Keeping God First | Joyce Meyer | Enjoying Everyday Life

On this episode of Enjoying Everyday Life, Joyce Meyer shares practical ways to keep God first in your life. Learn to put His will first, plus other important “firsts” found in the Bible.

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.

Most people want to be successful, but what you have to decide is whose definition of success are you going to follow?
In my new book, the pathway to success, I want to walk with you toward a life filled with meaning and purpose the way god sees it.
God has given everything we need for a life that’s fulfilling to us and pleasing to him.
And I want to help you discover it.
Today, we’re offering Joyce’s newest release, the pathway to success for your donation of any amount contact us now at joycemeyer.org or call toll free 1807092895.
This program is made possible by the partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries.
Don’t live to please yourself. Don’t even live to please other people.
I’m Joyce Meyer, and where you hurt.
It’s silly to say that we don’t have time for god, and if we don’t have time for him that he’s not 1st in our lives.
Do you think about god and his goodness? Fair amount in your life.
Do you take time to thank god for your blessings, even little ones?
That you can get out of bed and walk to the bathroom that you do have clean water being pumped into your house, hot or cold.
Do we thank god that somebody loves us that we have somebody to eat with?
A lot of people that are married think, well, you know, they’re not happy, and they want somebody else.
And You know, there’s probably some lonely woman that would take your guy if you really don’t want him.
Might be happy just to have somebody sit on eat with.
Can you say without hesitation, that god is 1st in your life.
Deuteronomy 6436.
Hero, Israel, the lord our god is 1 lord the only lord, and you shall love the lord your god with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and all your strength, And these words, which I’m commanding you today, shall be 1st in your own mind and your hearts.
Did it run at me 5, 7? You should have no other gods before me.
Now so we wanna seek god first.
Now the next first I wanna talk to you about is seeking god’s will first.
I wanna challenge you to really crave the will of god in your life.
Your will be done, but not mine.
That’s an awesome prayer to pray that Jesus prayed in the garden of Yosemite.
He said, if you can remove this cup from me, please do.
It kind of appears he didn’t want to have to go through the death on the cross, but he quickly said nevertheless.
That’s a good word.
Nevertheless, might go something like this for a single lady who’s fifty and never been married.
God, I just really want to get married.
Nevertheless, I can be happy.
With just you, your will be done.
Lord, I really, really, really would love to promotion at work.
And I feel like I’ve worked hard, and I I’ve earned it nevertheless.
I can be happy without a and I will be happy for whoever you give it to.
Uh-oh. Come on. We’re diving in deep this morning.
Nevertheless, let’s start putting a few more, nevertheless, is in our prayers.
God wants to know what we want, but he also wants to know that it’s not the basis of our joy.
Well, I just don’t think I can be happy without this.
Matthew 633, Siki First, the kingdom of god. Yeah.
Let’s see how many weird noises we can make today.
Sieke first, aim at and strive after first of all his kingdom and his righteousness, his way of doing and being right, and then all of these things will be added unto you.
Don’t you like added?
Seek god’s ways, and he provides all other things.
Live to please the lord.
Make decisions that are pleasing to god. Don’t live to please yourself.
Don’t even live to please other people.
Now Paul did say that he made a lot of decisions in order to please other people so he would have an opportunity to lead them to Christ, but he wasn’t talking about being a man pleaser.
Some of you have allowed yourself to be manipulated and controlled by the whimps and the desires of other people, and you have gotten yourself in a real mess because you’re now in the middle of having to do a bunch of things that you don’t even feel like is god for your life.
Sounds like they need this over here more than you do.
So I’m just gonna stay over here a while.
Well, so now you’re gonna fix, well, what are you gonna do?
You know, if you confront the situation, you might lose the person or start a war, Well, one thing’s for sure.
You may have made a mistake that got you into this mess, but you cannot stay in it.
Or your whole life will be destroyed because you let other people use you.
