You have put more joy and rejoicing in my heart than [they know] when their wheat and new wine have yielded abundantly. In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You, Lord, alone make me dwell in safety and confident trust. —Psalm 4:7-8

God has prearranged and made ready a good life for you, but that good life is a choice. You have to decide to follow God’s leading in order to walk in it.

The Bible contains guidelines for that good life. It is not a book of laws; it is about the liberty and freedom to live the life that reaps good things. It is a book of wisdom that will lead you to peace and joy. If you do what the Word says to do, blessings will chase you and find you wherever you are (See Deuteronomy 28:1-2).

From the book Starting Your Day Right by Joyce Meyer.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will [seriously] remember their sin no more.—Jeremiah 31:34

God not only forgives but also forgets all your sins. He does not forgive you and then say, “Oh, boy, I remember when I had to forgive Johnny for pulling his sister’s hair and making her cry. Now he wants me to forgive him for cheating on his algebra test. His list of forgiven sins is getting awfully long.”

No, if Johnny were to say to God, “I know You’ve already forgiven me for pulling my sister’s hair, but now I need Your forgiveness for cheating on a test,” God would say, “Your sister’s hair? You asked me to forgive you for that? I have absolutely no recollection of that; there’s no record of it anywhere.”

The passage above from Jeremiah, and many others you will find in the Bible (Hebrews 10:14-17, for example), is not talking about a forgiveness that happens the day we receive Christ and only takes care of all of our previous sins. God’s forgiveness is ongoing for the duration of our lives; it is for every day.

When Jesus died on the cross 2,000 years ago, He not only forgave everything we had done in our pasts, but He also committed Himself to forgive every sin we would commit in the future. He knows every wrong decision we will ever make, and they’re all covered. All we have to do is admit our sins, be willing to turn away from them, and stay in relationship with Him. When God looks at our sins, He sees our faith in Jesus, Who is our perfect sacrifice—not the sin we just committed.

Because of this, what God really wants from us is not perfect performance, perfect behavior, or perfect attitudes, because He already sees those things in Jesus on our behalf. What God wants from us are hearts that truly love Him.

Trust in Him: God is not surprised by anything you do. You can trust His love and forgiveness because He knew about your mistakes long before you did, and He wants you anyway. Today, determine to stop remembering what God has forgotten and focus instead on loving Him

From the book Trusting God Day by Day by Joyce Meyer

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. —Hebrews 3:1 NIV

Focusing on good things makes us feel good, excited, energized, and enthusiastic. When we focus our time and attention on things we find to be bad, we feel sad, angry, or anxious. That’s why it’s so important for us to “fix our thoughts on Jesus” and keep our focus on Him. God has given us the ability to choose happiness no matter what is going on around us. I am not suggesting we ignore our problems, but there is a big difference between focusing on them—worrying about them—and working to solve or resolve them.

A negative person cannot be happy, and a persistently positive person cannot be unhappy, at least not for any lengthy period of time. Choose to have a happy life by focusing on Jesus. Do what you can do to take care of any responsibility you have with your problem, and while you are waiting for God to do what you cannot do, you are free to go ahead and enjoy your life.

Power Thought: My mind is focused only on Jesus and good things.

From the book the book Power Thoughts Devotional by Joyce Meyer.

And Moses said to the Lord, If Your Presence does not go with me, do not carry us up from here. – Exodus 33:12, 14, 15

When God called Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him, “Let My peo¬ple go,” he asked the Lord, “Who am I going to say sent me? Pharaoh is not going to listen to me and set the children of Israel free.” Moses was afraid; he was upset. But God said to him, “My presence will go with you.” I love Moses’ reply: “Okay, but if Your presence is not going to go with us, then don’t send me!”

We need to really understand the awesomeness of God’s presence. Why in the world would we not want to spend time with God? We spend time staring in store windows at the mall; we spend time on the Internet. But most people admit it is hard for them to spend regular time with God. The devil fights us when it comes to spending time with God.

Why not begin dedicating a portion of time for that purpose? Try to be as regular about it as you can. Read the Bible and any other Chris¬tian books that minister to you. Talk freely to God about anything you would talk to a good friend about. Listen to Christian music and wor¬ship; or just sit there and enjoy the silence. If you will do that, you will begin to feel and sense the Presence of the Lord and you will begin to see wonderful changes in yourself and your life.

I guarantee you, there is nothing in life you need more and nothing He would enjoy more than spending time with you.

Love God Today: Take time today to do nothing but sit in God’s presence.

From the book Love Out Loud by Joyce Meyer

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.] – John 16:33

Look at each word Jesus spoke and meditate on it so that you get the full meaning of what Jesus is saying. He is telling us that during our lives we will have hard times, trials, and things that frustrate us, but we don’t have to let worry or depression be part of it, because He has given us courage (if we will take it), confidence, and assurance. No matter what comes against us, if we have confidence that we can make it through, it won’t bother us that much. It isn’t really our problems that make us unhappy; it is how we respond to them.

