What Is Love – Part 1 | Joyce Meyer | Enjoying Everyday Life Teaching

Love is more than a message, love is action. On this episode of Enjoying Everyday Life, Joyce Meyer teaches on the incredibly important but often misunderstood subject of true love.

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.

We have to remember that love is the key word that describes Christianity.
I’m Joyce Meyer, and I believe that god can heal you everywhere you hurt.
I wanna talk to you tonight about what is love.
I wanna talk to you about what it is because it’s a word that we throw around so much.
And, you know, we love ice cream, and we love Katie Beers, and we love puppy dogs, and we love Katie Katz, and we love God.
Yeah.
We we have to learn what real love is, what what the god kind of love is.
And in Matthew chapter 24, it gives us signs of the end times.
And I suppose every generation that’s ever lived thought they were living in the last days were no different, you know, but One of these days, a generation’s gonna be right.
And it could be us. I don’t know.
But there’s two things that it says in Matthew 24 that we really need to pay attention to.
1, it says that in the last days, many will be deceived.
And, you know, I I started thinking about that today, and I thought, my gosh, there’s never been any more deception than there is on the earth right now.
And I do think a lot of people are just deceived. Yeah.
And I want you to pray every day that you will not be deceived because deceived people don’t know they’re deceived.
And that’s one of the things that’s gonna increase in the last days, and the Bible actually says that if god did not shorten the days for the sake of the very elect, no man would be able to stand the deception coming on the earth.
So don’t get a prideful attitude. It can’t happen to me.
That’s why you need to keep your nose in the word and always learn the truth.
And the other thing it says in Matthew 24, in the last days, the love of the great body of people, which is us, will grow cold.
Because of all the wickedness and lawlessness in the land.
And we have to be very careful that we don’t get so caught up in all the fighting, all the nonsense that’s going on, not that we shouldn’t stand up against it.
I don’t mean that. But We have to remember that love is the key word that describes Christianity.
And in Romans 12 21, it says we overcome evil with good.
Now please hear me. This is so simple. But the world is full of evil.
And the only thing we have to do to fight it is to just turn up the goodness and start being as good to people as we possibly can, praying for people, loving people, showing love to strangers random acts of kindness.
Love never fails.
And I saw that with my own father who abused me for many, many years sexually.
My mom blessed her heart.
She knew what he was doing, but she just was too afraid of him to do anything about it.
Which is sad. It’s a long story, but I’ll make it real short.
As they got older and they weren’t really able to take proper care of themselves, God put it on my heart that he wanted us to take care of them.
Well, I rebuked it. I thought it was the devil.
I thought there is no way god is asking me to do that, not after what he did to me.
Well, see, there is a little thing in the Bible that says love your enemy.
We don’t get to just love the people we like.
But it is time church for us to get ourselves off our mind and all of our own little problems Be more thankful for what god is doing in our lives and get busy about the business of the kingdom of god.
Hey, ma’am? We overcome evil with good.
My goodness, what would happen if every Christian actually just did one good thing for one person every day.
Rather that was just encourage somebody or pray for somebody or meet somebody’s physical need, help them with something.
The more we have our mind on ourselves, the more miserable we get.
Matthew 546 says, if you only love those who love you, what reward will you get?
Even tax collectors can do that.
Now they use tax collectors because they were the most hated of all people in Jesus’s day because they were crooks.
But he says, but What difference is there in you and anybody else?
What difference is there in in me or any unbeliever out there if I only love the people who love me back?
See, Jesus died for us while we were still yet in sin.
If you wanna see an example of what love is, just look at Jesus because he said, if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the father, and god is love.
See, love is not something god does. It’s who he is.
And so that’s all he does.
Even when god chastises us, he only corrects those whom he loves.
Everything, everything in the Bible that god says to do or not to do, It’s for our benefit.
It makes our life better if we do what god tells us to do.
If we could ever get that through our heads, quit thinking that god’s just trying to make it hard on us.
Well, that’s just hard to do. That’s this is hard. It’s hard.
It’s hard to love people that have been mean to you. You know what?
Maybe they don’t deserve your forgiveness, but you deserve peace. Amen?
