Joel Osteen: Finding the Strength to Navigate Seasons of Loss | Praise on TBN

Joel and Victoria Osteen sit down with Matt and Laurie Crouch on TBN’s Praise to talk about navigating through seasons of loss, and coming through to the other side stronger than before!

This video was brought to you by TBN Networks

On the air since 1973, TBN’s flagship ministry and talk show Praise is one of the most recognizable — and most watched — Christian programs in the world. Taped before a live audience and hosted by TBN’s own Matt and Laurie Crouch along with other popular personalities, Praise features the best in contemporary Christian music and worship, fresh and impacting ministry voices, engaging interviews from a wide variety of guests, and a fast-moving hour of relevant talk you won’t want to miss!

Know that god still has it in the palm of his hand, that nothing you’re facing is a surprise to him.
And one one thought that I like is sometimes we’re always praying to get out of the difficulty, but how about inviting god into the difficulty?
There you go. God will come into the fire with you, and I I think sometimes It’s a greater victory that god walked you through the fire than just delivered you out of it immediately.
So know that god’s right there with you. You won’t face anything that you can’t handle.
Because god’s already planned out all of our days.
And so the thought is to change your perspective and say, man, this I can’t I don’t know if how am I gonna deal with this sickness or this you know, the situation at work.
I think the way to turn it around is say, okay, god, you’ve equipped me. You’ve empowered me.
I’m well able to handle this.
I think many times we defeat ourselves in our own mind, you know, just with the negative thoughts, and I can’t believe this has happened.
And if you think negative, you’re gonna live negative, but We’re talking there about thinking power thoughts and and knowing that you, you know, that you can withstand whatever comes your way.
I I liken it to this.
You know, when an architect plans out a building, designs a building, he doesn’t just design the outside, the exterior, and all that.
He goes in and designs the foundation and all the piers and the beams, and he does that based on how big the building’s gonna be or what it’s gonna need.
So you wouldn’t you wouldn’t design a good architect, wouldn’t design a a a skyscraper, a sixty story building and only make the foundation to hold, you know, ten stories Well, I liken it to, if an architect, a normal architect, a humanly architect does that, well, god is our architect.
Yeah. He knew what we would be facing. You know, sometimes, we think, well, I can’t handle this. No.
You’ve got the pierce for it. You’ve got the strength for it. You’ve been designed to withstand.
Even even I like to liken it too.
If you build a building in California, you know, it may be different.
It’s gotta have some foundation for the earthquakes. If you’re in Florida, it may be for the wind.
Wherever we are, god knew what was gonna happen.
Whether there’s gonna be earthquake, a wind, a storm, uh, you know, you just have to remind yourself I’ve been designed to withstand this.
You know, I called my dad went to be with the lord.
It felt overwhelming because I thought, you know, thought said, Joel, you can’t get up there and preach.
Nobody’s gonna listen to you. You’ve been behind the scene all these years, but, you know, I had to tune that out and say, god, I believe you’ve raised me up for such a time as this.
Well, I discovered things in me that I didn’t know I had. I didn’t know I could do this.
I didn’t know I could, you know, I didn’t know I had the strength of the talent or of the anointing or any of that, but My encouragement is whatever comes your way, you can handle it.
Yeah. Quit telling yourself that you can’t know that you’ve been designed to withstand it.
And and I don’t even mean Laurie like It’s one thing to withstand it from a place of, oh, this is so much, and I wanna make it through.
I’m gonna, you know, you can withstand it from a place of victory. Yeah.
I believe even in those tough times and know, with back to my dad, it it was you know, I mourned when I lost him.
I was sad, but I still down deep, there was a sense of joy, a sense of victory, a sense of purpose.
I didn’t fall into depression. I know some people, you know, get discouraged, but my point being is you can you can go through the tough times with the smile on your Yeah.
Maybe not jumping, uh, jumping up and down, but knowing that god’s in control, knowing that he’s fighting our battle.
So that’s what the book’s all about, because you know, man, we can’t we don’t we don’t preach that we’re not gonna have difficulties, because, you know, the difficulties come to us all, but I like to, you know, let people know when those difficulties comes, god, is right there with you.
He’s only a danger.
And wonderfully made. Is what you’re saying.
Exactly. And he’s planned out all of our days. He knew everything that we would face.
And I guess one of the main scriptures that says, what is it?
God let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
But what the temptation, he’ll make a way where you can escape.
