What About Me? | Joyce Meyer’s Talk It Out Podcast | Episode 139
What About Me? | Joyce Meyer’s Talk It Out Podcast | Episode 139
Have you ever found yourself frantically wondering, If I don’t take care of myself, who will? We have good news: You are NOT alone ❤️ Check out today’s episode with Joyce, Ginger, and Erin as they talk through practical ways to exchange a fearful, self-focused mindset for a peaceful trust in God and a balanced, life-giving way to give and receive real joy.
Real life, real friends, no pretense… welcome to Talk It Out! Join Joyce Meyer, Ginger Stache, Erin Cluley, and their guests, as they talk out the stuff of everyday faith. It’s as real as it gets.
Watch/Listen to new episodes every Tuesday!
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.
selfishness is behind all wars it’s behind all crime it’s the root cause of almost all divorces it’s um it’s it’s a huge problem and we cannot be selfish and be happy because God did not create us to reach in to help ourselves he created us to let him work through us to help other people and then as we sew those seeds of helping them he will help us have you ever said what about me well welcome to the talk it out podcast because that is what we are talking about today and I think we’ve all said
that at one time or another what about me and what I need and what I want and nobody cares so as we talk it out today with Joyce and Aaron we are going to talk about the difference that life can have when our Focus shifts from those what about me things to the things of God and the things that he has for us that are wonderful um so let let’s kind of begin with where did this whole what about me thing come from so first Joyce do you have any idea how many times you have done the robot the what about me robot
at a conference no more than if I even say what about me everybody starts going do the robot do the robot I mean I’ve done it in India I’ve done it in Africa the thing that’s interesting is no matter what language people speak they understand selfishness ah and they understand that they do have themselves on their mind a lot but yeah very quickly many years ago well wait don’t explain it okay because because wait wait because we’re going to let you explain it from conference oh okay so we’re going to start right now if you’re
not familiar with the robot you want to see this and if you are you’re going to love it so this is Joyce explaining this whole what about me concept and what God showed her and then we’ll talk more about it I mean I know how I was and probably none of you were as bad as I was cuz I was pretty bad but I mean if I didn’t get my way then you might as well forget talking to me the rest of the day cuz I’m going to go sit in a corner somewhere and sulk all day I was manipulative and controlling full of
self-pity I mean I wanted to eat where I wanted to eat when I wanted to eat I didn’t care so much about what anybody else wanted it was what about you know me me me me robot robot I ain’t doing that robot don’t even start it no listen please don’t make me do that again it’s the end of April and I haven’t had to do it yet this year all right I know you won’t shut up till I do so don’t you people get tired of hearing the story I mean we have threatened to have little robots made that say what about me what
about me what about me all right I woke up one morning thinking about myself like I always did kind of going through in my mind what all I had to do that day and how I could get other people to do what I wanted them to do so I could enjoy Joy Milo poor me I do all the work around here clean up after these kids Dave’s going to probably go out and play golf again then tomorrow he’s going to watch football what about me nobody cares about me I’m just the slave around [Applause] here I clean it up they mess it up I
clean it up they mess it up sound like anybody you [Applause] know let me just throw this out you know there’s a big difference in a martyr and a servant God has called us to be servants not Martyrs anyway you’re not up for that yet I can tell we’ll say the servant message for another weekend not here for Hampton so I woke up thinking about myself think about myself you know whatever you think about early in the morning kind of get you wound up for the [Applause] day and so I just had this little vision
it was God just put in my heart he said you know you’re like a little robot you wake up in the morning and you start thinking about yourself and thinking about yourself and he said it’s just like it’s just like the Devil comes and just winds you up just get you all wound up tight for the day thinking about all this wrong stuff and he said then you put your feet on the floor and the rest of the day this is what you look like to me a little robot that just goes around with one message what about me what
about me what about me what about me what about me what about me beep beep what about me what about me amazing what God anoints it’s unbelievable I am not kidding you I have had to do that robot in every language that you can imagine I mean little kids know the robot people out in villages in Africa know the robots people all over the world doing the what about me robot I sure didn’t expect it to become that popular the first time I did it I watched a video of you doing it last week and it was I think you’re an India and so that you
did it and then the translator came behind you and he did it and it was so great people loved it yeah do you think that people have any idea that that’s where their mindset is really I mean for us isn’t it just so natural to always be thinking about ourselves well in the flesh our natural tendency is taking care of ourselves making sure we get what we want we have what we want and uh you know the thought usually is well if I don’t take care of myself who will especially if you’ve been hurt in the
past yeah then you can really get that mindset there may be a few people that are born really nice that love to just do for everybody else and never have any of these selfish thoughts but I wasn’t one of them and I don’t think there’s too many other people like that a few a few in all of the world but really the the root of what’s wrong in our world world today is selfishness selfishness is behind all wars it’s behind all crime it’s the root cause of almost all divorces it’s um it’s it’s a huge problem and we cannot
