by Joyce Meyer
REJOICE!
For it is written in the Scriptures, Rejoice, O barren woman, who has not given birth to children; break forth into a joyful shout, you who are not feeling birth pangs, for the desolate woman has many more children than she who has a husband.
GALATIANS 4:27
After Paul describes the difference between the two covenants represented by the two women, Hagar and Sarah, he goes on to say to the barren woman, “Rejoice!”
For years I read this verse and wondered what Paul was talking about. It was only later I discovered that Galatians 4:27 was a cross reference to Isaiah 54:1, which says basically the same thing: Those who do not labor to bring forth their own results but who depend entirely upon the grace of God will enjoy more results than those who wear themselves out trying to produce by their own efforts.
The Church is not seeing the results we want today because God’s people are trying to do with the arm of flesh what can only be done by the arm of the Lord.
Instead of trusting in the arm of flesh, we believers are supposed to be trusting in the arm of the Lord. Like the barren woman in these Scriptures, instead of grieving we are supposed to be rejoicing.
Why would a barren woman rejoice? Because the writers of these Scriptures are talking about spiritual, not natural, children. The barren woman is barren of her own works. She has given up trying to give birth the natural way. Instead, she has learned to put her faith and trust in God to give birth spiritually. She has ceased from her labor and has entered the rest of God.
As we read in Hebrews 4:10, those who have entered the rest of God have given up all their own labor and striving — the weariness and pain of trying to give birth to things in a natural way — and simply are resting, waiting upon the Lord to do for them what they cannot do for themselves. As a consequence, they end up having more children — enjoying more and better results — than those who try to produce by their own works.
THE FRUSTRATION OF WORKS
[You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations,
So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] to redound to [your] praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) is revealed.
Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy.
1 PETER 1:6-8
I don’t believe we lack joy because we have problems. The Bible says that we can have inexpressible, glorious, triumphant, heavenly joy right in the very midst of our trials and temptations.
If we are not experiencing that kind of “joy unspeakable” (as the King James Version calls it), we need to ask why not. In my own life, I did not begin to experience a sense of joy despite my outward circumstances until I discovered and learned the real meaning of the second covenant.
The blessings of that covenant were available to me, just as they are to all believers. But something can be available to us yet never be of any benefit to us because we never avail ourselves of it. As long as we live in ignorance or neglect of the blessings that are ours under the covenant of grace, we will live in the frustration of works.
In fact, that is what the Lord told me: “Frustration equals works of the flesh.” In other words, we only benefit from the blessings of the covenant of grace by living under grace. As long as we live under works, we will be frustrated and depressed because we are trying to do God’s job.
God has given us His Holy Spirit to be our Helper in life. (John 16:7.) But stubborn, independent people don’t want any help. They want to do everything for themselves. If they do ask for help of any kind, it is only because they have exhausted every avenue of self-help and have come to the inevitable conclusion that they just cannot do it alone.
I used to be that way. I would worry and fret and work myself to a frazzle over simple things like trying to open a jar of mayonnaise before I would finally have to give up and ask Dave to come to the kitchen and open the jar for me. What made me act that way? Pure stubbornness — and pride. I wanted to prove that I didn’t need anybody’s help, that I could do everything for myself. But I couldn’t, and that frustrated me.
The way we receive help — and thus avoid the frustration of works — is by simply asking for it. But only the humble among us will do that, because asking for help is an acknowledgment that we are not able to do everything for ourselves.
PRIDE VERSUS HUMILITY
…Clothe (apron) yourselves, all of you, with humility [as the garb of a servant, so that its covering cannot possibly be stripped from you, with freedom from pride and arrogance] toward one another. For God sets Himself against the proud (the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful) — [and He opposes, frustrates, and defeats them], but gives grace (favor, blessing) to the humble.
Therefore humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you,
Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.
1 PETER 5:5-7
We can see from this passage how important humility is to God. If we are full of pride and doing things our own way without listening to Him, we will end up in situations that will result in anxiety and stress.