In one place where you can bear it, So, you know, the thought is I like to run from hard times.
I like to run from god to get me out of this, but it doesn’t necessarily say that he you’re gonna get out of every one of them on our timetable, but he said you’ll he did say you’ll be able to bear it.
And, you
know, bear it with a good attitude, you know, I’m not saying to, you know, just accept everything and just, you know, not not believe for victory.
I’m just saying that you can’t pray away everything. Sometimes there’s difficulty.
You gotta say, god, I wanna tap into your strength.
I’m not gonna fall apart, and I believe you’ll discover a strength that you didn’t know you had.
I was raised. You and I were raised in the same camp, Joel.
And, um, you know, so the confessions of our mouth, and I believe death and life from power of the tongue, and I think all that is great.
I also know that every time I face a situation, It’s not just it just doesn’t go away.
I can’t pray it away, even a sickness. Sometimes, well, we know God is the great physician.
He is the great healer whether I stay sick or not, and I say that, I think everybody understands.
Not every time we pray, do we get the answer we want?
But he says, my grace is sufficient for you.
So what I have found is through is through even health challenges.
Absolutely, I am going to believe from my healing absolutely, I’m going to take communion.
I’m going to do everything I know to do to be better. I’m going to eat healthier.
I’m going to do the right things.
But I’m also gonna thank God that you are giving me the grace to go through this because so many times, every time he uses those things for our good.
He uses things that we go through to make us stronger.
To make us better to delve deeper into what he has for us.
And how many of us know that we’ve gone through challenges and we say, that was kind of the best thing that ever happened to me because I got treasures in that dark time.
I got I got things that are priceless to me today.
So that so god knows what we need for our future.
No. That’s so important, Lori. I like to think of it if the situation is not changing, then maybe god’s using the situation to change me.
Exactly. Even even when
we went to get the Compact Center, after we, you know, met with the city council and and they voted for us.
So we got it as a year and a half battle.
Well, the the day after we won the city council vote, a company filed a lawsuit to try to keep us from moving in, the company that owned all the property around the building.
And it was a 2 year legal battle.
We had just come off the biggest one of the biggest highs of our lives.
We just got the Compact Center.
I get a phone call from my brother, and then brother-in-law, I’m in California, and he said, Joel, a a company has filed this federal lawsuit.
And I said, what does that mean?
He said, it means it could be tied up in the courts for 10 years.
I said, oh, man, off this high to this not so high.
But what’s it what the point I wanted to make is 2 years later, god supernaturally turned it around.
The the CEO of the company that owned all the property came and met with us, said he watched this on television, and it was just a miracle.
Yeah. My point being, those 2 years, god could have done it, 3 days after their thing. Right. Right.
But it took 2 years, but you know, those 2 years? Laurie, like you said, I learned to pray.
I learned to trust. I learned to say, okay, am I gonna worry, or am I gonna And we’re gonna not sleep at night, and there plenty of times I woke up in the middle of the night.
Thoughts told me you’re gonna look like a fool.
You’re gonna have to give all the funds back because we’d already raised funds and if it don’t what if you don’t win the lawsuit, but I think it’s in those times that you grow that that situation, god, he could have changed it sooner.
But he didn’t. So, you know, you gotta tap into that strength and know that you you you have what you need to go through it with a good attitude and the longer I live in Detroit, you gotta jump in, but I’ve learned to, you know, trust god’s timing and trust his ways.
I think it’s two things, because I set, Lori, and like, okay, god, I want you to do it this way.
Yeah. Gotta do it this way.
God, this is, well, god may, you know, has believing for a building, and god gave us the compact center.
So I think it’s it’s important to say, you know, god, I trust the way you’re gonna do it, and I trust your timing.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, even though those difficult situations you have to put yourself in an atmosphere to foster the strength within you because the strength in you has to be stirred up and fostered And like we were talking about, if you think negative all the time, you’re gonna just go down that negative path that you’re gonna be defeated And that’s why god says to, you know, cast your cares upon me because I care for you.
And I think that’s the sweetest thing is, don god does care for us.
And if we could just pull back the curtain and see what’s gonna happen in the future, a lot of times we’d sit back and go, Okay.
I’m gonna relax.
Right.
But we can’t because we’re in these human suits, and we wanna figure it out now.
And we wanna figure out quick. And so Really, I’ve learned that, you know what?
I I’ve gotta learn to cast my care upon him, and that’s gotta be an intentional thing. Right.
You know, because it I’ve cast my care and I’ve given to him.
