and want you to be your authentic self are not going to try to manipulate you with anger and guilt if you don’t do what they want you to do.
And parents let me just say be careful about trying to be your child’s best friend.
You have to be the parent.
Sometimes we want our kids to like us so much that we let them do things that we shouldn’t let them do instead of telling them no.
The next sign of a people pleaser is that people pleasers don’t live within limits.
You need to know how much you can do.
You need to know how much rest you need.
And if you have a full calendar already this week and two people that you know and love, I want you to do something for them.
Can you help me move? Can you babysit for me? Whatever the case might be?
If you know that it’s gonna put you on overload.
You need to say no, because you have a right to live a balanced life.
You need to put limits on yourself.
Believe me, I know because I did not put limits on myself.
And three different times I ended up making myself sick.
I wanted to do what people wanted me to do.
But you know, just because somebody wants you to do something doesn’t mean that it’s God’s will for you to do it.
Sometimes we get angry with the people who manipulate us and control us that God told me one time.
He said, you’re just as guilty as they are because you’re letting them do it.
We have to stand up for ourselves to please others.
Sometimes we push ourselves until we make ourselves sick and emotionally unstable.
We have to face it. People want us to do things that we absolutely cannot do.
In Acts Chapter six. The 1st four verses is a good example of this.
It says in those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
Now, at that time, the apostles were, they had that responsibility and that job of distributing food to everyone and making sure that everybody got the right amount that they needed.
But apparently the people weren’t happy.
And by the way, let me say, some people are not gonna be happy no matter what you do.
And they felt like that they were being left out and they weren’t being treated fairly.
And I love this. So the 12 apostles gathered together and said it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God.
In order to wait on tables, brothers and sisters choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the spirit and wisdom and we will turn this responsibility over to them.
Wow, how good is that? They realized that if they kept trying to deal with all this stuff about making sure everybody got the right amount of food that they weren’t gonna be able to pray, they weren’t gonna be able to study the word.
It was gonna affect the call of God on their life. And so they gave that responsibility to somebody else.
And you know, I can tell you if you refuse to delegate in order to have peace in your life, you’re gonna end up being miserable.
A lot of people, God has placed people around you to help you, but you won’t let them help you because you think nobody can do it as good as you can.
It’s so good for people.
When you give them responsibility to, they knew they would not fulfill their destiny.
If they didn’t stay focused, choose to live within your mental, physical and emotional limits, or your body will eventually force you to anyway, there was a man in the Bible named Aphrodite’s who got so sick that he almost died.
And you know why he got sick from working too hard in the ministry.
Well, how many times in my life did I think?
Well, you know, I’m working for God, he’ll cover me well.
No, God expects you to live by his wisdom.
And the Bible says we’re to work six days and rest one and that were to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
And if we don’t do that, we’re gonna end up hurting ourselves.
Sign number five people, pleasers are extremely sensitive to criticism and judgment and rejection.
You have to learn how to reject rejection.
Don’t let somebody’s rejection of you control you just because somebody criticizes you don’t let that make your whole week bad.
It can cause people to lose their confidence or stay on a path of unhealthy choices while seeking favor and acceptance from their critics, either stand up your critics or be controlled by them.
The choice is up to you.
Paul was being criticized and being accused of being unfaithful and listen to what he said in first Corinthians 43 and four.
I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court. Indeed.
I don’t even judge myself. My conscience is clear but that does not make me innocent.
It is the Lord who judges me. I love that. He said, I don’t, I don’t care what you think.
Now somebody may think. Well, that’s not a very good attitude.
Well, Paul had to speak up for himself.
He said, I don’t, I don’t care what you think my heart is right.
And maybe if there is anything that I’m doing wrong, God will judge me and make that known to me.
God has not and never will give anybody else the job of running your life one More.
# six, sign of a people pleaser.
People pleasers are being dishonest, not authentic about who they really are and what they really want.
It’s a form of dishonesty.
If I tell you that I’ll do something for you, but I really know that I shouldn’t be doing it and I really don’t even want to and I pretend like it’s just fine with me.
I’m being dishonest with you and that does not make me a good friend.
People pleasing is dishonorable because it is not being truthful. And there’s a wonderful scripture.
In Ephesians 4 15. In the amplified version, it says, rather, let our lives lovingly express truth in all things, speaking, truly dealing, truly living, truly enfolded in love.
Let us grow up in every way and in all things into him who is the head, even Christ, the Messiah, you know, some people don’t want to hear the truth but, but that does not relieve us of the responsibility of speaking the truth.
Now, this book that I’ve written authentically and uniquely you, I obviously feel it’s a good book.
I would never write and release anything for sale that I didn’t feel I was going to help people.
I think this is really going to help you and most of you probably know somebody you could also buy the book for.
I think this book is really gonna help you and I pray that you’ll get it.
Hey, we’re so glad you joined us today and I want to encourage you to join us again tomorrow.
Thank you. Find the freedom to be the amazing you God desires with today’s resources, authentically, uniquely you and Joyce’s children’s book Uniquely You in authentically, uniquely you be encouraged to overcome comparison and people pleasing while learning how God has given you unique talents and abilities to fulfill his purposes for your life.
And in this picture book, uniquely you Joyce shares an empowering message for chill that encourages them to embrace their wonderful unique God given identities together you and your Children will discover the message that God made each of us for a reason and we are exactly who He meant us to be authentically uniquely you and uniquely you are available today for your gift of $35 or more connect with us.
Now, visit online at Joyce meyer dot org or call 1 807 092895.
Did you know that you can be completely honest with God? David in the Bible?
Certainly was. He poured out his questions and pain and discovered how deeply God loved him through it all you can to.
That’s why I’m so excited about this devotional daily devotions from Psalms.
As you take time to know God in a deeper way, you will find comfort and peace every single day, daily devotions from songs new from Joyce Meyer order your copy today.
Courage is not the absence of fear.
It’s going forward in the presence of fear.
The main reason that the Bible gives us for not living in fear is God is with us.
And I think that it would help us all to just stop and say God is with me right now.
David said, what time I am afraid I will trust in you.
He didn’t say he never had fear, but he said, I’ve got something that will help me deal with the fear.
I put my trust in you.
And the only way you’re gonna put your faith in God is if you know that, you know that, you know that you know that God loves you, that He loves you personally and has a good plan for your life.
Keep your eyes on God because He’s greater than any circumstance, help us father to be aware of what’s going on inside of us.
You have not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind and you have destinies and plans and dreams and goals and visions for people.
And I asked you to give them great courage to stand up against fear. In Jesus name. Amen.
We hope you have enjoyed today’s program.
For more information, visit Joyce Meyer dot org.
This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries.
