21 WAYS TO FINDING PEACE AND HAPPINESS · JOYCE MEYER #1New York Times bestselling author 21 WAYS...

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PEACE AND HAPPINESS JOYCE MEYER #1New York Times bestselling author Overcoming Anxiety, Fear, and Discontentment Every Day Previously published as In Pursuit of Peace

Transcript of 21 WAYS TO FINDING PEACE AND HAPPINESS · JOYCE MEYER #1New York Times bestselling author 21 WAYS...

Page 1: 21 WAYS TO FINDING PEACE AND HAPPINESS · JOYCE MEYER #1New York Times bestselling author 21 WAYS TO FINDING PEACE AND HAPPINESS In this book, ... Previously published as In Pursuit

author of the New York Times bestseller Look Great, Feel Great

Overcoming Anxiety, Fear, and Discontentment Everyday

PEACE AND HAPPINESS

JOYCE MEYER#1New York Times bestselling author

21 WAYS TO FINDING PEACE AND HAPPINESS

In this book, bestselling author Joyce Meyer discusses twenty-one ways in which we can rediscover “the peace that passes all under-standing.” Through a diligent analysis of Scripture, as well as words of wisdom and candid insights from her experiences, she inspires us to begin our own search for lasting serenity. Journey with her and learn how to: • Be at peace with God—letting go of your worries will help you

become supernaturally relaxed• Be at peace with yourself—understanding how to strive for calm

will help you overcome those mental and spiritual storms• Be at peace with others—maintaining a mind-set of quietude in

your relationships will ultimately enhance your search, both with God and within yourself

• �Be�led�by�peace—discovering�how�a�peace-filled�attitude�affects�every aspect of your life will make you more able to embrace it.

God tells us over and over in the Bible that we must seek peace in everything we do. The choice is ours to make. Are you ready?

In today’s world, peace is hard to come by. It seems everywhere we look we see turmoil and disorder that make our existence a very stressful�one.�How�can�we�find�the�calm�and�quiet�we�need�to�be�truly content?

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Overcoming Anxiety, Fear, and Discontentment Every Day

Previously published as In Pursuit of Peace

CYANMagentaYellow BLACKBK78 21 Ways to Finding Peace and HappinessBK78_21Ways.indd 1 11/7/06 3:32:00 PM

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Copyright © 2004 by Joyce Meyer All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976,no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in anyform or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without theprior written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from THEAMPLIFIED BIBLE (AMP). THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE, OLD TESTAMENT,copyright © 1965, 1987 by The Zondervan Corporation. THE AMPLIFIEDNEW TESTAMENT, copyright © 1954, 1958, 1987 by The LockmanFoundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the KING JAMES VERSION ofthe Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from THE NEW KING JAMESVERSION. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used bypermission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEWINTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 byInternational Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from THE LIVING BIBLE © 1971.Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189.All rights reserved.

FaithWordsHachette Book Group USA237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Visit our Web site at www.faithwords.com

Printed in the United States of America

Originally published in hardcover by Warner Faith as In Pursuit of Peace: 21 Waysto Conquer Anxiety, Fear, and Discontentment.

First Trade Edition: May 2007

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

FaithWords is a division of Hachette Book Group USA, Inc.The FaithWords name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group USA, Inc.

LCCN: 2006939834ISBN 978-0-446-58150-9 (pbk.)

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CONTENTS

Introduction vii

Part IBE AT PEACE WITH GOD

Peacekeeper #1 Trust the Lord of Peace 1

Peacekeeper #2 Make Peace Through a Surrendered Will 11

Peacekeeper #3 Know Your Enemy 26

Peacekeeper #4 Don’t Worry About the Future 42

Peacekeeper #5 Don’t Be Double-Minded 62

Peacekeeper #6 Stay Supernaturally Relaxed 76

Peacekeeper #7 Avoid Strife to Maintain Peace with God 86

Part IIBE AT PEACE WITH YOURSELF

Peacekeeper #8 Stop Rushing 99

Peacekeeper #9 Accept Yourself 116

Peacekeeper #10 Focus on Your Unique Strengths 125

Peacekeeper #11 Keep Your Priorities in Order 137

Peacekeeper #12 Protect Your Health 148

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Peacekeeper #13 Avoid Financial Pressure 00