Can I give you a piece of advice?
You will not walk in the will of god unless you are willing occasionally to make somebody mad.
And maybe I ought to say that to somebody else.
I don’t know. You know, we make a lot of decisions because we don’t want people to be mad at us.
And the problem is if they’re gonna get mad at you because you don’t decide what they want, then they’re probably don’t care that much about you anyway.
I mean, that’s really probably the truth.
In the last 5 days, I’ve had to say no to 3 requests. 2 of those requests came from fairly close friends.
And it’s not easy, but I was in that trap for too long.
Well, can you do me a favor? Well, yeah, sure.
But then I was killing myself physically, still had to do what I needed to do to take care of this because that was my main responsibility.
If you don’t learn to say no, You will never walk in the will of god.
And if I tell somebody I don’t feel like god really well, I mean, what I said to the one girl, I mean, she had a great response.
I said, know what? I would love to come and help you and do that for you, but I gave her the reasons why I said, but it just wouldn’t be a wise decision for me.
And thankfully, she was spiritually mature enough to text me back and say, well, we would love to have you, and I’m disappointed, but wisdom has to trump everything else.
Now that’s a true friend and somebody that I might do something for at another time in life.
You say, well, okay, I’m already in that mess.
What am I supposed to do?
Well, first thing you need to pray and see what god says to you about how to get yourself out of this situation.
And then you made us to sit down with the person who say, listen.
I’ve I’ve got a confession to make.
I have a problem, and I’m insecure.
And so because I want a relationship with you, I have done many things that you wanted me to do that I did not feel right about, and god is dealing with me about this, and I’ve gotta make some changes.
You know, the way to adjust anything is to just tell the truth.
That doesn’t mean they’re gonna like it.
If they’re not a believer, they certainly won’t understand it.
But you gotta break free from manipulation and control.
We’re gonna be led, guided, and controlled by the Holy Spirit, not by somebody else.
Live to please the lord.
Colossians 110 that you may walk live and conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the lord, fully pleasing to him and desiring to please him in all things.
Ladies, I think we need to please god in the way we dress.
You don’t need to go to work and be a temptation to somebody else.
Especially not to somebody else’s husband, amen.
Well, I could just get off in a ditch here, and I’ve got a lot of things that I wanna do, but Colashians 34 says that he is our very life.
Woah. I love that. Alright.
What else do I wanna say to you here?
Now, you
know, there’s a lot of other things in the Bible that say that if we do this first, then god will do that.
They’re all kind of related to the principle of sowing and reaping.
You don’t reap till you sow. He can’t.
No farmer is gonna get upset because he sowed no seed and now doesn’t have a harvest.
So here’s just a few I’ve found in the Bible.
Forgive others and you will be forgiven. Yep.
That’s a good one. Okay. Now listen.
You we would be shocked to know how many people in this room today are mad at somebody.
And you think you’re justified in your anger.
Well, we may get angry.
The feeling of anger is not sin, but staying angry and acting on the anger is sin.
This particular issue is doing more damage to the body of Christ as a whole and to the power that we should have as a church than any other single thing.
Unforgiveness. Bitterness, resentment.
The Bible says, pray for your enemies and bless them. It doesn’t say you have to like them.
It doesn’t say you have to have ooey gooey feelings when you get around them.
Love is not a way we feel.
It’s a decision we make on how we’re going to treat people and how we’re gonna talk about them.
And my gosh.
All the people watching on TV today Lord, have mercy.
How many people are you mad at? Wow.
Cutest.
Let me tell you something.
Being mad at somebody is not gonna change them. It changes you. Doesn’t change them.
It changes you. It ruins your life. It poisons your life. Well, bless god.
I’m just not gonna let them get by with that.
Well, god says if you will do things his way, he will be your vindicator.
So do you want your brand of justice or gods?
Say here again, back to last night’s message.
