With a heart to share Christ and love people, Joyce’s messages help people in all walks of life to grow in their faith, learn to study the Bible, find healing from the wounds of life, get answers to life’s questions and encounter the love of God in a powerful way.

hey everybody I’m glad you were able to

join us today and hopefully together we

can all get encouraged I hope you’re

doing well and that you’re staying happy

even though you may be having some

challenges right now I you know I

haven’t cooked much for years and years

because I’m too busy with the ministry

and I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve

had to try to cook occasionally so the

first meal I cooked was really hard I

boiled hot dogs and opened a can of pork

and beans he said we all had a big laugh

about that then over the weekend I asked

if you’d like me to cook his breakfast

ins oh I gave I gave that a whirl and

when I got done I couldn’t tell if the

eggs were fried or scrambled but I think

I ended up with two of them fried and

one of them was a mess on top of the two

that I fried so I asked him this morning

if he wanted me to cook breakfast for

him this weekend he said no I think I’ll

pass I did however make hamburgers one

day and that was the best hamburger that

I’ve had in a long long time I’m sure a

lot of you are doing things right now

that you’re not accustomed to doing and

you know one of the things that I hope

my son and I were just talking about

some of the good things that will come

out of this I hope some of you are

realizing that being home a little more

getting a little more rest has value and

maybe even when the world goes back to

normal you’ll still take the time to be

at home a little bit and take a little

more rest and spend some more family

time well today I want to talk to you

about hope because I think that’s

something that we all really need to

make sure that we keep strong in our

life right now you know the Bible says

that Hope deferred makes the heart sick

that’s in Proverbs I think it’s 1312

and that’s so true you know if you if

you stop hoping and you get hopeless

then you just you feel bad all over and

hope is a very interesting thing you

know when we think about hope it’s not

just well yeah I hope something good

happens but I’m not sure that it will

that’s not the Bible kind of hope and so

here’s a little definition

I’ll talk you through it it’s a

favorable and a confident expectation it

has to do with the unseen in the future

hope is the happy anticipation that

something good is going to happen and I

love that let me say it again hope is

the happy anticipation that something

good is going to happen and you know if

you believe that something good is going

to happen to you or to someone else or

in your life of course that does make

you feel happy hope is often translated

in the Bible as trust you know we talk a

lot about faith and I think a lot of

people think they have faith but they

don’t have any hope and hope is kind of

like the foundation that faith to stands

on and just so you know what I mean it’s

like hope really is you can simplify it

and say it’s having a positive attitude

it’s believing that something good is

going to come out of everything instead

of believing negative things and so how

can you trust God for something or have

faith in Him for something if you start

out with a negative attitude and I

honestly think that one of the best

things that we can do right now is keep

a positive attitude yesterday I had

someone say to me well I just don’t know

if the economy is ever going to come

back from this and right away I said

well I believe that it will I think it

would come back and it’ll even get

stronger and I got an email from that

person this morning that said I wanted

to apologize for what I said yesterday

because God really dealt with me last

night that I wasn’t putting my trust in

him that I need to be saying all things

are possible with God and I believe that

that was our slogan for the new year all

things are possible with God and I have

to keep reminding myself of that I think

I mentioned last week and I don’t know

if you heard assert her well with us

last week or not but I found out the

last few weeks that I’ve lost about 2/3

of my hearing in my left ear well I

don’t have any problem hearing normal

things when I’m using both ears but if I

put the phone on my left ear everything

sounds guard

not only lost so my hearing but I have

difficulty understanding what the words

are that are being said especially if

their things are like fine line mine

things that maybe sound a little bit

alike and I talked to an ear specialist

and he basically didn’t give me a great

deal of hope in the natural that

anything could be done about it unless I

wanted to go to something like a

cochlear implant or or something else

and you know that’s really not what I

want to do and I’ve just decided I’m

gonna believe God for a miracle and you

know a lot of times we end up getting

our miracle through natural means

doctors or medicine or or whatever but

they’ve they’ve told me there’s nothing

they can do for me so I’m gonna believe

God for the restoration of my hearing

and I would appreciate it if you’d

believe God with me for that and I’m

sure a lot of you during this time have

maybe gotten some not so good news about

something else in your life so you have

to deal with that as well as deal with

everything else so I really want to

encourage you to stay full of hope if

you want to make the devil mad just stay

hopeful stay positive and no matter what

he throws at you say I believe that God

is going to work good out of this and I

do believe that God is going to work

good out of this in many different ways

hope is very simply a positive attitude

and mindset the hopeful person

absolutely refuses to be negative in any

way although they recognize and deal

with the storms of life when you’re

hopeful you don’t ignore the problem but

you remain hopeful in thought attitude

and conversation all the way through to

victory

so let’s look at it like how would it

sound if I had no hope and how would it

sound if I had hope okay if I was

hopeless I would say well we’ve got this

pandemic and the world whole world is

shut down and this has never happened

before and this is really bad and you

know the outcomes going to be bad and a

lot of people have got it and

on and on but we could say you know we

have this pandemic and this is something

that’s never happened before and it is

making it really really hard for a lot

of people but I believe that ultimately

God is going to work something good out

of this and I believe that he will

restore to us everything that we have

lost now you are going to feel a lot

better and the people around you are

going to feel a lot better if you take

option 2 rather than option one which

was hopelessness anybody can decide to

be hopeful you can make a decision right