Peacekeeper #13 Avoid Financial Pressure 166

Peacekeeper #14 Keep Your Thoughts Above Life’s Storms 184

Part 3BE AT PEACE WITH OTHERS

Peacekeeper #15 Esteem Others as Higher than Yourself 209

Peacekeeper #16 Adapt Yourself to the Needs of Others 224

Peacekeeper #17 Beware of Idle Talk 234

Peacekeeper #18 Establish Boundaries with People 241

Peacekeeper #19 Let Go of Offenses 256

Peacekeeper #20 Maintain a Quiet Inner Life 265

Peacekeeper #21 Aggressively Pursue Peace 276

About the Author 287

vi Contents

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PEACEKEEPER #1

Trust the Lord of Peace

God wants us to enjoy life and see good days. In fact, God’s Wordtells us to search for peace, and seek it eagerly (see 1 Peter 3:11).We are not to merely desire peaceful relations with God, with ourfellow men, and with ourselves, but we are to pursue and go afterpeaceful relationships!

The first way to find peace is in learning to trust God through arelationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. We can-not have peace with God, others, or ourselves without His lordshipin our lives. The Bible says that Jesus is our wisdom from God (see1 Corinthians 1:30). His Word teaches us how to live properly. Hedoesn’t just give us wisdom—He is our wisdom. Through trustingthe Prince of Peace and having a personal relationship with Him,we actually have indwelling wisdom from the Lord’s presencein us.

If we would get still long enough to let that wisdom rise andminister to our minds, we wouldn’t do so many foolish things. Toomany times, we react through our emotions and we don’t pay anyattention to the wisdom in our hearts. We tend to make decisionsaccording to our thoughts rather than living by discernment andaccording to what the Holy Spirit is placing in our hearts. Conse-quently, we get ourselves in trouble.

I believe that Jesus is everything we need in any situation. He issufficient to meet the need for every circumstance that we will everface. So, we certainly must learn how to go to Jesus for much more

?@

Peacekeeper #1

TRUST THE LORD OF PEACE

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than just salvation or a ticket into heaven. We need to take Him asour everything in life, including as our Prince of Peace.

JESUS GOVERNS OUR LIVES

Isaiah 9:6–7 says, “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given;and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His nameshall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, EverlastingFather [of Eternity], Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His govern-ment and of peace there shall be no end” (italics mine).

The government that is upon the shoulders of Jesus is not apolitical government; the verse is referring to the governing of ourlives. We are not supposed to be running our own lives. In fact, weare not capable or qualified to run our own lives. Not one of us isintelligent enough to know what is best. That is why we should bethankful for God’s interference.

I like the promise that there will be no end to the increase of Hisgovernment and peace. The more His government increases in mylife (the more He governs my life, my thoughts, my conversations,my decisions, and my actions), the more peace I am going to have.

Peace doesn’t come from success and money and promotionsand feeling good about everything in life. We find peace in thekingdom of God, which is righteousness, peace, and joy within us.Being right with God, knowing we are right with God, and doingthe right thing out of knowing who we are in Christ is a process,but it leads us to peace, and peace leads us to joy.

And if we don’t have righteousness, peace, and joy, then we arenot enjoying the kingdom of God as we should. Sometimes wemay need to take a vacation from all the other things we look forand instead seek the kingdom. Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek (aim atand strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (Hisway of doing and being right), and then all these things takentogether will be given you besides” (italics mine).

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We work and struggle and strive at “all these things,” such asfood and clothing and position in society. But what we should bedoing is searching out God’s kingdom; we should seek Jesus andHis government in our lives. Colossians 1:10 says, “That you maywalk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord,fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things.”

BE A DISCIPLE OF JESUS

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himselfand take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34 NIV). If we wantto have peace, we have to stop following other voices; we must beGod pleasers, not man pleasers, and we must choose to followJesus on a daily basis.

For many years, I was in a church that gave me a great founda-tion about salvation, but I never learned much past that. I hadmany problems in my life, but I wasn’t getting any victory over anyof them. I certainly didn’t know how to pursue or go after peace.Satan distracted me by getting me involved with many activitiesthat did not produce good fruit in my life.