We go by feelings, but I feel. I feel. I feel.
Well, get with god and pray until you can control those feelings.
You’re more than a feeling.
Just because you feel something doesn’t mean you have to be that way.
Mark Levin For this reason, I’m telling you whatever you ask for in prayer, we’re talking prayer power here.
Believe trust and be confident that it is granted to you and you will get it. Verse 25.
And Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, Oh my gosh.
Anything against anyone. Anything against anyone.
Anything.
Little things, big things, things that you think you’re justified in.
If you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop, leave it, and let it go.
Pray for the person, put them in god’s hands, walk away from the hatred, the bitterness, the resentment, and get about living your life.
K. Listen.
In order that your father also would forgive you your own failings and shortcomings.
You know, millions of people pray the lord’s prayer.
And they don’t even understand what they’re praying.
Father forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Do we really want god to forgive us the same way we forgive other people?
Oh, boy, this is time well spent today.
Be merciful first and then you will receive mercy.
See, when you sow a good seed, you’re not only likely to get a harvest from god, but you’ll get also get a harvest from people.
I believe if because we love god, we show mercy to people, and mercy always goes to people who don’t deserve it.
That’s what mercy is. Mercy is kindness beyond anything that’s even reasonable.
So if you’re waiting to find somebody that deserves mercy, you’ve got the whole wrong idea about mercy.
Mercy is given to somebody who has not done what is right.
And you decide to just cut him a break.
Maybe you decide to believe the best, or to just drop it and let it go.
How many times do you have to mention to your husband that he left his socks on the floor again?
You could be merciful and pick him up and then see what god does for you.
Okay. Moving on. I don’t wanna get too personal here. Yeah.
God has dealt with me even about things like that. Joyce, do you have to just keep mentioning it?
See, even if we forgive somebody, we want to mention to them that we did forgive them.
Are you there? We don’t want anybody to think they got by with anything.
If I’m gonna be merciful, you’re going to know, I’m merciful.
And you are going to appreciate my mercy.
Oh, boy, it is so hard to just do what’s right and keep your mouth shut.
Now here’s something else the Bible tells us, which is pretty valuable.
It’s another first. Don’t ignore your own fault while pointing out the faults of others.
Really?
Are you trying to tell me that I have more wrong with me than the person I’m criticizing?
Yes. Matthew 75, you hypocrite. First. Everybody say first. Yeah.
First, get the beam of timber out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the tiny speck out of your brother’s eye.
Oh my.
Let him who is without sin among you cast the 1st stone.
Only those who are perfected should criticize anybody else.
Man, you guys are making me tired.
First, humble yourself under the mighty hand, and then god will help you.
Try first, and then you will receive.
Don’t plan first.
And then when you’re out in the middle of doing what you wanna do, pray for god to make it work.
No.
First, we pray about everything, acknowledging god in all of our ways and he will direct our path.
1st Give first, and then you will receive.
Or the claps on that, for goodness sake.
You don’t have to get nervous. We’ve already received the offering.
Luke 638 give and gifts will be given unto you.
Good measure press down, shaking together, and running over while men give back into your bosom.
For with the same measure you use when you deal out to others, it will be dealt back to you again.
First, now that guy 3, 10, 11, bring all the tide, the whole tenth of your income into the storehouse.
That’s all the tithers that are clapping, by the way, that there may be food in my house and prove me now by it.
God is saying, I dare you to start typing and bringing offerings. Amen.
And see what I’ll do for you. You say, well, wait a minute.
I Tithing is under the law. That’s old testament. Okay.
Well, well, I got a good answer for that. You wanna hear my answer?
Even if it was under the law, and they were giving 10%.
What in the world should we be doing by grace? Okay.
You wanna say tightening is under the law, then why don’t you just forget 10% and do 20?
Breathe. We got 5 more minutes.