God’s reasons for asking us to do things in the way He asks are not to take anything away from us. He is trying to set us up for a blessing. Or He may be trying to protect us from something we don’t know about. We must always be on our guard against pride because it will keep us from experiencing peace and joy in this life.
One time after one of our meetings in which I taught on this subject, a lady came to me and said, “I’m looking for one of your cassette albums, but I don’t see it on the tape table.”
“Which one is it?” I asked.
“The one about exchanging pride for humility,” she answered.
“We don’t usually carry it with us,” I told her, “because there is not much demand for it. Those who are humble don’t need it, and those who need it are too proud to pick it up.”
That would be amusing if it weren’t so true.
James tells us God gives us more and more grace — power of the Holy Spirit — to overcome all of our evil tendencies. In the same verse he goes on to say exactly what Peter said in his first letter to the believers: …God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it) (James 4:6).
James then urges us, just as Peter did, Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant] (v. 10).
We receive the grace of God by humbling ourselves before Him, casting all our cares upon Him, and trusting Him to take care of them as He has promised in His Word.
Proud people won’t do that, because they think they can handle everything for themselves. Only the humble will do that, because they know they can’t handle everything — only God can.
THE LORD BUILDS THE HOUSE
Except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread of [anxious] toil — for He gives [blessings] to His beloved in sleep.
PSALM 127:1,2
What should we let God build in our lives? The first thing we need to let Him build is us.
In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said that He would build His Church. In 1 Corinthians 3:9 Paul tells us that we are that Church: …you are God’s garden and vineyard and field under cultivation, [y
ou are] God’s building.
We are the building, and Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone. (Ephesians 2:20.) We are being built up, one brick at a time, day by day, from glory to glory.
But how do we get built? The answer is found in Paul’s letter to the Galatians who needed to be reminded of the difference between works and faith.
BEGUN BY FAITH, FINISHED BY FAITH
Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the [Holy] Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh?
Have you suffered so many things and experienced so much all for nothing (to no purpose) — if it really is to no purpose and in vain?
Then does He Who supplies you with His marvelous [Holy] Spirit and works powerfully and miraculously among you do so on [the grounds of your doing] what the Law demands, or because of your believing in and adhering to and trusting in and relying on the message that you heard?
GALATIANS 3:3-5
We need to ask ourselves what Paul was asking the “foolish,” “senseless,” and “silly” Galatians: Having begun our new lives in Christ by dependence on the Spirit, are we now trying to live them in the flesh?
Just as we were saved by grace (God’s unmerited favor) through faith, and not by works of the flesh (Ephesians 2:8,9), so we need to learn to live by grace (God’s unmerited favor) through faith, and not by works of the flesh.
When we were saved, we were in no condition to help ourselves. What kind of condition are we in now that we have been saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ? We are still in no condition to help ourselves! Why then do we keep trying to make things happen that are never going to happen?
The only way we are ever going to be …built [into] a spiritual house, for a holy (dedicated, consecrated) priesthood, to offer up [those] spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5) is by submitting ourselves to God and letting Him do the work in us that needs to be done.
The flesh profits us nothing. Only the Spirit can cause us to grow up into the perfection of Christ.
ARE YOU INTERESTED IN BEING PERFECTED?
His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church),
[That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.
EPHESIANS 4:12,13
Are you interested in being perfected? I am. I want to grow up in the Lord. I want to mature and be Christlike in my attitude and behavior. Like Paul, I want to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection. (Philippians 3:10.) I want to measure up to His stature and operate in the fruit of His Spirit. (Galatians 5:22,23.)
But I cannot do all that on my own. I cannot change myself from what I am to what I want to be. All I can do is be willing to be changed and humbly submit myself to the Lord, allowing Him to build me into the person He wants me to be. And the only way that can be done is through faith.
WHAT IS FAITH?
For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus [the leaning of your entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness] and of the love which you [have and show] for all the saints (God’s consecrated ones).
COLOSSIANS 1:4
According to this verse, faith is the leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness.
That means we need to lean all of ourselves on God, believing only He has the ability to do for us what needs to be done in us. Our only job is to abide in Him, to lean on Him totally and completely, to put our trust and confidence in Him.