I was not taught to study God’s Word myself, and because Ididn’t know the Word of God, I wasn’t aware of the many decep-tions that can grossly mislead people. For example, before I was inministry I worked at an office where a coworker studied astrology.At the time, the things she talked about seemed to make sense(because I had no knowledge of God’s Word on this subject). Shebelieved the position of the planets and stars directed her life.She said there were even optimum times to get a haircut to havethe best results.

Today, advice is easy to obtain from psychics, tarot card readers,sorcerers, and people skilled in divination who would like to runpeople’s lives. They may give information that seems to makesense, but it will not produce lasting peace in a person’s life. As I

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look back at those early years of being a believer, I am sad to saythat nobody in my church told me not to follow these voices ofdeception. No one warned me that the Bible clearly says those whopractice these types of things will not enter the kingdom of heaven(see Revelation 21:8). We are to follow God, not psychics, astrol-ogers, mediums, tarot card readers, or any such thing. God’s Wordactually says that these things are an abomination to Him. To enjoypeace, we must be led by the Lord of Peace.

To be a disciple of Jesus means to study His teaching, imitateHis life, and correctly analyze the Word of Truth (see 2 Timothy2:15). We will have God’s power to live our lives well if we devoteour attention to God’s Word and allow Jesus to transform us byfollowing the peace that He alone can give.

Peace is our inheritance from Jesus, but we have to choose tofollow Him daily. Colossians 3:15 teaches us that peace is to be the“umpire” in our lives, settling every issue that needs a decision. Togain and maintain peace in our hearts, we may have to learn to sayno to a few things.

For example, if we don’t feel peace about something, we shouldnever go ahead and do it. And if we don’t have peace while we aredoing something, then we shouldn’t expect to have peace after wehave done it. Many people marry others they didn’t have peaceabout marrying, and then they wonder why they don’t have peacein their marriages. Many people buy expensive items they didn’thave peace about buying, then continue to lose their peace everymonth when they have to make payments on them.

I want to repeat the text I used previously because it is vital toliving life well. Colossians 3:15 says to let the peace from Christ“rule (act as umpire continually)” in our hearts. The presence ofpeace helps us decide and settle with finality all questions that arisein our minds. If you let the Word have its home in your heart andmind, it will give you insight and intelligence and wisdom (see v.16). You won’t have to wonder, Should I or shouldn’t I? I don’t

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know if it’s right. I don’t know what to do. If you are a disciple ofChrist, He has called you to follow peace.

Dave, my husband, and I were trying to make a decision on alarge purchase we needed to make. We called some of our boardmembers from the ministry and presented the need to them, ask-ing, “What do you think?”

They all gave their opinions, but as I listened to them I knewsuddenly that I didn’t have peace about going forward with theplan. We have learned by experience to wait if we don’t have peacefor something. Everyone agreed to wait on God to give us all peacebefore we proceeded.

I was out shopping recently and went into a children’s clothingstore. It was one I had not been in for perhaps a year or more. I sawsome items that I thought would be perfect for two of my grand-daughters. They were little pink shirts with rhinestone hearts onthem. It was Valentine’s Day and I wanted to give them some-thing, so I called my daughter to check on their clothing sizesbefore making my purchase.

She said, “I cannot believe this! I was in that shop last night,looking at those exact shirts, but I didn’t have peace about spend-ing any money. I really wanted to buy them for the girls but feltI needed to honor God by not doing something I did not havepeace about.” Then she said, “Mom, I believe God is blessing mebecause I obeyed Him.” She was very excited.

Letting her girls receive the shirts as a gift was much more funthan purchasing them. Had she disobeyed what she felt in herheart and done what she did not have peace about, she probablywould have been uncomfortable in her spirit, perhaps even miser-able. We both got to be part of a miracle because she chose to fol-low peace!

Following the Lord of peace may mean that you have to makesome adjustments in your life. You may not be able to do everythingyour friends do. You may not be able to buy everything you want.

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You may not be able to have something just because a friend, or asister or a brother, has one. You may have to wait. But I believethat peace is the most important, the most valuable thing we canhave. If we follow peace, we will end up living holy lives and thor-oughly enjoying them.