And I’ll tell you one thing. Forgive them may be hard, but hating them is harder.
If you wanna do something hard, you just hate people all your life.
I watched my dad do it, and he did not have any kind of a life.
But we took care of them and bought them my house, bought them a car, you know, took them to the doctor, and had their house cleaned and all the things you do.
And it took 3 years, but my dad got saved.
And I can tell you, I don’t believe that real love can fail.
I think that love softens hard hearts, and I think it changes people.
But sometimes you be willing to love somebody that’s not loving you back for a long time.
And I’m not suggesting that you stay with somebody that’s abusing you.
That’s not what I’m talking about. You you can love people from a distance.
And some people, you have to do that.
God’s not asking us to be around somebody that just treats us all the time and downgrades us all the time.
But love is not how you feel about somebody.
It’s praying for them and not talking bad about them behind their back and it’s meeting a need if they have a need.
Well, that blows him away. Why in the world would you do that?
You know what? My dad said to to my husband, whatever He finally apologized to me.
He looked at Dave and he said, Dave, you have never done anything, but love me.
And he said, most men in your situation would have killed me.
That you’ve never done anything but love me.
Well, I always say I thought I was buying a house, but I was actually buying a soul.
See, it costs Jesus a lot.
That cost him to save us.
What we have as a free gift from god cost him, everything every person that gets help, it costs somebody else.
And I guess I’m just wanting to ask tonight, are you are you ready to start paying what it costs?
To take other people to heaven with you.
And I don’t intend to shut up about this.
I may just preach some version of this from now until Jesus comes back. I don’t know.
But we just can’t I mean, I’ve lived both ways, and I can tell you selfish is miserable.
You cannot be selfish and be happy.
And when you really when you really get this love thing and you understand that it’s not just something you’re gonna feel doing.
If you’re waiting to feel like it, you can forget it. It’s something you do on purpose.
The Bible says above all that you put on, put on love.
And put on is an action word.
I have never gone in my closet to put on my clothes and had them jump off the hanger on my body.
I have to pick them out. I have to think about it.
And if I put on something, it doesn’t look good on me.
I take it off and I put on something else, and I tell you there’s a whole lot of Christians running around out there with stuff that doesn’t look good on them.
Bad attitudes and grumbling and murmuring and gossiping and complaining and going to on Sunday and then going back out and doing the same thing all over again.
Love is action. It’s not just a message we preach.
It’s action. It’s not a theory. It’s not just a word.
But it can only be seen and felt indeed Oh, yeah.
I love love. I I hear I hear about that all the time. Jesus tells me this.
I know for the Bible tells me so. Jesus loves us first.
The love of god is shed or brought in our hearts by the Holy Spirit because god never expects us to give away something that he doesn’t give us first.
Amen. But everything he gives us, he expects us to grow up spiritually and let it flow through us to other people.
We are god’s hands and feet and mouth and ears and eyes on the earth.
How are people gonna see Jesus if they don’t see him through the church?
I’ll be really honest today, Joyce.
Our candid conversation is just something I wanna talk to you about. So this Okay.
Let’s just have a chat, Jen, and everybody else could just listen.
My question. Hopefully many others, but I I read the line that said the spiritual life is not a passive one.
So it makes so much sense. There’s so much that god always wants us to do.
But my question is this, how do we know when we need to ask god for more and to continue pushing and when we need to be content with with where we are and what we have.
How do you work out that balance?
Well, actually the 2 work together. The Bible says in James 4 too, you have not because you asked not.
So I think you can ask god for anything that you want to course, hopefully, that’s not coming out of a greedy heart.
Mhmm. You know, just I want more and more and more and more, but you I mean, god is our source of all things.
And instead of trying to get what we want, because if you read the first part of that, it’s just what causes strife.
It’s all the things that we want that we try to get, and we get jealous of other people who have them, and we don’t have them.
And so We we have all this mess in our life and lose our peace.
And he said, you have not because you asked not.
But when I first read those scriptures, they were I can really say that was one of the things that was really life changing for me because I was trying to make a lot of things happen.