I put it on the altar, and then I’ll go pick it right back up again an hour later.
I’ll be, you know, in my mind going over and over it.
So there are a lot of things that god has given us tools to just build or stir up that inner strength that’s already there, that that character so that character can be built.
I know like talking about the Compact Center, things that we actually went through in the future, we use those same things that we went through.
Yeah.
Right. So we were able to look back and go, well, this has happened before.
We know how to do this. We know how to handle this situation. Just experiences we had to walk through.
Uh, depositions, things that you have to walk through, you know, that you can say, okay, I’m not freaking out.
I know how this works. You know, I know that god’s with me, so you can use a lot of that.
And that’s another thing that god can build in you because a lot of times If you’ve got a big future, you’re gonna face other big big challenges and big obstacles down the road.
You seem to be saying and what you’ve already said what everyone’s already kind of alluded to, we’re stronger than we think.
God designed us. We’re fearfully and 1 wonderfully made.
If we’re facing a situation, god already knew you could handle it.
So there’s the subject matter that were kinda.
Now not everything that you have to go through is good or certainly in in at the immediate time is good.
But your character’s being formed, you know, you’re becoming more humble, you’re, you know, all sorts of stuff.
You know, that that happens when when something really horrible happens. Okay? You know?
And and remember, sometimes a drunk driver takes the life of a child and a family divorces through the stress of that.
Sometimes an organization like mad gets created. Mothers against drug drivers.
See, so sometimes pressure and horrible situations result in great outcomes eventually.
No one would ever choose a lot of the stuff we have to go through, but alright.
But you’re talking about and this is really a hard thing to do, but you’re a senior pastor, and I love asking hard questions to senior pastors.
You’re really asking us to be those of us that are in some horrible situation.
You know, we can all sit here and think about somebody that’s in some kind of a bad situation.
You’re asking us really to redefine those as an opportunity Yeah. K. That sounds hard, but go for it.
Yeah. It it is, man. I I agree with everything you just said that we don’t We don’t wish this.
We don’t, you know, but but things happen in life.
And so I do think that the option is to get better, to give up on life, I can’t take this and just drop out.
Well, god didn’t god didn’t design us to do that.
And so I think the option is to say, okay, This has happened. I don’t even know the reason.
I’m not god. I don’t have, you know, I think we can each think that we’re not god.
He’s got his ways, but In the meantime, I believe and trust god enough to know that on the other side of this, somehow, god’s gonna make me better, or somehow he’s gonna bring some kind of good out of it, Now that’s hard if you just lost a loved one or something.
So I don’t I don’t I think it takes some time, but I think that is the premise is when you face something that’s difficult to difficult rather than falling apart, have the attitude.
You know what? I can handle this.
My father knows what he’s doing when he designed my life, when he laid out the plan, there’s no surprise in there for him.
And so I think, I think that’s the whole thing.
And then, you know, you think about in the scripture, when people did great things, many times What led them to their greatness was a big big obstacle.
He didn’t even take David. We all know his story, but he would never have become king if he hadn’t have faced this big giant.
On the other side of that giant was a a big future for him.
So, you know, he could have looked at giant like a lot of the other is realizing, oh my gosh, this guy, he’s gonna I’m scared of him.
Let’s let’s retreat. And you know what?
He had a different he had a different mentality, had a different per perspective.
And I know God causes that faith to rise up at times, but I think the premise is, he thought, you know what, this giant can’t defeat us.
And I’ve got what it takes to fulfill my destiny, and instead of shrinking back and Wilton, He took that step of faith.
It seemed like in in David’s case also, you’ve delivered me from the Paul, the lion, and the bear, which under normal circumstances, I shouldn’t have been able to defeat.
And so why not just take the same attitude to this impossible situation.
So when you’re facing an impossible situation, you can look beyond it, or at least you’re asking us to look beyond it.
That’s exactly right. I believe you look beyond it.
I think you can, like, Victoria was saying it at times you can look back and say, God, you you you you caused me to defeat the lion to bear.
You’ve given me this victory and this victory. That’s fuel for our faith.
And I think too, Matt, another way to look at what we’re talking about perspective is God knows what’s in your future, the good things in your future, the influence to favor, that you have to be able to handle the weight of that You have to be, you know, your character’s gotta be there.
You gotta be able to withstand some oppositions and persecution, some people that don’t like you.
So I believe all along the way, god’s getting us prepared.