Jesus said to “be confident.” He did not say to “feel confident.” Start today choosing to be confident in every situation and you will begin driving fear back to Hades where it came from. When Satan tries to give you fear, give it back to him. You wouldn’t drink poison if someone offered it to you, would you? Then stop taking fear and start choosing courage.

Lord, thank You that You have overcome the world. I will be confident today because I follow You and walk in the victory You have already won. Amen.

From the book The Confident Woman Devotional: 365 Daily Devotions by Joyce Meyer

Now these [Jews] were better disposed and more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they were entirely ready and accepted and welcomed the message [concerning the attainment through Christ of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God] with inclination of mind and eagerness, searching and examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. – Acts 17:11

One of my much-published writer friends taught a series of classes at a writers’ conference on beginning writing. He wanted to reach people who felt God had called them to write and show them how to get their articles and books published.

At the beginning, he asked the attendees how long they had been writing and if they had ever published. Two women, who sat in the front row, said they had both been writing for almost twelve years, but had not yet published anything.

At the end of the first lecture, my friend overheard one of the women say to the other, “Oh, we know all of that. We don’t need to come back to this class.”

They may have already known the things he was teaching, but there was no evidence they had applied what they knew. He also commented that the most eager students in the classroom were those who had already begun to publish. They wanted to learn and improve. Only people who are humble enough to continue learning will ever succeed.

That incident makes me think of an event in the book of Acts. The apostles Paul and Silas preached in Thessalonica, and the people tried to kill them, so believers helped them flee. From there, they went to the city of Berea. Luke records that the people there were fair in their thinking. They received the message “with all readiness,” or, as I like to say, they had ready minds.

That means those were people who were open to God—they were willing to hear what God said, no matter whether it was good news or bad.

If I asked any group of Christians, “Are you ready-minded?” they would immediately say that they were. That’s what we assume being a Christian means—ready, open, willing to hear God, and to be obedient to what He says.

For many people, being ready-minded means that they are ready and open if the message is what they want to hear. If it’s not what they want to hear, they don’t try to kill the messengers like the Thessalonians, but they say, “Oh, we know all of that,” and stop listening. What does it really mean to be ready-minded? It means being willing to turn away from every lie and deception that Satan offers. It means being willing to say, “I was wrong.” It means that instead of listening only for what we want to hear, we listen for what we need to hear.

To be ready-minded means we discern the source of the voice. We love to hear words that make us feel good and encourage us, but we don’t like words that make us aware of our shortcomings. In Satan’s battle for our minds, one of his tricks is to convince us that a message isn’t important or that we already know it. He may even say that the message is not correct, and by doing so, he prevents us from hearing what we really need in order to gain our own freedom.

For example, a pastor preached a sermon against gossip one day. He aimed his message at one woman—who delighted in telling people tales about others. What she didn’t know, she allowed her imagination to fill in. At the end of the service, she said to the pastor, “That was an excellent message. A lot of people in this church need to hear that.”

The pastor said she wasn’t being sarcastic or hypocritical. She simply didn’t get the message. She didn’t have that ready mind—the mind that was open to receive a message of grace and help from God. It never occurred to her that she needed the message. To have a ready mind is not always easy. In fact, the more seriously the Holy Spirit wants to deal with us, the more Satan tries to convince us that we already “know all that” or it’s not something we need to hear.

Lord Jesus, please give me a ready mind. Enable me to hear You clearly and easily. Enable me to say, “Yes, Lord,” no matter what Your Spirit has to say to me. I want to have a ready mind that pleases You in everything. I ask this in Your name. Amen.

From the book Battlefield of the Mind Devotional by Joyce Meyer.

And my God will liberally supply (fill to the full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:19

Paul tells us God will “liberally supply” all of our needs. He doesn’t promise God will give us everything we want, but he does assure us God will meet our every need.

Many times we think of needs in terms of the basic necessities of life. These represent our physical needs, but I believe God created us to need more than these essentials. We don’t simply need money, nourishment, a roof over our heads, and clothes to wear. We also need wisdom, strength, health, friends, and loved ones; and we need the gifts and talents and abilities to help us do what we are supposed to do in life. We need many things, and God is willing to meet all of our needs when we trust and obey Him.

Power Thought: God liberally supplies all of my needs.

Then what am I to do? I will pray with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will also pray [intelligently] with my mind and understanding. – 1 Corinthians 14:15

I really want to encourage you to pray persistent, persevering prayers by the leading of the Holy Spirit—not mere repetitious prayers that do not come from your heart, but prayers that refuse to give up. It is possible to use your mouth to speak words of prayer that have no meaning behind them at all, and those prayers are nothing but dead works. I could quote the entire Lord’s Prayer while I am thinking about something else, and that would not bless God or do me any good, but if I am sincere and pray from my heart, God hears and works in my behalf.

