Living With Passion And Enthusiasm

Pastor Joel: And it’s not going to change until we change. That phrase, “you’ll never change what you tolerate” — so I think at times you’ve got to just draw the line in the sand and, like you said: I’m not going to live the rest of my life like this. I’m going to make some changes, whether it’s physically, emotionally, spiritually. I’m going to get in church. I’m going to eat better. But it’s not going to change until we do it. I love what you’re saying about living with passion and enthusiasm because we’ve been given the power to be a witness. We don’t have to go around shoving something down everybody’s throat. A great witness is to just live your life happy and in a good mood at the office, and consistently be friendly. To me, that’s the way to let your light shine. I have people write me all the time who say, “I can’t remember what your message was about, but I sure liked the joy on your face. That ministered to me.” I think, “that’s what it’s all about.”

Joyce: Let me ask a question. If you’re going to be a better you, do you have to learn to not dwell on your past mistakes? How does that affect people if they just constantly are living in their past mistakes?

Pastor Joel: I think that’s the key. It’s going to keep you from getting where God wants you to be. I believe we have to start every day afresh and anew. Maybe it’s not even big things. I think every morning it’s just a good habit to say, “I forgive the people who hurt me yesterday. I forgive myself for the mistakes I’ve made. I receive God’s mercy.” almost every Sunday when we start our service, I say, “I encourage you now to just let go of your disappointments, your failures, what you did wrong, and let today be a new beginning.”

Joyce: I tell people all the time, “you have to keep in mind that you’re no surprise to God.”  it’s not like you did something wrong yesterday and, boy, it really kind of blind sighted God and he wasn’t expecting that at all. The bible says that all the days of our life are written in his book before one of them is even lived out. So God already knows and he understands, and he’s willing to forgive us. He wants to forgive us. But you really cannot go forward if you’re dragging your past along with you.

Pastor Joel: You really can’t. It’s so important — we ask for forgiveness, or maybe we make a mistake, or maybe there’s been some big things in the past, but you can’t just stop at asking for forgiveness; you’ve got to learn to receive God’s mercy. I remember my father went through a breakup in his marriage before I was ever around, obviously. But he thought his ministry was over. He told me, “Joel, the hardest thing I had to do was to receive God’s mercy because people had forgiven me,” but he was just beating himself up. He said, “I’m done. This is over.” but one day, once he received God’s mercy — and we don’t take things lightly, but God gave him a new family. He had a great ministry and life went on.

Victoria Osteen: he had to make room in his life because when you’re holding on to all that, you don’t have room to receive God’s mercy. So you have to make room for what God wants to do. That’s when you have to say, “you know what, God? I’ve got to get rid of this so you can put in me that mercy.”

Joyce: That’s so true. Well, don’t go away because when we come back we’re going to talk about some more really important things along this line. And we’re going to see that prison walls and barbed wire can’t keep the love of God from transforming lives and bringing hope.

Announcer: wouldn’t the world be a really boring place if everybody was the same? In this series by Joyce Meyer “how to succeed at being yourself” you’ll discover that you don’t have to be like everybody else to be the person that God created you to be.

Joyce Meyer: You need to shake off all that wrong self-image and you need to say: here I am, God, you can bless me! Whoo! Whoo! Right here, God here I am. Whoo! Whoo!