Tag Archives: Joyce Meyer

Sunday Scriptures – Live Life to the Fullest

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Isaiahby Sandy Kirby Quandt

Would you say you live life to the fullest, or do you merely go through the motions each day?

I’d have to say I’ve allowed my circumstances, at times, to determine which end of that spectrum I land on for any given day. But is that really how Jesus wants us to live? Bouncing back and forth between living fully and merely existing?

In her devotional, The Confident Woman, Joyce Meyer states enjoying life is a decision that is not based on enjoyable circumstances. She says it is an attitude of the heart, a decision to enjoy everything because everything has a part in God’s overall “big picture.”

Many years ago I realized being happy and being joyful are not the same thing. Joy is something that lives inside us because we belong to Jesus. Happiness tends to depend on circumstances that surround us.

In the midst of the worst life throws at us, happy is not a word we’d choose, but we can choose joy. We can choose to live life to the full, regardless.

Satan wants to steal our joy. He wants to kill the enjoyment we get out of living life as God intends. He is a thief who wants us to be joyless. Don’t let him steal your joy.

We can blandly go through life just existing, or we can enjoy what God has given us, regardless of the circumstance we find ourselves in.

Daily Spiritual Refreshment for Women puts it this way. “A hope-filled person will realize that abundant life in Christ isn’t about simply enduring the storm but also about learning to dance in the puddles.”

Jesus came to give us life, a great full life. Let’s dance.

How do you choose joy when Satan tries to steal it from you?

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The robber comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I came so they might have life, a great full life. John 10:10 (NLV)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Sunday Scriptures — Who’s Your Enemy?

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Once again I’d like to share a reflection on something Joyce Meyer said in her book, The Confident Woman Devotional.

In her November 25th devotional Joyce says placing blame in the wrong place is a problem we often have because we tend to blame people instead of realizing our warfare is with the devil. She says we desire revenge against those who hurt us, but if the devil is really the one behind all our pain, how can we get him back?

Joyce says because the Bible tells us we overcome evil with good, the way to get back at the evilness of Satan is to aggressively be good to everyone we meet, including our enemies.

Repaying evil with good is definitely not the response Satan expects when he sends evil to our door. He wants to perpetuate his evilness through getting us to react in anger and fear.

When we fight evil with evil Satan gets the response he hoped for, causes bitterness and anger to reign in our lives, and he wins.

Repay evil with good …

Maybe if we pray for God to open our eyes to see who the real enemy we are fighting is – Satan, the one behind all the evil – we’ll have a greater resolve to overcome the evil he sends our way by doing good to others. All others.

Personally, doing good to those who are enemies is not something I’ve found easy to do. But with God’s help it is something to strive towards. How about you?

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… these are God’s words: ‘Therefore if your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head’. Don’t allow yourself to be overpowered with evil. Take the offensive—overpower evil by good! Romans 12:20-21 (Phillips)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Sunday Scriptures — Dread Not

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By Sandy Kirby Quandt

According to Joyce Meyer, “Dread is expecting something unpleasant to happen, and it has nothing to do with faith. Faith looks forward to something good.”

There have been multitudes of times where I dreaded doing something. Taking tests, or giving an oral report in school top the list. Then there are the doctor appointments and follow-up procedures. Often, I’ve been filled with dread over something involving a family member. Putting myself in unfamiliar situations or driving to new places many times stirs up dread.

In each of these instances, just like the quote at the top of this post, I expected something unpleasant to happen.

During the moment we may not realize we are allowing dread to control us. It’s often subtle. We can fool ourselves into believing we are confidently facing the challenge before us, yet deep down our joy starts to lessen and we feel deflated or lackluster.

Deflated is exactly where Satan would like for us to stay. Afraid. Filled with dread. Discouraged.

Jesus does not want us to live in fear and dread. He came so we could have life and experience it to the fullest.

He has already gone before us and won the victory. I believe we need to live like it.

Are there any situations that cause dread to surface in your life and keep you from enjoying life to the fullest?

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Then I said to you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God Who goes before you, He will fight for you just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God bore you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place. Deuteronomy 1:29-31 (AMP)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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One of my posts is scheduled to appear on Inspire a Fire October 6, 2015. Please stop by and check it out.

Sunday Scriptures — Jesus Is Our High Priest

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by Sandy Kirby Quandt

Jesus is our High Priest who knows all about us and understands what is going on in our lives. He knows our emotional wounds and understands why we do the things we do.

In Joyce Meyer’s book, The Confident Woman Devotional, she looks at Hebrew 4:15 in a way I hadn’t considered before. I always knew from this scripture Jesus was a High Priest who pleads our case before God. Because he lived on this earth in human form, he experienced the things of this life that we experience and sympathizes with us.

Jesus knew what it was to be betrayed, lied about and lied to, hurt physically and emotionally. He was tempted in every way possible, yet he never gave in to sin.

The new insight I gained from her devotion was Jesus “knows the why behind the what” that we do. He knows why we behave the way we do. Light bulb moment.

Jesus sees and remembers all the emotional wounds and bruises in our past. He knows what we were created for. He knows the temperament we were born with. He understands our weaknesses.

Joyce went on to say once we put our faith in Jesus, he begins a process of restoration in our lives that will not be entirely finished until we leave the earth.

Jesus understands us. He loves us unconditionally. He is committed to working with us through the Holy Spirit without condemnation.

While Jesus works with us molding us to become the person we were created to be, how about we stop beating ourselves up for our shortcomings … our sins … and rest in the calm assurance Jesus is for us and is helping us become the best us we can be?

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Seeing that we have a great High Priest who has entered the inmost Heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to our faith. For we have no superhuman High Priest to whom our weaknesses are unintelligible—he himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that he never sinned. Hebrews 4:14-15 (Phillips)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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