Before we dive into discussing the first part of Joyce Meyer’s CD where she is focusing on learning how to rest, let’s take a moment and just clear our thoughts the best we can. Take a deep breath in through your nose, hold it a second, and then blow it out of your mouth. Ready? Go! Do this a few times to just relax yourself and imagine that we’re inhaling all of the goodness of God and exhaling all of the things that have tried our patience and nerves today. As we do this, let’s imagine in our minds that these things lose their grip on us, and feel all of those things release us as we breathe out!

Ah!

Now we are ready to begin.

Joyce immediately goes into things that wear us out: our thoughts; decisions; talking; multi-tasking; worries and fears; excessive concern over what other people think of us and of what we’re doing; being insecure. These are all things that just zap our energy, draining us mentally and emotionally. They absolutely wear us out!

Joyce advises us to stay calm no matter what goes on in our lives or what concerns arise. She talks about how much energy it takes from us and how sick we can become because we never shut down inside. She lays it all out for us so plainly that if we’re upset, we need to just calm down. If we’re mad, we need to try to get over it. If we’re offended, we need to try to get over that, too. She said it is just an endless cycle of upset that leaves us depleted and miserable. All of this is easier said than done, though, right? Our flesh is weak and we just want to get upset and hold on to these feelings. Doing so only hurts us! We get so upset, then we’re wondering why we’re unhappy and plain miserable.

Joyce goes on to say that the world is not going to change. The devil and people won’t change either. Even if, by chance, those “problem people” we’ve been dealing with do decide to change, there will be others planted in our lives that aren’t so nice. Upon realizing this, she had a revolution that since those things are not changing, WE have to decide to change, instead!

Joyce told a story about how her husband, Dave, always had peace and that she was extremely jealous of the peace that her husband had. How did she have so much turmoil in her life and yet her husband, who was dealing with the same stuff that she was, managed to be happy and was feeling good every day?

The answer is simple. He would cast his cares upon the Lord as the bible tells us to do all while she worried. One day she decided that was enough of living this way, so she set out on a mission to find out how to have peace. Joyce states that you won’t have peace if you don’t have it ON PURPOSE. Why? Because of the peace stealer that is Satan (I cringe at even writing his name out and giving him credit for ANY thing!). In a previous post on this site, I mentioned how the enemy is there trying to steal, kill, and destroy. Joyce says that he sets us up to get us upset. He is a thief that is there to steal our joy and peace.

Joyce went on to talk about the story from the bible that we’ve all probably heard about with Mary and Martha. She said that Martha worried about the house not being clean enough, dinner not being done on time, etc. when Jesus came. Mary, on the other hand, just sat down and wanted to rest in His presence. Joyce said that we all have a Mary in us IF we can just find her! Joyce explains that Martha, who was upset, blamed Mary for her problem! In this situation, Joyce points out how the devil succeeds in upsetting us but getting us into strife with others in this way.

Psalm 94:12-13

12 Blessed is the man you discipline, O LORD, the man you teach from your law; 13 you grant him relief from days of trouble, till a pit is dug for the wicked.

Joyce reminds us with the above scripture that we are blessed when God disciplines us so that we may keep calm. She emphasizes that God will give us power to keep ourselves calm.

Joyce goes on to say that what we get upset about does not fix our problems. She gave an example of how she loves having a certain kind of coffee and goes to this coffee shop all the time. She went in one day, and they asked if she wanted her usual. She did, and just as she settled in, the person came over to her and said that they forgot to mention that their coffee machine was down. What did that mean? She would NOT be getting her favorite coffee. She could have gotten upset with not being able to get her coffee as she normally does, but what would that have accomplished? She would work herself up into a frenzy, and yet it would not change the situation at all. After she threw a hissy fit, she still would not have any coffee! So, why not remain calm and peaceful?

She told another story about a person that had a flat tire. No amount of getting angry or ranting and raving would be able to change the fact that she had a flat tire. Why work yourself up in a frenzy about being late for work due to a flat tire or not being able to do this or that due to the flat tire. The fact is that you will have the flat tire whether you are upset about it or remain in your peace. The flat tire will still have to be fixed. Just change your approach. Instead of being upset over something you cannot change, instead change your approach and how you are viewing the situation so that you are able to remain calm and in your peace.

I did not say this would be easy … now did I? It’s not! But it is so worth it!

The world won’t change so we need to change our approach! She explains that a spiritually mature person remains calm no matter what is going on. Our emotions inside of us says to rise up and move out. This is when we start acting out, getting upset, losing our peace and calm state and giving away our joy! We have to stop following our emotions. She explains that when emotions take off in a different direction, we don’t need to jump on board with them! We become upset initially. Feel the feelings, but don’t allow them to control! Also, realize that the more we talk about what happened, the more we react to what occurred, and the more upset we get about that situation. Let’s work to change that.

That is all for now. Stay tuned for more in the next edition.

Blessings to you and yours!

~Shirley

Light, Love, Hope