When the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins, what do we do? The first thing we do is confess those sins. We get into agreement with God about them. The second thing we do is acknowledge our inability to do anything about our sins. The more we try to change ourselves, the worse we get.
So what are we to do in order to do the work of God? The answer is found in John 6:28, 29 in which the disciples came to Jesus and asked this same question:
They then said, What are we to do, that we may [habitually] be working the works of God? [What are we to do to carry out what God requires?]
Jesus replied, This is the work (service) that God asks of you: that you believe in the One Whom He has sent [that you cleave to, trust, rely on, and have faith in His Messenger].
OUR WORK IS TO BELIEVE
The work that God requires of us is to believe, and believing requires that we cleave to, trust in, rely on, and have faith in Him and His Son Jesus Christ. If we truly have faith in God, if we truly lean our entire personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness, we will not be anxious or worried. We will quit trying to build ourselves and will allow Him to build us and equip us.
THE MASTER BUILDER
For [of course] every house is built and furnished by someone, but the Builder of all things and the Furnisher [of the entire equipment of all things] is God.
HEBREWS 3:4
God is the Master Builder. Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone. God is the One Who has to build us and equip us for the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Philippians 1:6 the apostle Paul writes to assure us: …He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you. What he was saying to us is simply this: “It was God Who started this work in you, and it is God Who will finish it!”
That means we should leave God alone to do His work. We need to stay out of His business and mind our own. There are certain things only God can do. We are to do our part and let Him do His. We are to handle our responsibility but cast our care on Him.
We are to confess our sins and failures to the Lord, confident that He will forgive us of those sins and failures and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, as He has promised in His Word. (1 John 1:9.) We are to trust to Him the job of perfecting us for the work He has for us to do in this life. That takes the pressure off of us, which relieves us of the worry and anxiety we feel so often as we try to perfect ourselves.
LET GO AND LET GOD
Abstain from evil [shrink from it and keep aloof from it] in whatever form or whatever kind it may be.
And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
Faithful is He Who is calling you [to Himself] and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it [fulfill His call by hallowing and keeping you].
1 THESSALONIANS 5:22-24
Here are God’s instructions to us for finding peace and joy: Stay away from wrong behavior and allow the Lord of peace Himself to sanctify us, preserve us, complete us, hallow us, and keep us.
These verses are our call from God to a certain kind of holy living. They are also our assurance that it is not we who bring about this holy life, but God Himself, Who can be trusted utterly to do the work in us and for us.
What then is our part? What is the work that we are to do? What does God require of us? Our part is to believe. Our work is to trust the Lord. His requirement is that we let go and let God.
LET GOD BUILD
And now [brethren], I commit you to God [I deposit you in His charge, entrusting you to His protection and care]. And I commend you to the Word of His grace [to the commands and counsels and promises of His unmerit
ed favor]. It is able to build you up and to give you [your rightful] inheritance among all God’s set-apart ones (those consecrated, purified, and transformed of soul).
ACTS 20:32
God, the Master Builder, has promised to build us if we will allow Him to do so. What areas in our lives do we need to allow Him to build?
The first area, which we have already discussed, is ourselves. The second area, which is really a part of the first, is our ministry. The third and final area is our reputation.
GOD AND OUR REPUTATION
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
The apostle Paul said that in his ministry he had to choose between pleasing men and pleasing God. That is a choice each of us must make.
In Philippians 2:7 KJV, we read that Jesus made Himself of no reputation. Our Lord did not set out to make a name for Himself, and neither should we.
The Lord once commanded me, “Tell My people to stop trying to build their own reputation, and let Me do it for them.” If it is our goal to build a name for ourselves, it will cause us to live in fear of man rather than in fear of God. We will try to win favor with people rather than with the Lord.
For years I tried to build my own reputation among believers by trying to win the favor of men. I manipulated and connived and played all the fleshly games to get in with the right group of church people. Through bitter experience, I learned that if we are to be truly free in the Lord we must do as Paul has told us in Galatians 5:1: In [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off].