Many people cannot hear from God because they have toomuch turmoil in their lives. Their insides are like a freeway duringrush-hour traffic. They literally don’t know how to be peaceful; itis as if they are addicted to turmoil. They keep things agitated andstirred up, seemingly on purpose. In fact, they get comfortable liv-ing in a state of chaos. It has become their normal state, eventhough in God’s economy it is not normal at all.

It sounds strange, but when I started learning to be peaceful, Iwas bored at first! I was so accustomed to having something majorgoing on in my life all the time that I wondered, What am I sup-posed to do with myself? Romans 3:17 says, “And they have no expe-rience of the way of peace [they know nothing about peace, for apeaceful way they do not even recognize].”

That describes how my life used to be. I had no experience at allin enjoying a peaceful life; I did not even know how to begin. I hadgrown up in an atmosphere of strife, and it was all I ever knew. Ihad to learn an entirely new way of living.

But now I’m addicted to peace. As soon as my peace disappears,I ask myself how I lost it and start looking for ways to get it back. Iam believing that as you read this book you will become so hungryfor peace with God, peace with yourself, and peace with others thatyou will be willing to make whatever adjustments you need tomake in order to have it. I am also believing that you will begin tofollow peace at all times, because peace will lead you into the per-fect will of God.

Jesus said that if we follow Him, He will give us peace (free ofcharge). In fact, He said He will bequeath His own peace to us (seeJohn 14:27).

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THE GOSPEL OF JESUS BRINGS PEACE

I want to see people love God’s Word and put it first place in theirlives. I believe there is an anointing on the Word; it has inherentpower that makes positive changes in us. The Word of God istruth, and John 8:32 says, “And you will know the Truth, and theTruth will set you free.” Truth sets us free from turmoil and leadsus into a life of peace when we follow it.

The gospel of salvation through Jesus makes peace available tous in all areas of our lives. First Corinthians 1:21 says that whenpeople failed to find God through earthly wisdom or by means oftheir own philosophy, God saved people through the preachingof salvation “procured by Christ.” Strong’s Exhaustive Concordanceof the Bible says the Greek word translated as “save” in that verse issozo, which means God “delivers, protects, heals, preserves, savesand makes whole” those who believe, trust in, and rely on Him.

We will experience peace in our personal lives when we stop try-ing to do so many things ourselves and just rely on God to deliver,protect, heal, and save us, as He wants to do.

And God will also lead us to peace in our relationships. Eph-esians 2:14 is an awesome Scripture that says, “For He is [Himself ]our peace (our bond of unity and harmony). He has made us both[Jew and Gentile] one [body], and has broken down (destroyed,abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us.” Where there is nounity, no harmony, God Himself will break down and abolish thewalls that divide people. He has broken down walls between so-called classes of people. He makes equal those who have highereducation and those without any education at all. Somebody with alot of money is no better to Him than somebody without money.The preacher is no better than the person who cleans the toilets.

The Lord loves each of us unconditionally. The hand of Goduniquely created and personally designed each of us. That doesn’tmean that we don’t need some sandpaper to smooth our rough

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edges or polishing to make us shine. We all need to change andgrow, but we can still be at peace about who we are without com-paring ourselves with somebody else. We can stop thinking we areflawed because we are not like anyone else we know. We must havepeace with ourselves before we can have peace with others.

I believe God wants you to have peace about where you are inyour spiritual growth and to realize that you won’t always stay theway you are. Anyone seeking God regularly is always changing, butwe can enjoy where we are on the way to where we are going.

In the next chapter, I will share more about how we can surren-der our will to God’s leading. He doesn’t want us to wait to havepeace until we have all the things that we may want and desire orthink are necessary to our lives. He doesn’t want us to be jealousor envious of those who have the things we want and don’t have,or those who can do what we can’t do. He wants to prove to usthat He is our peace.

God has an individualized, customized plan for your life. As youtrust Him, He will bring it to pass in His timing, not yours. Wait-ing on God’s plan and timing is wise because His ways are alwaysbest. He is the Lord of peace, and as you surrender your heartand life to Him, you will experience the peace that passes under-standing.

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