Light, Love, Hope

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?
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Being that today was my daughter’s birthday, we traveled to a nearby city that she dearly loves in order to have dinner at one of her favorite restaurants. After the delicious meal, we decided to check out a “new and used” type of bookstore which was conveniently located right next door. We were not that enthused at first because of the thought of used items, but we were pleasantly surprised when we walked inside! There were rows and rows of bookcases packed to the rim with any and every kind of book you could possibly imagine. They were in good shape, too! Some you could not even tell that they were used at all. When we first entered with reservations about the place thinking we’d just take a quick look and be on our way, we ended up staying for an hour and a half! Yes, I have an entire family of bookworms. ~proud smile~

I am always drawn to the self-help and faith/devotional type of books. It should come as no surprise that one of the firsts that I picked up was none other than Joyce Meyer! If I was getting paid for every time I mentioned her or her books, I would be a rich woman. But, alas, I am not. I share because I truly do enjoy reading what Joyce has to offer. I am always entertained by her humor and my soul filled with the words she shares. She mixes the bible verses in with stories of her life and adds in a little bit of her dry sense of humor that just tickles me! What makes it funny is that some of the things she jokingly “complains” about in her sermons are things that we know we all do in our own lives but don’t want any one else to know that we do it! She has it down pat, though, and it’s just funny how she relays this to us that she’s “been there, done that” too!

You’ll be surprised, now, to read that I put her books back on the shelves. I had seen some of those titles before and had even read through a few of those books a while back. My attention, then, refocused on the wall straight in the back of the store where audiobooks were found. Much to my delight, there were about seven audiobooks by Joyce Meyer on that bookshelf! Score!! ~giggle~ I did not buy them all tonight as I did not want to break the bank! Even though they were at a reduced price, they were still asking a pretty penny for some of those audiobooks because they are in excellent condition.
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