PEACE AND HAPPINESS PEACE AND HAPPINESS Overcoming Anxiety, Fear, and Discontentment Every Day JOYCE MEYER New York Boston Nashville Copyright © 2004 by Joyce Meyer All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE (AMP). THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE, OLD TESTAMENT, copyright © 1965, 1987 by The Zondervan Corporation. THE AMPLIFIED NEW TESTAMENT, copyright © 1954, 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked KJVare taken from the KING JAMES VERSION of the Bible. Scripture quotations marked NKJVare taken from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIVare taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked TLBare taken from THE LIVING BIBLE © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Faith Words Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 Visit our Web site at www.faithwords.com First eBook Edition: May 2007 ISBN: 0-446-19537-5 CONTENTS Introduction vii Part I BE AT PEACE WITH GOD Peacekeeper #1 Trust the Lord of Peace 1 Peacekeeper #2 Make Peace Through a Surrendered Will 11 Peacekeeper #3 Know Your Enemy 26 Peacekeeper #4 Don’t Worry About the Future 42 Peacekeeper #5 Don’t Be Double-Minded 62 Peacekeeper #6 Stay Supernaturally Relaxed 76 Peacekeeper #7 Avoid Strife to Maintain Peace with God 86 Part II BE AT PEACE WITH YOURSELF Peacekeeper #8 Stop Rushing 99 Peacekeeper #9 Accept Yourself 116 Peacekeeper #10 Focus on Your Unique Strengths 125 Peacekeeper #11 Keep Your Priorities in Order 137 Peacekeeper #12 Protect Your Health 148 v vi Contents Peacekeeper #13 Avoid Financial Pressure 00 Peacekeeper #13 Avoid Financial Pressure 166 Peacekeeper #14 Keep Your Thoughts Above Life’s Storms 184 Part 3 BE AT PEACE WITH OTHERS Peacekeeper #15 Esteem Others as Higher than Yourself 209 Peacekeeper #16 Adapt Yourself to the Needs of Others 224 Peacekeeper #17 Beware of Idle Talk 234 Peacekeeper #18 Establish Boundaries with People 241 Peacekeeper #19 Let Go of Offenses 256 Peacekeeper #20 Maintain a Quiet Inner Life 265 Peacekeeper #21 Aggressively Pursue Peace 276 About the Author 287 INTRODUCTION T he first forty years of my life, I lived without the blessing and benefit of peace; therefore, I can say from experience, life without peace is miserable.One cannot enjoy life without first having peace. Without it, we live in turmoil—always worried, anxious, and upset about something. I came to a point in my life of being so hungry for peace that I was willing to make whatever changes were necessary in order to have it. As a result of that decision and the investment I made dur- ing the following years, I now enjoy a life of peace that often passes understanding. In other words, I enjoy peace duringthe storms of life, not just when the storms don’t exist. I am not saying that I have arrived at a state of perfection in my pursuit of peace, but I have made a lot of progress. As the apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:12, I have not arrived but I press on. There were times in my life when I could be peaceful if every- thing was going my way, but since that seldom occurred, I rarely had peace. Now I have learned to change what I can change, accept what I cannot change, and regularly seek wisdom to know the difference. What I can do, I do with God’s help; what I cannot do I turn over to Him so He can work. This leaves me free to enjoy my life. A life of frustration and struggle, a life without peace, is the result of trying to do something about something you cannot do anything about. The apostle Paul said, “Be anxious for nothing, vii Introduction viii INTRODUCTION but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7 NKJV). Once we realize we are struggling with something and feel upset, we need to start praying and immediately turn the situation over to God. You and I are not called to a life of frustration and struggle. Jesus came so we could have righteousness, peace, and joy (see Romans 14:17). He said, “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)” (John 10:10). The Word teaches us to “search for peace (harmony; undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts) and seek it eagerly. [Do not merely desire peaceful relations with God, with your fellowmen, and with yourself, but pursue, go after them!]” (1 Peter 3:11, italics mine). Simply desiring peaceful relations is not enough. We’re to pur- sue peace with God, peace with ourselves, and peace with our fel- low man. In this book, I will share with you many things within these three areas of relationships that needed to change in order for me to enjoy peace. If you sincerely want a life of peace, you will need to be willing to change too. Peace does not just come; we have to pursue, crave, and go after it. Walking in peace must be a priority, or we will not make the effort needed to see it happen. I spent years praying for God to giveme peace and finally realized He had already provided peace, but I had to appropriateit. Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cow- ardly and unsettled.]” We will refer often to this verse throughout this study. Introduction INTRODUCTION ix We can see that Jesus has already provided peace, so now we must take action and stop responding to unpleasant things by being upset. Being upset certainly does not change anything, but it does make us—as well as the people around us—miserable. Jesus made the statement recorded in John 14:27 after His death and resurrection and prior to His ascension into heaven. There were many things He could have taught His disciples, but He chose to talk about peace. This fact alone reminds me of how important peace is. What a tragedy it would be if we spent our lives without peace when it was available all the time. Some people don’t have peace with God because they are not born again and need to trust Jesus Christ to be their Savior. But some, even Christians, still lack peace because they have not responded to the leading of the Holy Spirit simply to do what is right. They don’t have peace because they are living in disobedi- ence or they have built up a bad habit of worrying over the years. And some people don’t have peace because they are mad at God. Perhaps they prayed for something and it didn’t happen. Perhaps somebody else got what they wanted. Perhaps somebody they loved died, and they don’t understand why, or they were praying for a healing and didn’t get it. There are many, many reasons why people don’t trust God, but in order to enjoy peace, we must learn to trust Him in all things. We must trust that God is totally and completely just, which means He always makes wrong things right if we continue to lean on Him. The Bible says we know “in part.” I believe God has an indi- vidual plan for everyone. God is perfect; He never does anything wrong. We don’t know everything, and we’re not ever going to know everything. Sometimes we make ourselves unhappy because we don’t trustenough. We always want God to change our circumstance, but He’s more interested in changing us than He is our situation. A lot of people have faith to ask God for deliverance from something, but they don’t have enough faith to take them throughanything.