be selfish and be happy because God did not create us to reach in to help ourselves he created us to let him work through US MH to help other people and then as we sow those seeds of helping them he will help us scripture that’s really hard to swallow in Mark 8:34 Amplified Bible and Jesus called to him the throne with his disciples and said to them if anyone intends to come after me or to be my disciple let him deny himself forget ignore disown and lose sight of himself and his own interest and take up his cross and join
me as a disciple siding with my party not to be honest even the first time I read that I thought well what about me you know yeah I mean I even that’s a lot to ask when I was reading the scripture it’s like what and we have that kind of a reaction to that scripture until we really understand the principle of sewing and reaping that if we sew into other people’s lives by being a blessing to them helping them giving them compliments building them up helping them succeed helping them if they need financial help whatever it is then God
brings a harvest in our own life of joy and peace and the things that we need there’s no place in the Bible where he tells us to try to provide for and take care of ourselves not obviously we need to work and and do those things but I don’t think that we even realize how selfish we are I mean I teach on this all the time and and I still see it on a regular basis that word deny like it is physically painful to hear that word it is because I don’t want to deny myself like I don’t even want to deny myself ice cream tonight
that is uncomfortable you’re already planning for tonight huh I already I love ice cream and now I want it too see but you you got to deny but I think that’s so small but if you think about it in like bigger ways in our life it’s so uncomfortable to think of making myself uncomfortable just so I can think about you it’s and it makes me I don’t like it well the Bible teaches us to die to self and that is people love hearing that yeah that’s it’s not a real popular subject but you can’t in order to be transformed
into the image of Christ M and in order to follow him and live as he lived we have to be willing die to yourself just basically means say no to yourself and yes to God and this doesn’t mean that you never do anything for yourself this doesn’t mean that you never get anything you want or you never do anything for yourself God wants you to be happy wants you to enjoy your life but it’s like if that’s all I’m interested in is me me me me me sure then I don’t think people realize how many are unhappy just because they’re
selfish and even in their unhappiness they point the finger toward somebody else and if you would do this then I’d be happy and if you wouldn’t do this then I would be happy when really the truth is you have to find your joy from God and so how long did this take for you what was this road like for you well I’m still on that road I mean it took a a long long time I think first you have to recognize it mhm and I we’ve just been that way for so long I mean it was in the garden and uh so first you
have to recognize it and then I mean I I found selfishness even in little things like if I would cook a meal making sure I got the best piece of meat for me m you know it’s like um is just so ingrained in US yeah and I think it’s it’s definitely something that happens gradually now I pray about it in the mornings let me be a blessing everywhere that I go I even think about who I’m going to be with and what they might need or how can I build them up and something that I have found from several people if as
we’ve talked about this and I practiced this too you know a lot of times we think very nice things about people but we don’t say it we we think we’ll sound silly or they’ll think we’re foolish or we’re just lazy or whatever but you could even start there if you think that color really looks good on her then tell her MH you know she can’t read your mind love hearing that stuff yeah and that’s easy so that would be a place that people could start and I think you you have some prayer time with God
and you ask him to start showing you all the ways that you’re selfish and helping you get over it’s something that you really have to make a matter of prayer and when you catch yourself doing it just repent I mean God knows your heart he knows if you want to get over it and he’ll help you but it will take a while can I ask a question to both of you because you know we just recently talked to Dr Cloud about boundaries and in our culture there’s a lot of conversations about taking care of yourself and doing
what’s right for you and then having boundaries so you don’t get taken advantage of so while what we learned from Dr cloud is the boundaries are important and those are biblical how what is the difference between healthy boundaries but then also doing what you’re saying and thinking of others because I think I think we could feel so confused in our mind of what am I taking care of myself or am I taking care of you am I taking care of you too much am I taking care of me too much you want to answer well I like to think of it as
they’re conflicting but that they have to live together in harmony so when you talk about boundaries I need boundaries Within Myself like you were just saying I’m not going to eat the ice cream every time I want it right and at the same time I’m not I’m not going to allow myself to only do what I want because it’s not best for me or for other people around so I think boundaries are are healthy fences around what is good for us and good for other people right both so they’re not mutually exclusive that’s
a good way to look at it but but it can be very much like you’re saying I I’m so entrenched in making sure that I have boundaries that I keep the good things out too right so you don’t want to do that like I won’t be taken advantage of therefore I don’t do anything good for anybody else that’s not a healthy boundary so you know it is hard to find that sweet spot of and really asking God like you said every morning morning yeah help me because I always pray you know that for for me that prayer every