And I often think about, uh, a blessing is not a blessing if you can’t handle it, because, you know, it it would bring you down.
So I believe as you go through these difficulties, as you get stronger, you’re developing your muscles, and you’re thinking, okay, hey, god, you gave me the compact center.
You turn that big company around, and we won that lawsuit, and you go through some of those things.
Well, you’re gaining that strength to where god’s gonna take you.
So I think we do have to pass these tests with a good attitude.
And, um, that’s what prepares us to carry. I like to say the the weight of glory.
Mean, the reason we have big difficulties is because we have a big future.
You know, we have things coming against us, but god’s getting us prepared.
And I think it’s important that, you know, I don’t want to go anywhere where I’m not prepared where I can’t carry the weight of what god has for me.
And I think through these other challenges, we, we grow through them.
And I guess what I’m saying too is, man, let’s don’t have a defeated mindset. Yes, we go through 2020s.
And yes, we have things come against us, but you gotta stir it up and say, look, god, You’ve harmed me with strength for this battle.
You’ve already designed my foundation. This is not a surprise to you, this this sickness, or this child that’s off course, this financial difficulty, Whatever it is, god, I, I’m gonna go through it with a good attitude.
I believe when you do that, you you tap into a strength that you didn’t know you had.
I’m thinking about in the scripture, it says that when let me get my stories right.
I think it was when Elijah was up on the mountain praying for rain.
And he you know, seven times the went out there and didn’t see a cloud in the sky the 7th time, I think he saw that little cloud.
But then it says that he came down the mountain and he told King Ahab that he better leave because the rain was about to happen.
And abundance of rain was coming, and the scripture says that god gave Elijah special strength and he outran the chariot to Jesriel.
I think it was a twenty mile journey.
Well, you know, a horse can run a lot faster than us for twenty miles, but you know what struck me is god gave him special strength.
And I believe there are times that, you know, you’re in this difficult difficulties and in on your own, you couldn’t do it, but god’s gonna give you special strength.
He’s gonna have people there to encourage you.
He’s gonna cause you to feel something in you that you didn’t have.
And so, uh, that’s the way I like to look at these difficult times. Yes.
In the natural, it should defeat me, but the god I serve knows how to give me a special strength.
He knows how to have angels minister to us.
It goes back to that perspective though, because, you know, Elijah could have been complaining. Got them surrounded.
I got the we’re in a famine. We don’t have we don’t how’s this gonna work out?
But is up there praying and worship and telling them go out and look for a cloud.
But, you know, when you release your faith, I believe you get strength to do things you couldn’t normally do on your own.
You know, that’s just seeing god in a whole new way. Yeah.
You know, I always think that when we go through times like that, when you’re when you’re you know, when your friends go through stuff, I wanna glean off of everything they have learned through difficult times so that so that maybe I can learn it and not maybe not have to go through it.
Go through the exact same thing.
Yeah. But all those things that happen, we’ve We see god in such a beautiful way through those.
You you get a strength inside of you. That you don’t know where that came from. You get a comfort.
You get a peace inside where I should be going mad right now.
And, man, this There is a peace right now that passes all understanding that I can’t describe.
You know, so we see god in times like that that are That’s just him showing off who he is.
Yeah. Our great big, wonderful god, and and difficult times.
That’s why it’s so important to know you’re stronger than you think. Yeah.
Because in difficult times, you do not feel strong. Yeah.
You feel so weak and to know that God has placed something He’s placed himself inside of us.
And that’s the strength. And, you know, you think about it.
The enemy is the one that would like to use the situation to get you to drop out to stop.
And, you know, when you think about that, the last thing you wanna do is give into what the enemy wants, you know, because you’re not going to fulfill your destiny.
You’re not going to start the mothers against drunk drivers. You’re not going to take the Compact Center.
You’re not going see the rain, the abundance of rain if you stop.
And so the nice thing is is to think, you know what? This isn’t god.
That’s doing this to me, and this isn’t he’s not putting this on me, but he’s gonna strengthen me through it.
Yeah. And I’m certainly not gonna give in to what the enemy would want me to do.
He wants me to shut every door, stay home, pull the covers over my head, which I am here to say that, you know, sometimes you have to pause.
And
you have to let yourself heal. You have to gain a new perspective.
You’ve gotta pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and you gotta go, okay. I am stronger than I think.
Now I’m gonna start applying some of these things because, you know, I don’t I think we’d be superhuman.
We would be god if nothing faced us.
