7 Ways to Increase Your Happiness - Pt 3 | 15 Minutes in the Word with Joyce Meyer

Welcome to 15 Minutes in the Word with New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer. On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series, Ways to Increase Your Happiness. We all want to know how we can be happier in life.

But unfortunately, we also have an enemy who tries to steal our happiness and joy any way possible, like reminding us of our past hurts or current difficulties. But there's hope. Jesus came so we can enjoy a full life in him.

In today's teaching, Joyce helps us discover how we can experience God's peace and be filled with his joy no matter what's happening around us. Now, here's Joyce with the series ways to increase your happiness. We started this yesterday and I said that I believe the bottom line of what everybody wants is just to be happy.

I can remember when I was in a very bad place in my life and just just praying God some someday I just want to be happy. I just wanted to be happy. Well, we can't always base our happiness on what's happening because what's happening is not always something that is a happy happening.

And so, we have to be able to base our happiness on something other than that. And I there's so many scriptures that are so wonderful. Psalm 144:15 says, "Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.

" See, just knowing that we know God and that he has a plan for us for eternity and that it's a good one and that he loves us. Those are the things that make us happy. And I really think that we think about our problems too much and we don't think about all the things that we have to be thankful for.

And I can promise you, no matter how many problems you have, you have more to be thankful for than you do to be upset about. Psalm 51, let those who love your name be joyful in you and be in high spirits. Sounds to me like we're supposed to be happy.

Psalm 118:24, this is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And you know, sometimes we do have to say we will.

Maybe when David said that, he wasn't feeling so happy, but he said, "This is the day the Lord has made. I'm not going to waste it by being sad and downcast. I will rejoice and be glad.

And a lot of times it is a decision that we have to make. Now yesterday we talked about uh how believing the right thing increases your happiness. What you believe about yourself, your future, your past, your life, what you believe about your relationship with God, all of those things are important to believe what the word of God says because it is the truth.

This the words in this book, the Bible, are truth. And other things are just not always based on the truth. They may be based on a lot of things, but we need to believe what's based on the word of God.

We started right at the end of the teaching yesterday talking about the second thing that you can increase your happiness by living life one day at a time. Oh my goodness, how much time do we waste worrying about something in the future that we cannot do anything about? Boy, if you would just take that time that you worry and turn it into prayer, then that gives God an opportunity to work in your life and take care of things instead of you worrying about them.

We don't want to worry about yesterday. We don't want to worry about tomorrow. We want to live life one day at a time.

And I realize that there are a lot of unknowns in our life. And we are people who like to know because we like to be in control. But we have to believe that God is smarter than we are.

And he can take care of us even better than we can take care of oursel. And we need to cast our care on him and let him deal with everything that needs to be dealt with. Paul said he'd learned how to be content, no matter whether he was abased or abounding.

In Philippians 4:11, he said, "I'm not saying this because I am in need, for I've learned how to be content, whatever my circumstances are. " And in verse 13, he said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. " See, that's a great thing to believe, too.

whatever I need to do. I don't know how my situation is going to turn out tomorrow, but I'm not going to waste today being miserable about something that may or may not even happen. And whatever happens tomorrow, I believe that God will give me the strength to be able to do whatever I need to do in my life.

Happy are the people whose God is the Lord. You know, we get so bothered about money. Let me tell you one of the things that Jesus said.

Jesus instructed the soldiers to be satisfied with their wages. Well, my goodness, how many people are not satisfied with what you're paid on your job? That becomes the focus of your life?

They're mistreating me. I'm not making enough money. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

And in Luke 3:14, the soldiers ask him, "And what should we do? " You ever thought about asking Jesus? Well, Jesus, what should my attitude be in this situation?

Wow. I think we already know deep down what kind of answers we would get. And Jesus said, "Don't exhort money.

Don't accuse people falsely, and be content with your pay. " It's so interesting to me when people ask Jesus questions, the super simple answers that he gave them. Basically, he's saying, "Treat people good.

Be content with where you're at in life right now. And when the time is right, I can tell you from experience that God will do more and more and more for you. But if you're unhappy where you're at now, then you're likely to stay there.

" I always say, "Complain and remain. Praise and be raised. " The Israelites complained all the time in the wilderness when they were on their way to the promised land.

And it took them 40 years to make an 11-day journey. And a lot of it was because it was just because of their attitude. They didn't really believe God.

They weren't living one day at a time. They murmured and grumbled and complained and were impatient and they blamed God and they blamed Moses. In other words, they just had a bad attitude.

And it's amazing that our attitude can affect us either in a very positive way or a very negative way. Happy are the people whose God is the Lord. I love that scripture.

Your paycheck is not your source. You know who is God. God can do things.

He can He can give you money that doesn't come from your paycheck. He can give you money from any place that he wants to give it to you from. So why not widen your spectrum of what you're expecting from God and tell him, "I know you're my source and my paycheck is not my source.

" God can cause your employer to want to give you a raise. God can cause them to want to promote you. God can cause people to do things that they wouldn't ordinarily do if we put our trust in him.

Hebrews 13:5 in the Amplified Bible is just powerful. But I'm going to read it to you today out of the NIV, which is also very, very good. Keep your lives free from the love of money.

Now, there's nothing wrong with money, but if we start loving money, it gets us in trouble. The love of money is the root of all evil. Money is not evil, but if we love it too much, it can steal our happiness.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. Oh, that's so challenging sometimes, isn't it? People have asked me, you teach on contentment, Joyce, how can I be content when I have this and this and this and this?

