How Do I Find Happiness?

If we’re really going to have any happiness we really have to understand the grace of God. Find out what grace means right now and watch as joy comes into your life.

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.

If we’re ever gonna have any happiness, we’ve really got to understand the grace of God.
And just to make it as simple as I can for the amount of time I have grace is not only God’s undeserved favor.
So that means instead of me spending my life trying to kick down doors that I want to go through.
I can trust God to give me favor and open the right doors for me at the right time.
Grace is what changes us God’s power.
Grace is not only undeserved favor, it’s God’s power coming to us free of charge to enable us to do with ease.
What we could never do on our own with any amount of struggle and effort.
That’s my very own definition. You want it again.
Grace is God’s power coming to us freely.
All we need to do is receive it and it enables us grace is enabling power, it enables us to do with ease.
What we could never do on our own apart from God with any amount of struggle and effort.
I tell you, I tried so many years to change myself because I knew that, you know, I had problems.
I tried to be happier. I tried to be peaceful.
I tried to be a better person.
I, you know, I tried and tried and tried and tried and instead of it working I actually was getting worse.
Yeah, because the more frustrated we are, the worse we behave.
And God began to teach me out of his word.
That it was only his grace that could change me to make a, to make a long story short, we’re saved by grace.
We get that. It’s like, well, here I am. You know, I’ve done everything.
If you don’t help me, I’m done for her and we receive, we don’t get salvation.
I don’t like the terminology. How many got saved?
We’ve had about 200 people receive Christ in this conference.
You cannot get a free gift, you receive free gifts by grace.
Are you saved through faith? It is a gift of God not of works list. Any man should boast.
And the same way that we’re saved is the same way we have to learn how to live.
Now, grace is about a 20 part teaching series and I’ve got about three minutes here for this section.
So let me just tell you that any time that you feel frustrated, it’s because you’re trying to do something that only God can do any time.
You’re frustrated, you’re trying to do something that only God can do and you need to stop and just say, ok, I’ve gotten over the works of the flesh, which is my energy trying to do God’s job.
I’m gonna back off here. God help me.
I need you to make this happen apart from you.
I can do nothing and then realizing that God doesn’t do everything in our timing nor the way that we would do it.
So after praying, we then trust God and we watch him work.
I finally stopped trying to change myself and lo and behold, I’ve been changed.
You say no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean?
You don’t try to change yourself? Wow, you just can’t not try to change yourself.
Well, yeah, I can. Yeah, I can.
I pray every morning. Lord said a watch over my mouth.
Lest I sin against you with my tongue.
Help me, Lord not to get in trouble with my mouth today.
And if you don’t help me, I’m definitely gonna get in trouble. Now.
Hang on and here’s how it works. I pray.
And then the Holy Spirit reminds me, I’m going through the day.
I’m busy going along and see this is how the Holy Spirit is with us all the time and he works in our life and I start Dave says something and I didn’t care far.
I say something back and then he says something back and then I get this little like how many OK, see you get it.
You know, now, you know, maybe you’re not quite where we’re at and you’re like, what’s she talking about?
You get this, well, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us.
And the Bible says in Romans 76 that we no longer live by the law, we don’t live by all these rules and regulations of how we have to behave for God to love us.
But we now live by the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
So the truth is if I make 100 mistakes with my mouth today, God’s still gonna love me.
I’m still gonna go to heaven. But I want to do what’s right because I love him.
So instead of me going around saying, well, I, I, I’m just not gonna say anything today.
That way I won’t get in trouble cause see all we know how to do is be extreme.
I’m just not gonna talk at all.
And that way I won’t get in trouble and that doesn’t work.
We all know that we might shut up for a while.
But boy, when we open our mouths, you, but here’s what you do.
Instead of saying, boy, I can’t do this today and I can’t do this and I can’t do this and I can’t do this and I better not do this.
You just get up and say God, I want to be all. You want me to be Holy Spirit.
I ask you to remind me if I’m about to get myself in trouble, then my part is and we have a part.
You have a part, but it’s not like this fleshly effort.
It’s just a, it’s a spiritual effort, but it’s just a saying. I want to cooperate with God. OK?
Lord, you’re telling me to zip my lip.
And if I don’t, I’m about to start a fight with Dave, then I can just shut up.
You didn’t get that. Was that hard?
How many of you are understanding what I’m saying?
Now, two quick things that were on my heart.
First of all, I want us to look at first Corinthians 15 10, the apostle Paul said, but by the grace, the unmerited favor and blessing of God, I am what I am and his grace toward me was not found to be for nothing fruitless and without effect, in fact, I worked harder than everybody, but it was not really me.
It was the grace of God in me, which did the work.
Now that I mean, this could initially even sound a little confusing.
But Paul is saying, look, I am what I am by the grace of God.
But when God offered me His grace, I didn’t take it in vain.
I took that power of the Holy Spirit and I used that to do the things that God wanted me to be do.
Now, Paul, ok. Now here I am, I’m a successful apostle.
But let me remind you that it’s only because of the grace of God and I can tell you today, I mean, honestly, when I come up here and I preach and I’ve done this now for 40 years.
But when I come up here and preach, I’m just like, it’s almost like I’m somebody else.
And well, that probably doesn’t make any sense.
But it’s like, I’m like, because you see when the, when the grace and the power and the anointing of God comes on you, the Bible says it turns you into another man or woman.
We can do things by the grace of God that we cannot do any other way.
But let me also tell you when I come up here, I am not depending on me.
Now, I’ve studied, I’ve worked, but even that I need God’s grace to keep doing.
I’ve been doing this 40 years. This may be your first conference. It’s not my first rodeo.
Amen.
And just to want to keep doing it just to stay fresh, just to have yet another message just to stay in one more hotel.
I need grace, grace and more grace.
So you got to depend on God all the way through.
You could stop grumbling about your jobs if you would depend on God’s grace every day when you go there.
Oh, I wish I had another day.
And in Second Corinthians 12 7 through nine, I’m not going to take the time to go there.
But let me tell you something. If you are in a difficult situation.
You have a difficult child to raise. You are in a difficult relationship.
You’re in a relationship with somebody that is really hard to be in a relationship with anybody.
You’re in a position where you’re needing to take care of elderly parents and no matter what you do, they don’t like it.
Three. Yeah.
Now, I want you to listen to me any place where God has put you that he will give you the grace.
Wait, wait, wait, wait to be there and be happy while you’re there.
Paul prayed that God would deal with what the Bible calls the thorn in his flesh three times.
He called on the Lord and the Lord said, I’m not going to remove it.
My grace is sufficient and the amplified Bible says, my grace is sufficient to enable you to bear the trouble manfully.
In other words, my grace can enable you to be in that situation and put a smile on your face and serve me and do it with a good attitude.
But you’re not gonna get grace.
If you get up, I gotta go to that stupid job again and drive in this stupid traffic and I don’t make enough money and I hate this job and I hate the people and you forget getting graced if that’s gonna, but you get up and you say God, this is where you’ve got me right now.
And I’m going to trust you that when you’re done with me here, you’re going to put me somewhere else.
But in the meantime, I’m going to go there by your grace with a smile on my face and I am going to represent you and I am going to glorify you.
Amen. That’s what grace is.
Grace doesn’t just hang around to forgive my stupidity.
It does that too, but grace enables me.