You know, if if we could just plow through everything, but when we lean on him and trust him, he will give us that supernatural right now.
You’re basing this on the foundation that god created the architecture inside of you and that any horrible event that comes by you has passed by the throne, and god already knows it’s that you have the capability.
Sitting on this set somewhere with Jason Sobel, he helped us with the Jewish interpretation of one of the scriptures that you can do all things through Christ should be or would the better interpretation is you can do all seasons through Christ.
And so good or bad,
you’re able to
go through this season.
You can do all seasons through Christ to strengthen you.
It is a journey of faith every day. And his mercies are new every morning.
His grace is sufficient for you. Give us this day. Our daily bread. We win the
day. Yeah.
Just day by day walking it out in faith.
Thank you, Mark Batterson.
You’re welcome. Hey. Thank you, Mark. I was reading that this morning. It was so good. Women of day.
You’re not talking about the
things you go through, how it builds such compassion. I know things that I have gone through.
I may not have been able to see what someone else is going through in their life.
I may not have been able to feel. But through some difficulties, I can feel what they’re feeling.
I can pray for them differently. I can minister it to them differently. You know, you learn not to judge.
I mean, there’s a lot of things that you you can do, you know, that’ll come out of you, you know, just to be a better person to be kind more kind, you know, more considerate, more loving.
And I think, I mean, because that’s what god really has us here for for one another.
To lift each other up. Yeah.
You know, and so we have to pull on those things on the inside of us to to really see and understand humanity better.
This format that we’re doing right now, we’re sitting together, and we’re just discussing In one sense, super deep into the pool kind of theology that wait a second.
God knew this tragedy was gonna happen. Wait a second. God knew wait a second.
You’re saying, um, that a tragic event could be an opportunity. You know, my my folks
There’s a purpose in it.
You know, my folks you know, talk to us about so many things before they both passed back several years ago, And my dad used to call this subject in general, the deep end of the pool.
And and he he got a
lot of you know, what he learned from an old timer named Paul Billheimer.
He wrote a amazing book called Destin for the throne. We’ve used it many times on this network.
It’s amazing book, but Paul Billheimer used to talk about it this way. Nothing or some things.
In life will never make sense.
Mhmm. K?
Yeah. Until you zoom out and include eternity.
Because in one sense, this life is on the job training for eternity.
And you know, if you want more about that, get Paul Billheimer’s book destined for the throne.
It was published by Trinity and and It’s probably available at Amazon.
The you’re really, in one sense, taking on really, really deep subjects, but you’re putting your very fresh and kind approach to it.
So step through this kind of as we’re saying goodbye here and and if you would pray for the audience too, Joel, but kinda kinda start with somebody that’s facing something that’s really rough.
You’ve been there. You know, we’ve all been there.
And and walk us through that and then pray for us if you were there.
Yeah. I’d love to. Well, I think the the first thing is know that god still has it in the palm of his hand.
That nothing you’re facing is a surprise to him.
And one one thought that I like is sometimes we’re always praying to get out of the difficulty, but how about inviting god into the difficult
you go.
God will come into the fire with you, and I I think sometimes it’s a greater victory that God walked you through the fire than just delivered you out of it immediately.
So know that god’s right there with you.
He wouldn’t have you wouldn’t be facing this if you couldn’t handle it, and I think it’s important you get your thoughts going in the right direction, get your joy back.
May be hard, but god’s gonna give you a special strength like he did for Elijah.
So that’s what we’re believing for you and your family that you’re gonna see good days up ahead and and not just, you know, not just endure life, but still enjoy life.
And I think that’s part of, uh, maturity of faith to say, yeah, I’ve got some difficulties. Everything’s not perfect.
But I still have a smile. I’m still giving god praise, still being good to somebody else.
That’s what we’re believing for you and your family. I wanna pray for you, lord.
Thank you for all of our friends listening watching on TV and, Lord, I know you do have them in the palm of your hand.
I thank your father that you’re fighting their back said, Lord, what you’ve already done, they’ll see that they’ll see the manifestation, just for healing sick bodies, restoring relationships, turning negative situations around or bringing children back on the right path.
And what I just thinking that you’re freeing them from a anxiety, depression, that today would be a breakthrough day, or let them feel your love as they’d never felt before in just thank your father that you’ll take them where they can’t go on their own, that they will discover that special strength.
Lord, your goodness, your mercy, your grace for every season, I thank you for doing it in Jesus’ name.
God bless you.