Well, I believe that one of the ways you can be content and probably the only way is because you know that God loves you and you know that your situation will not always be that way. that your day of breakthrough may be right around the corner and you might as well not waste today being unhappy about something that only God can take care of. The more we trust God, the happier we can be.

Waiting to be happy until you have everything you want is pretty useless because I don't know of too many days in our lives when we can actually say, "I have every single thing that I want. " Don't base your happiness on what is happening. It causes us to waste all the days between prayer and manifestation.

I love what the Bible says about prayer in Mark 11. It says, "Have faith in God always and that when you pray, make sure you don't have anything against anyone. " And it says, "Whatever you ask for, believe that you have received it and you will get it.

" You get that? What you believe is important. Whatever you ask for, believe that you've received it.

Now, you say, "Well, Joyce, I don't I don't have it. I can't see it. " But you can believe in your heart that because God is faithful that whatever you ask him for, it's on its way.

Believe that you have received it and you will get it. Now, the only thing that that scripture doesn't tell us is when we'll get it. So, I always say we have a beginning and an end, but it's the in between that's difficult.

And that's where our faith is tested. That's where it's important to say, "God, I believe you're working and that my breakthrough will come at just the right time. " Make a decision to enjoy your journey because life is about the journey.

It's not about the destination. And whatever it is that you want to happen right now, I can guarantee you that when it does, it may make you happy for a few days and it won't be long and you'll be wanting something else because that's just the way we are. We're actually created by God to want progress.

But we don't have to be unhappy all the time until we get it. So make a decision to enjoy your journey. Enjoy your children while they're growing up.

Enjoy your home. Don't just make a payment on it and try to keep it clean, but actually take the time to enjoy it. The other day, I took time and I was just sitting in my family room and I love my fireplace and I just sat there and thanked God for all the different things in the room that I really enjoy.

And I even thanked God that the furniture store where I got all my furniture was around when I needed to buy my furniture because it's no longer there. And I wouldn't have been able to have gotten some of the things that I have that I enjoy so much if it wouldn't have been open. Enjoy the things that God's given you.

Enjoy yourself. Don't always be against yourself and finding something wrong with yourself. The Bible says that a wife should enjoy her husband.

And every time I say that in a meeting where I've got a crowd of people, the women all grown. Well, you know what? You can enjoy the person you're married to if you will stop looking at everything that's wrong with them and look at the things that are right with them.

I made a list one time of everything that I thought was wrong with Dave and everything I thought was right. And I was really surprised when I got finished. the things that I thought were right that I really enjoyed about him was much much longer than the three or four things that I thought were a problem.

We focus on the right thing and we can increase our happiness. Today I'm saying to every one of you, if you focus on the right thing, you can increase your happiness. There's something you can do about your level of joy.

You don't have to just sit on the sidelines and wait for something to come along and make you happy. If you do that, then you're basing everything on your circumstances. You can make a decision right now, today.

I am not going to waste any more days of my life being unhappy. Jesus came that I might have and enjoy my life and have it in the full until it overflows. And I'm going to start today enjoying the life that Jesus paid a dear price for me to have.

Enjoy the people in your life, even if they're not perfect. The next thing that we can do that will really help our happiness, and this is a big one, is stay in peace. I grew up in a house of turmoil, arguing, and anger, and I didn't even really know what peace was until I married Dave, and he was such a peaceful man.

Thanks for listening. We've all experienced different challenges in life that may have caused us to struggle in staying happy through the situation. When that happens, we don't have to wait for those circumstances to change in order to enjoy the everyday moments.

As we choose to lean into God and place our trust in him, we will discover that his joy and peace gives us the strength to overcome any level of unhappiness. Let's begin increasing our happiness and start sharing with others the great things God has done for us today. For more resources from Joyce, visit joycemeyer.

org. Well, you know, I am committed to bring you the word of God on a regular basis. And I need you to be committed in partnership to help us continue bringing you the programs we bring you and sharing the love of Christ and the word of Christ all over the world.

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org. Thank you for listening to 15 Minutes in the Word with [Music] Joyce. Register today for the 2025 Love Life Women's Conference.

Go to joycemeyer. org/wc25. Have you been looking for a 365day devotional?

Well, look no further than the promises for your everyday life devotional from Joyce Meyer. There's a focus verse for all 365 days of the year along with a prayer starter. Get your copy of Promises for Your Everyday Life Devotional at joycemeyer.

org/365 DVO. The biggest thing that we need to do is learn how to think like God thinks. And the only way you can do that is by knowing the word of God.

In words to live by, Joyce Meyer shares how studying the word of God transformed her life. Experience a deeper and more meaningful relationship with God through the captivating collection of verses in this beautiful hard coverver book by Joyce Meyer. Discover the transformative power of his word, words to live by from Joyce Meyer.

Get your YouTube exclusive offer today. Go to joycemeyer. org/words org/words and the number two.

Have you ever been trapped in a neverending frenzy where every passing moment feels like a blur, leaving you gasping for a chance to pause and catch your breath? In her insightful book, Pursuing Peace, Joyce Meyer explores the importance of seeking peace at all costs. This beautiful hardcover edition is filled with meaningful scriptures and uplifting quotes from Joyce providing valuable guidance for living a peaceful lifestyle.

So grab a cup of coffee, find a comfortable spot, and embark on your journey to find peace. Remember, this limited time YouTube offer won't last long. Go to joycemeyer.

org/pursuit to get your copy today and start your pursuit of peace. [Music] The mind actually is the battlefield. That's where we win or lose the war with Satan.

He said all he gets to say today is mind. You start asking God to heal you and he will restore. He's the God of all comfort.

And I am so grateful that I know how to call on God.