morning is to help the people that I’m with for their joy in Christ to overflow and so you know there’s something that has to be in your prayer life that helps create that that balance where it’s it’s about you being what God wants you to be and in that you have both the boundaries of protecting yourself and being a blessing to other people well and you know this is something I don’t know that very many people think about but God showed me this a long time ago you um when I set a boundary for someone
else when I’m talking about living unselfishly that doesn’t mean you let people take advantage of you but it’s not you’re not doing it for you you’re doing it for them oh that’s good because I I was thinking motivation plays a lot in this doesn’t it I don’t have to try to protect myself because God will take care of me y but it’s not good for that person for me to let them control me or to always feel like I have to say yes to them to keep a relationship so if we’re going to let love be the overarching
theme of our life then you do those things in love for the other person here’s a verse that that I love that I think helps with this it’s also a big ass just like the verse that you read Joyce but this is Philippians chapter 2 um starting with verse three do nothing out of selfish selfish ambition or vain conceit rather in humility value others above yourselves not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others in your relationships with one and another have the same mindset of Christ Jesus so
we’ve got the best example of how to do it so you know that that does so much we’re we’re loving other people the way Jesus would and so that’s totally different sometimes the way we think we need to love people is to let them do things that are not healthy for us or them that’s not how Jesus loved people I mean he was very confrontive when he needed to be but he was also extremely forgiving MH very merciful kind patient you can be both yeah you know because you like you know I was pretty much of a
mess for a long time after Dave and I got married and he just kind of let me go you know he didn’t really confront me he just kind of put up with it probably if he would have confronted me in the very early years I would have just left him you know CU that was what I’d always seen if you don’t get what you want you just okay done with you but there came a time when God told him it was time to confront me and he actually bought a book that he found called caring enough to confront and so it is done out of loveh
and he he wasn’t he wasn’t loving me anymore by letting me yeah mistreat him sure and so but when he first began to confront me mhm well your flesh goes wild it’s like a little kid having a tantrum and a fit you know you just you just really um you have to understand that I mean your flesh has feelings and they’re going to they’re going to acted up but I think if people would just understand I mean if if there was no selfishness we would not have any of the problems we have in the world today yeah none of
them none of them but that’s really I I love second cor first or second Corinthians 5:15 it says uh that he died for us so that we might no longer live to and for ourselves but to and far him M so Jesus died so that we could die to selfish self-centered living and choose with our Free Will which he’s given us to live to make other people happy yeah and all the advertising you see all of it’s like do this to make yourself happy buy this and make yourself happy you know all of it’s about me me me if if we
would just listen even to how many times we say I I me me I don’t know that we could get through a day oh no yeah without saying it I think I want I feel I I yeah so why do we have to talk about this can we not yeah I mean she’s not going to let us not no but you’ve talked about how you you think this is one of your most important messages why why do we have to deal with this why can’t we just make ourselves happy and have it work well the Bible says delight yourself from the Lord and He will give
you the desires of your heart Isaiah 46:4 even to your old age I am he and to gray hairs I will carry you I have made and I will bear I will carry and I will save so we have all these promises in the Bible that he will take care of us yeah but he won’t do it if we’re in his way trying to do it ourselves yeah that’s the thing that people have understand about God is you got to stay out of his way now if he asks you to do something or shows you to do something then you do it I’m not saying that we don’t take care of
ourselves I mean I work out I try to eat good I rest I you know I’ve learned that I have to say no to people and maybe that doesn’t sound much like dying to self but I I have a mission a call from God and in order to do that I can’t do what everybody else wants me to but that’s that’s not being being mean to them that’s being obedient to God right and we all have a mission and a call from God right so we all have to do that and so and people don’t want to miss understand this I’m not saying that you
never take care of yourself or you never do anything for yourself but I’m saying when you live for yourself I mean there’s the yeah in Ecclesiastes chapter 2 is the absolute best example Solomon set out to find out what would make him happy and he tried everything I mean and it says I built for myself pools and I built for myself Gardens and I you know and he he got all these men servants and Maid servants and then he had all these Mistresses they called them concubines then I mean he had everything and he
said when I had it all I looked at it and it was all vanity and then about seven verses down it says so I hated life hm it just doesn’t work yeah so he had everything and he said I hated life yeah why because that’s not what we’re created for and until you do what you’re created for you’re going to be unhappy having more money won’t make you happy it’s nice and you can you can buy some happiness but you still have to lay down at night with just you and uh you know you on your deathbed you’re not