Bring all the tide, the whole tenth of your income into the storehouse, that there might be food in my house, and prove me now by it says the lord of hosts If I will not, after you have first done this, open the windows of heaven, and pour you out of blessing, so great that you will not be able to contain it.
I will rebuke the devourer for your sake.
The little boy gave his lunch, The last that he had and went home with twelve baskets full of leftovers.
There’s nothing that says the little boy took him home but I believe Jesus gave him to him.
That’s alright, god. You are much greater than I am.
I’ll give you my little bit if you’ll give me your leftovers.
How many of you would be happy with god’s leftovers? Yeah.
Just throw me a little leftovers.
Oh, bay first.
And then experience radical outrageous blessings in your life.
Are you there? Obey first.
And then experience radical outrageous blessings in your life.
Believe first, and then you will receive.
Well, I’m not gonna believe it unless I can see it. Well, then you’ll never see it.
Because that’s the way god’s economy is.
First, you believe in your heart, and you keep a good confession while you’re waiting.
And then, boy, suddenly come on. Suddenly.
All of a sudden, you can shout and holler. It works.
It works. It works. It works. It works. Then right where you’re kick your head bounce for a moment.
I feel that I need to do this.
If you’re here today and you’ve not received Jesus Christ as your savior, You’re not sure that you’re right with god.
You you don’t know for sure that you’d go to heaven if you died today.
You say I want to have this kind of intimate relationship with god that you’re talking about.
I wanna surrender my life to Christ today.
Maybe somebody brought you, maybe you came because you saw the meeting advertised. Don’t know.
Maybe you’re just one of those good old church people.
You’ve been doing the church thing, but you don’t really have this relationship that god wants to have with you.
If that’s you and you’d like us just to pray with you and help you receive Christ as your sager, would you slip your hand up and high.
Let me see where you’re at. Okay. Hands, hands, hands, hands, hands, hands, hands all over the place.
Hands, hands, hands, and more hands. On anybody else real quickly. Don’t put it off.
Bless you, brother. Okay.
Now all of you that raise your hand, nobody’s looking at you, but me, just slip your hands up to the lord in surrender.
And everybody pray this prayer with me, please.
Say, father god, I believe in you.
Jesus, I believe in you.
Jesus, I believe in you.
I know that I’m a sinner And I deserve punishment.
But I’m sorry for my sins.
And I believe that you died for me on the cross that you took all of my sin upon yourself.
And that you’re willing to forgive Come and live in me.
Come and live in me. I receive you as my savior. I receive you as my lord.
I want to be a Christian.
Now I give myself to you.
Please take me just the way I am.
Please take me just the way I am.
And now make me what you want me to be. I’m now saved.
I’m born again. I’m loved. I’m forgiven. I’m on my way to heaven.
I’m on my way
to heaven.
And I’m gonna enjoy the journey. Okay. Now, listen.
If you wanna get this little book, it’s about how to begin your life with Christ.
You’d call the office on Monday, So I received Christ in the meeting. Can I have that book?
I pray for you that you will never backslide, and this will be the beginning of many wonderful things for you.
Amen. Bless you. Most people want to be successful, but what you have to decide is whose definition of success are you going to follow?
In my new book, the pathway to success, I want to walk with you toward a life filled with meaning and purpose the way god sees it.
God has given everything we need for a life that’s fulfilling to us and pleasing to him.
And I want to help you cover it.
Today, we’re offering Joyce’s newest release, the pathway to success.
For your donation of any amount, contact us now at joycemeyer.org or call toll free 1807092895.
Ladies, we’re going to Tampa. Sunys’ beautiful weather in god’s word.
It’s the perfect getaway. Join us for the 2024 love life women’s conference.
September 12th through 14th in Tampa, Florida. With Joyce Meyer, Priscilla Shire, Christine Kane, and worship Teya and Riley Clemens.
Register today at joycemeyer.org/lovelife.
For more information, visit joycemeyer.org.
This program has been made possible by the partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries.