by Joyce Meyer
This very thing happened to Paul and his ministry team, as we see in Acts 16: And when they had come opposite Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them (v. 7). Two verses later, Paul received the vision of the man from Macedonia …pleading with him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us! (v. 9). Sometimes God has to block one avenue so we will be open to follow another.
One time our ministry in St. Louis had an eye on a building we thought we needed. We claimed that building by driving around it seven times, saying, “This building is ours in Jesus’ name! It will not be sold until we can buy it!”
Not long afterwards, the building was sold — and not to us!
What did that tell us? It told us that was not our building after all. Instead of going down there and standing on the corner rebuking the devil for three hours and reclaiming the building, we simply concluded, “Well, God must have another building in mind for us, because if this one had been it, He would have kept it for us.”
Rather than getting all riled up and doing something foolish, we just kept confessing, “The camels are coming!” And eventually they arrived — on God’s schedule, not ours.
To the pastor of this church in Minnesota there seemed no way they could meet their debt payment. One Sunday evening a friend of the pastor showed up for services so the pastor asked him to come to the platform and exhort the congregation a bit. The man pulled a sealed envelope out of his pocket and handed it to the pastor, saying, “Here, I want to give you this to spend any way you like. I was praying for you that God would meet your need and provide for you when the Lord said to me, ‘Don’t pray, do something.’”
The pastor opened the envelope and found in it a check for $100,000! Turning to the church he cried, “Praise God, our camel just came in!”
I believe the camels will come for each of us if we will stay in the will of God. The only way we can expect this kind of provision is by being faithful to stay where God has placed us and do the work He has given us to do for His Kingdom’s sake. When we begin to believe this, we are free to cast our care upon Him. We don’t have to stay up all night fretting and worrying, trying to figure out what to do to take care of ourselves. We can simply deposit ourselves with God.
DEPOSIT YOURSELF WITH GOD
Therefore, those who are ill-treated and suffer in accordance with God’s will must do right and commit their souls [in charge as a deposit] to the One Who created [them] and will never fail [them].
1 PETER 4:19
Each pay period when we go to the drive-through bank window, we slide our deposit into the slot and forget about it. We leave our money with the bank officials, trusting them to take care of it for us. In the same way, when we drive by the gates of heaven each morning in prayer, we need to deposit ourselves with God, trusting Him to take care of us.
That is especially true when we are being ill-treated and are suffering because we belong to God and are doing right, being faithful to His will for us. When we give ourselves up to God, we must quit trying to seek justice for ourselves and simply trust Him to justify us and work out everything for the best in accordance with His will and plan. That’s what Jesus did.
When He was abused, reviled, and insulted, Jesus did not respond in kind. Instead, He trusted Himself entirely to God Who judges all things and all people fairly and justly.
As followers of Jesus, our Example, we are called to follow His footsteps. Like Him, we are not to try to take matters into our own hands, but instead to commit ourselves to God, trusting Him to work out everything for good’ to all concerned.
We spend so much time trying to take care of ourselves we have no time left to enjoy our lives. We are too busy with self-care, trying to make sure that nobody takes advantage of us, that everyone treats us right, that we get our fair share.
One time I was invited to preach in a certain church which assured me I would receive a love offering at the end of my series of meetings. Later, just before the meetings were to begin, the church suddenly called and informed me I would receive an honorarium, but no love offering would be taken. Although I didn’t say anything to the church, I got upset and began to mouth off to my secretary: “If those people think for one moment they’re going to pull that kind of thing on me, they’ve got another think coming! I won’t go! You can just call them back and tell them that!”
In just a few moments the Lord spoke to me and said, “Yes, you will go, and you will not say anything about this matter. You will not be concerned about the money. You will go and minister as you promised, and you will do it sweetly and kindly. You will trust Me to take care of you.”
When a love offering is received for a speaker, all the people attending the meeting have an opportunity to give. When an honorarium is given, the church decides what the speaker should have. I felt that the offering would probably be larger if all the people got the opportunity to give. God wanted me to trust Him with the entire matter and believe that He was able to get to me whatever He wanted me to have no matter who He did it through.
Sometimes people do try to take advantage of us and our ministry. But God has taught us not to take matters into our own hands. He has instructed us, “Just keep being faithful to Me, doing what I tell you to do. Sometimes it may appear that people are taking advantage of you, but if you will keep your eyes on Me, nobody can ever take advantage of you, because I am the God of justice. Quit trying to bring justice into your own life, and let Me bring it to you.”
This same principle applies to raising money to meet the needs of our ministry. God has told us to cast our care upon Him, and He will provide what we need to carry on His work.
As a minister of the Gospel, my job is not to spend most of my time trying to figure out how to get money to pay bills and erect buildings. My job is to teach and preach, to pray and bless people. It is God’s job to bring my provision to me. My part is to share the Word with people concerning giving, let them know our needs, trust God to work in their hearts, and get to us enough to meet every need we have.
If we get so involved in looking out for ourselves, we will fail to do what we are called to do, which is to minister to the needs of others. Whatever happens to us, however we may be treated or mistreated, we must continue to do the work God has set before us. We must deposit ourselves with Him, trusting Him to justify us and vindicate us, to protect us and provide for us, to help us and keep us.
GOD IS OUR HELPER AND KEEPER
I will lift up my eyes to the hills [around Jerusalem, to sacred Mount Zion and Mount Moriah] — From whence shall my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand [the side not carrying a shield].
The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
PSALM 121:1-8
Psalm 121 is a beautiful hymn about God as the Helper and Keeper of those who trust in Him. In the midst of troubled times, we should read and meditate on it constantly.
In Psalm 17:8, the psalmist prayed to God, Keep and guard me as the pupil of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings. We have already seen how God has promised to watch over and protect those who take refuge under the shadow of His wings, but how is the pupil of His eye protected? By the eyelid. The moment danger threatens, the eyelid automatically closes, shutting out anything harmful. That is what God does for us who entrust ourselves to Him.
GOD REWARDS AND RECOMPENSES US
But you shall be called the priests of the Lord; people will speak of you as the ministers of our God. You shall eat the wealth of the nations, and the glory [o
nce that of your captors] shall be yours.
Instead of your [former] shame you shall have a twofold recompense; instead of dishonor and reproach [your people] shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double [what they had forfeited]; everlasting joy shall be theirs.
For I the Lord love justice.…
ISAIAH 61:6-8
Hebrews 11:6 says of God, …He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]. So not only is God our Helper and Keeper, He is also the One Who rewards us and recompenses us. A recompense is a back pay, sort of like Workers’ Compensation. (Genesis 15:1.)
One time God spoke to me and said, “Joyce, you work for Me; you are on My payroll. If you get hurt in any way, you don’t have to try to get compensation or revenge, because I will take care of you — I will repay, because I am a God of justice.”
TRUST THE GOD OF JUSTICE
For we know Him Who said, Vengeance is Mine [retribution and the meting out of full justice rest with Me]; I will repay [I will exact the compensation], says the Lord. And again, The Lord will judge and determine and solve and settle the cause and the cases of His people.
HEBREWS 10:30
Do you know what God means when He says He is the God of justice? He means that sooner or later He will make everything right. He will see we get everything coming to us.
As Christians, it is not our job to seek vengeance, but to pray for our enemies, for those who mistreat us, abuse us, and take advantage of us. If we will do that, God has promised to take care of us.
God is not only our Helper and Keeper and the One Who rewards and recompenses us, He is also the Righteous Judge. He determines and solves and settles the cause and the cases of His people.
You and I need to put the Holy Trinity on our case. With Jesus as our Friend, the Holy Spirit as our Advocate, and the heavenly Father as our Judge, we can retire from self-care, knowing that justice will be done — so that we can be anxious for nothing.
ENDNOTES
Chapter 2
1Webster’s II New Riverside Desk Dictionary (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988), s.v. “anxiety.” (back to text)
2Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 3d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1996), s.v. “anxiety.” (back to text)
3 Maranatha Music, “He Has Made Me Glad” (Nashville: 1976).
Chapter 6
1 James E. Strong, “Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary,” in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 1890), p. 52, entry #3427, s.v. “dwell,” Psalm 91:1. (back to text)
Chapter 7
1 Based on definitions from W.E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, William White Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1984), “New Testament Section,” p. 91, s.v. “CAST,” A. Verbs. (back to text)
2 Vine, p. 89, s.v. “CARE (noun and verb), CAREFUL, CAREFULLY, CAREFULNESS,” A. Nouns, 1. (back to text)
3 Footnote to 1 Peter 5:8 written by A.S. Worrell in The Worrell New Testament (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1980), p. 352. (back to text)
4 Ibid. (back to text)
Chapter 8
1 Norman P. Grubb, Rees Howells Intercessor (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, first published 1952, paperback edition 1967, this edition 1980 by special arrangement with the British and American publishers). (back to text)
2 Tingay and Badcock, These Were the Romans (Chester Springs, PA: Dufour Editions, Inc., 1989). (back to text)
3 James E. Strong, “Greek Dictionary of the New Testament,” in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 1890), p. 47, entry #3339, s.v. “change,” 2 Corinthians 3:18. (back to text)
4 Based on definition in Webster’s 3d, s.v. “metamorphosis”: “a marked or complete change of character, appearance, condition, etc.”; “the physical transformation, more or less sudden, undergone by various animals during development after the embryonic state.…” (back to text)
Chapter 9
1 These tapes are available upon request. For a complete listing of teaching tapes on these and other subjects, contact the author at the address in the back of this book. (back to text)
2 Robert E. Coleman, Timothy K. Beougher, Tom Phillips, William A Shell, editors; “Disciple Making: Training Leaders to Make Disciples,” The Online Self-Study Course; copyright © 1994 by Billy Graham Center Institute of Evangelism. Available at http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/ioe/fud/chpt6.html; INTERNET. (back to text)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOYCE MEYER is one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, she has written more than seventy inspirational books, including Look Great, Feel Great, the entire Battlefield of the Mind family of books, and many others. She has also released thousands of audio teachings as well as a complete video library. Joyce’s Enjoying Everyday Life® radio and television programs are broadcast around the world, and she travels extensively conducting conferences. Joyce and her husband, Dave, are the parents of four grown children and make their home in St. Louis, Missouri.
To contact the author write:
Joyce Meyer Ministries
P. O. Box 655
Fenton, Missouri 63026
or call: (636) 349-0303
Internet Address: www.joycemeyer.org
Please include your testimony or help received from this book when you write. Your prayer requests are welcome.
To contact the author
in Canada, please write:
Joyce Meyer Ministries Canada, Inc.
Lambeth Box 1300
London, ON N6P 1T5
or call: (636) 349-0303
In Australia, please write:
Joyce Meyer Ministries—Australia
Locked Bag 77
Mansfield Delivery Centre
Queensland 4122
or call: 07 3349 1200
In England, please write:
Joyce Meyer Ministrie’s
P. O. Box 1549
Windsor
SL4 1GT
or call: (0) 1753-831102
JOYCE MEYER has been teaching the Word of God since 1976 and in full-time ministry since 1980. She is the bestselling author of more than fifty inspirational books, including How to Hear from God, knowing God Intimately, and Battlefield of the Mind. She has also released thousands of teaching cassettes and a complete video library. Joyce’s Enjoying Everyday Life radio and television programs are broadcast around the world, and she travels extensively conducting conferences. Joyce and her husband, Dave, are the parents of four grown children and make their home in St. Louis, Missouri.
Difficult times, trials, and tribulation are part of living in this world. However, God has provided a way for us to enjoy peace as a part of daily life. We can choose either to allow ourselves to be burdened with worry and anxiety or to live in the peace and joy the Father intended.
In BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING, bestselling author Joyce Meyer teaches how to draw on the peace of God in the midst of negative circumstances instead of responding as do many people in the world with restlessness, fear, and apprehension. She reveals the nature of the peace Jesus describes in John 14:27 — a peace which is unlike anything the world knows — and how it can fill every area of your life.
Joyce Meyer explains why we should and how we can:
• Trade our anxiety and worry for peace and joy
• Develop a childlike attitude of faith
• Rest in the arms of the Lord
• And much more!
You will develop a deeper, more meaningful relationship with your heavenly Father as you understand how He cares for you. By following the leading of the Holy Spirit, your life will be filled with unlimited hope and overflow with His peace, so that you will finally Be Anxious for Nothing!