My self. Like, I was trying to make my ministry grow. I was trying to change Dave.
I was trying to change myself. I was trying to do all these things.
Instead of just simply asking god to do them.
So I I don’t know that I think you can ask god for too much.
I mean, you don’t wanna ask for stupid stuff that’s not in not scriptural. Right. We’re
we’re we’re not talking about material things as much as we are this walk with him.
Right. Don’t wanna be silly, you know, just not gonna pray.
God make me a millionaire, you know, just so I can but you can ask god for things if you need a if you need a better house, if you need a better car, you know, I I would say mostly ask god for what you need and occasionally ask him for what you want, but Contentment is an interesting word because contentment is not what people often think it is.
It doesn’t mean that you never want anything change.
The word content means satisfied to the point where I’m not disturbed or disquieted in my current state.
That’s a good definition.
Yeah. That’s the amp that’s what the amplified Bible says, or Paul said I’ve learned to be content and Philippians 411.
The amplified Bible amplifies that and says con content satisfied to the point where I’m not disturbed or disquieted no matter what state I’m in.
So I can ask god for something, but I need to be happy where I’m at.
I need to be trusting god that If I never get it, I could still be happy.
See, it’s not I don’t like to hear people saying, I said this a lot in my own life to, but we should be careful about saying, well, I just can’t be happy if.
Let’s just say a single girl. Well, I just can’t be happy if I don’t get married.
Well, then you’re you’re actually putting something ahead of god. You’re saying, god is not enough.
And he’s not only enough. He’s more than enough.
Yeah.
Or a young couple might say, well, we just can’t be happy if we don’t have kids.
Well, yes, you can. You know, you it if god is the focus in the center of your life, then you can be happy no matter what, well, I just don’t get hap.
I I just can’t be happy if I don’t get healed. Well, yeah, you can.
You know, there are a lot of people that have a lot of serious things wrong with them that still find a way through the strength of Christ to have joy.
And to be a blessing to other people. So Paul says, I can do all things.
Through Christ who strengthens me, and I can I’ve learned to be content rather I’m abased or abounding.
So That’s really the answer.
You can ask god if anything you want to, but you need to be satisfied to the point where you’re not disturbed or disquieted.
In the state that you’re in?
Well, that’s also why I love so much Psalm 37 for because it says delight yourself in the lord.
And he He will give you the desires.
He’ll place in your heart the desires that line up with his word and what he wants for you.
And when your desires begin to change, that’s a beautiful full thing.
Right.
And because then the things that you are praying for are are more in line with what he wants, but let let me ask you then about the story in the Bible.
We’ve always got another question.
I know. I know. There’s always another layer of asking, but the story in the Bible where, um, the the judge is annoyed because the lady comes to the door and and she keeps asking, and he gives her what she wants just to make her be quiet.
Right. And, you know, so it’s it’s saying ask, ask for what you need.
So when some of the things that we’re that we’re asking for may not be exactly what god has for us, you know, what’s in line with his word.
So we know that it’s okay to ask, And we know that we have to learn to be content.
When do you is it something that the holy spirit does in us that that gives us that contentment that we stop asking, we stop pounding on that door because it’s something we want so much.
First of all, there’s god’s perfect will, and there’s god’s permissive will.
And there are times when you keep it up long enough, god will give you what you’re asking for to show you that it’s really not what you wanted, like you thought it was.
That is such a great point. Yeah. I’ll give it to you, but it’s not gonna be what you thought.
I’ll give it to you, but it’s mean, like It’s
not gonna fill you the way.
The Israelites, they were getting manna every day. Miraculous bread reigned out of heaven every day.
Tasted like honey. You know? But they got dissatisfied. They wanted meat.
And so god got tired of hearing it. So he said, okay. You want meat? I’ll give you meat.
He gave them meat until they were vomiting meat.
And Oh, he gave them what they asked for, but it wasn’t really what they needed to do was be content.
Yeah.
Was what was going on.
It’s the same as when the Israelites asked for a king. Right?
Right. They wanted a king. God said, I don’t.
Go well.
I wanna be your king. I don’t having a king is you’re not gonna be happy, but I’ll give it to you.