Lip service doesn’t do anything for God or accomplish anything in our lives, so even when we pray about the same thing over and over again, we need to be careful not to fall into meaningless repetition. Instead, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in a fresh way, even when we are addressing a subject about which we have prayed for a long time. Sometimes He will lead us to be diligent and persistent about a matter, but there is a difference between Spirit-led persistence and repetition.

Words spoken in prayer that are not connected to our hearts are words without power. When we pray we should focus and concentrate on what we are saying. We should never merely verbalize things we have memorized while our hearts are far from God. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man avails much and makes tremendous power available (see James 5:16).

I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust! – Psalm 91:2

At various points in our lives, all of us feel we’re getting “out of our depth” or “in over our heads.” There are problems all around: A job is lost, someone dies, there is strife in the family, or a bad report comes from the doctor. When these things happen, our temptation is to panic because we feel we’ve lost control.

But think about it: The truth is that we’ve never been in control when it comes to life’s most crucial elements. The only thing that holds us up—and the thing we can be most grateful for—is the grace of God, our Father, and that won’t change. God is never out of His depth, and therefore, we’re safe when we’re in life’s “deep end” because we can trust that He will always carry us in His arms.

Prayer of Thanks

Thank You, Father, that You are a refuge for me. I know that because You are with me, I can feel safe and secure. Thank You that no matter how difficult life may seem, I can be at peace because You will never let me go.

And should you not have had pity and mercy on your fellow attendant, as I had pity and mercy on you? – Matthew 18:33

In Matthew 18:23–35, Jesus tells a story about one man who refused to forgive another. At the end, He makes the clear and strong point that those who do not forgive others get “turned over to the torturers” (v.34). If you have, or have ever had, a problem forgiving others, I’m sure you can attest to this truth. Harboring hateful thoughts and bitterness toward another person in your mind is indeed torturous.

You may have heard the saying, “Refusing to forgive is like drinking poison and hoping it kills the other person.” We are not hurting the one who hurt us by being angry at them. The truth is that most of the time people who offend us don’t even know how we feel. They go on with their lives while we drink the poison of bitterness. When you do forgive those who offend you, you are actually helping yourself more than you are helping them, so I say, “Do yourself a favor and forgive!”

We think, But, it is so unfair for me to forgive them and then they just have no punishment for what they did. Why should I have the pain while they get the freedom? The truth is that by forgiving, we are releasing them so God can do what only He can do. If I’m in the way—trying to get revenge or taking care of the situation myself instead of trusting and obeying God—He may sit back and allow me to try to handle things in my own strength. But, if I allow Him to deal with those who offend me by forgiving them, He can work good out of it for both parties concerned.

The book of Hebrews tells us that God settles the cases of His people. When we forgive, we put God on the case (see Hebrews 10:30).

Trust in Him Is there a situation in your life that you are trying to take care of instead of trusting God to work it out? If so, do yourself a favor and forgive so God can settle it.

[Jesus] stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being. — Philippians 2:7

You have an inner life and an outer life. Your outer life is your reputation with people. Your inner life is your reputation with God. The Bible says Jesus “made himself of no reputation” (Philippians2:7 KJV) because the inner life is what is important to God.

The apostle Paul said, Now am I trying to win the favor of men, or of God? Do I seek to please men? If I were still seeking popularity with men, I should not be a bond servant of Christ (the Messiah) (Galatians 1:10). In other words, trying to please people gives them control and can cause you to lose the call that God has on your life. Focus on your relationship with God rather than your reputation with people.

Power Thought: My relationship and reputation with God are more important than my reputation with people.

But the path of the [uncompromisingly] just and righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines more and more (brighter and clearer) until [it reaches its full strength and glory in] the perfect day [to be prepared]. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. – Proverbs 4:18-19

Maybe you’re still thinking to yourself, Joyce, I’m a timid and shy person, that’s just my nature. I don’t think I can change. You may feel timid and shy, but you can choose to walk boldly through life. The main thing I want you to remember is that you can feel afraid, you can feel timid, you can feel downright cowardly, and yet you can make the choice to walk boldly and as if fear did not exist! Your free will is stronger than your feelings if you will exercise it.

You may be like thousands of others who have catered to their fearful feelings for so long that the fear has taken control. Your will, like a muscle, becomes weak if not exercised. As you begin to ask God to help you and exercise your willpower against your feelings, it will get easier and easier to be the person you truly want to be, the person God has designed you to be.

Lord, there are certain feelings that control my life and tear down my confidence. I trust that as I exercise my willpower, You will strengthen me and make my path brighter and clearer and easier to walk. Amen.