So there are times when you can just keep knocking as you’re saying.
You now it gets annoyed and says, okay. Here it is.
What I do is something is definitely in the word.
I mean, we know god wants people to be saved. So Yeah.
It’s his will for all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of Christ.
So I don’t have to pray if it be your will. You know?
But there are things that we’re not sure of. Many things we’re not sure of.
And when I’m praying those kinds of things, it took me a few number of years to get here, but I always say But god, if this is not your will, then please don’t give it to me because after 45 years experience with the lord, I’ve learned that if I get something that’s not god’s perfect will, it’s gonna be a burden to me, and I don’t want that.
Yeah. You know, maybe I don’t know.
Maybe I pray for the ministry to get bigger and bigger because I think that’s, you know, well, maybe that wouldn’t be good for me.
Maybe it would put too much pressure on me, and I I wouldn’t wouldn’t handle it right.
And So god doesn’t give it to me. Well, I need I need to trust god.
See, more than anything he wants us to love him and to trust him.
To love him and to trust him.
I want people listening today to get that Love god and trust him.
I love you, lord, and I trust you.
And David said, trust is not something we wait to feel is a decision that you make.
David said, I will put my trust in the lord.
Or what time I am afraid I will trust in the lord. This is the day the lord has made.
I will rejoice and be glad.
There are there are a lot of places in the Psalms where David is making a definite decision.
And he might as well say, I don’t feel like doing this, but I will.
Because I know it’s your word.
I use the, uh, the example in Luke chapter 5 a lot Peter and the guys had been fishing all night, and they had not caught anything.
So a whole night of work They didn’t catch anything. That was how they made their living.
They were washing their nets and putting them up, which was no easy job.
At the time they were fishermen.
Today, there’s probably all kinds of machinery that does that for you, but and Jesus appeared to them and said, put out into the deep and lower your nets again for a haul.
So he’s telling them go back to work only fish fish deeper or work harder than what you’ve been before.
Right.
And Peter basically said to him, you know, Look, we fished all night, and we didn’t catch anything.
And we’re putting our nets up. So he’s bay saying I don’t want to.
I don’t feel like it, and I don’t think it’s a good idea.
But he said on the ground of your word, we will lower the nets again.
And they caught so many fish that they had to call their partners Yeah.
And they loaded up not only their boats, but everybody else’s too.
He doesn’t want us just to have enough for ourself.
He wants us to be able to be blessed, but to be a blessing, and that’s only gonna happen.
We’re in the perfect will have got. Yeah.
You might get in the permissive will of god and have enough to squeak by yourself, but if you wanna be a blessing to other people, you gotta be in god’s will.
So I recommend you can ask for anything you want. You know, we always want everything right now.
We and we think we should have it right now because we think we’re ready a long time before god knows that we’re ready.
We need to trust god’s timing.
And the big thing that god wants Ginger is for us to be happy little campers to just be content.
Yeah.
And to love him and to not worry so much about what we get or don’t get.
But god proved his love for us by the fact that he sent his only son to die a horrible death, to take our punishment, to take our sin, to take our guilt, And he’s done enough for us that if he never did another thing, we should be just just I mean, we’re going to heaven.
Yeah.
We should be so happy all the time.
And it’s a shame when god has to keep doing something else for us all the time to keep us happy.
So I think the original question was when should I ask and when should I be content?
Well, just to make sure people leave with something concise, you can ask for whatever you want to that you have peace about.
If you don’t know for sure that it’s in the word, then tell god, don’t please don’t give it to me if it’s not your will.
But in the midst of all you’re asking, stay happy.
I love what you said that that contentment and asking go hand in hand. Yeah.
I I think that’s beautiful. And exactly what you said I trust you.
Right.
Has just been my mantra for this year. God’s just putting that so strongly on me.
I I trust you no matter what. So Thank you.
You’re welcome.
Love having these chats with you. Thank you.
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The mind actually is the bad field.
That’s where we win or lose the war with Satan. He said all he gets to say.
Is mine. You start asking god to heal you, and he will restore.
It’s the god of all comfort, and I am so grateful that I know how to call on god.