now to change your attitude and be

hopeful all you have to do is not live

based on how you feel or what you think

but you can decide I’m going to have a

positive attitude and I’m going to be

hopeful now you know some really

negative person might be thinking right

now well what if I’m hopeful and things

still really turn out bad well you know

at least you’ll be happy while you’re

waiting to see what’s going to happen

there’s just no way that you can lose if

you have hope versus being hopeless our

thoughts our words and our attitudes

belong to us and nobody absolutely

nobody can make you have a bad attitude

if you don’t want to go all the way

through to victory being hopeful Romans

15:13 is a really favorite scripture of

mine because it got me out of a really

bad mood one night I had kind of let my

my believin fade away and I was starting

to look at the negative things and this

actually has been probably 35 years ago

but it’s always stuck with me and I had

a little box of those scripture cards at

that time where sometimes if he needed a

word from God you’d go and flip open to

a scripture card and I flipped open to

Romans 15:13 and God really used it to

show me what my problem was because it

says the god of hope filled us with joy

and peace in believing well I was

believing but I was believing all the

wrong things and so I’d like you to

maybe do a little check on your

believing

today when we’re finished here why don’t

you sit down spend a little time with

God and just ask yourself you know what

you’ve been believing a slogan my son

mentioned to me this morning is starve

your doubts and that’s a very good one

because doubt comes to all of us but we

don’t have to feed it

so doubt your doubts or starve them and

they’ll go away the God of all hope will

fill you with joy and peace in believing

1st Peter 1:3 I love this Peter said we

are born again into an everliving

hope that’s awesome there is always hope

in Jesus Christ now I love this

scripture and you’re gonna like this too

what about if you were a prisoner of

hope you think about being locked up in

a prison cell and what it was in that

cell with you you cannot get away from

well Zechariah 912 says return to the

stronghold of security and prosperity

you prisoners of hope it’s biblical

being a prisoner of hope even today do I

declare that I will resource restore

double your farmer prosperity to you so

there’s a scripture that you can stand

on if you’re somebody whose income has

gone down during this period of time and

maybe you feel like you’re gonna be in

debt when this is over and it’s gonna

take a while to to get out of it I can’t

promise you that that won’t be the case

but I can promise you that if you keep a

good attitude and you keep your trust in

God then he can help you find really

creative ways to get back to where you

need to be be a prisoner of Hope stay

locked up with hope and don’t let it get

away from you

proverbs 13 12 I mentioned it before but

I want to mention it again Hope deferred

makes the heart sick now something I

want to suggest to you that can be a

real problem in our life is if we forget

all the good things that God has done

for us and so there’s a message that I

like to do once in a while called living

amazed and I have a little prop here

that I want to use to

to get the point across now this is

salad dressing in this bottle and let’s

just say that you know a salad dressing

is all the good stuff that makes it

taste good settles to the bottom of the

jar so we need all that stuff but we do

need the oil too it’s not that the oil

is not good but by itself it’s not going

to taste very good so the first thing we

do when we take out a bottle of salad

dressing we’re getting ready to use is

we shake it up well I think what we do a

lot of times is we let all the good

thing is the memory of the good things

in our life kind of sink to the bottom

and everything on top and our thoughts

and feelings and conversation is just

what’s going on right now everybody’s

talking about what’s going on right now

and so I think you need to shake some

things up in your life and see now we

have to shake it a little why sometimes

if you get to the point where you’ve

like all the good stuff sink to the

bottom for a long time you may have to

shake it for awhile but see now it’s

getting to the point where I could pour

that on my salad and it would be really

good so I wrote down a few things that I

purposely tried to remember and I

suggest that you write down some things

that God has done for you in your life

I remember how frustrated and miserable

I used to be and how happy I am now God

has done so much in my life for me and

I’m so grateful to not have to be

miserable every day and feel bad about

myself and feel guilty and condemned all

the time and constantly walking around

with fear

I remember having migraine headaches for

10 years but you know what I don’t have

them anymore anymore I remember the day

that the doctor called me after having a

mammogram and told me that they had

found a lump and they wanted to do a

biopsy and you know I stayed hopeful I

thought oh it won’t be anything but when

the doctor called he said you have

breast cancer it’s a very fast-growing

type of cancer and so we feel that the

best course of action would be

to do a mastectomy to make sure that it

hasn’t gotten into any of the other

cells in your breast the good news was

it had not gotten to my lymph nodes so

thank God I didn’t have to take any

other treatment after that now having a

mastectomy wasn’t any fun but there was

still something good to look at I didn’t

have to take chemo I didn’t have to take

radiation radiation but you see now it’s

been 30 years since I got that report

and every year when I get my mammograms

done I get a clean report a good report

being told I had cancer wasn’t any fun

but sure is fun every year now when they

say you’re clear I remember walking out

of the hospital with my first son and

having no place to go actually for a few

hours I was homeless I found a relative

of my husband who had left me while I

was pregnant not Dave that I’m married

to now but I married the first guy that

came along when I was 18 because I was

hopeless and felt like I would never

have anybody that would love me and you

know desperate people do desperate

things and so he left me was living with

another woman while I was pregnant and

then after I had the baby he came back

around so he found one of his relatives

that would take us in but you look at me

now and you think how could you have

ever even been homeless for even a few

hours well it’s good for me to remember

the terrible condition I was in then and

remember what all God has done for me

and then one more I remember in the

beginning of the ministry driving a van

Dave and I saved up $1,600 if we bought

a van but it had bald tires and rusted

wheel wells and I remember us pulling

over into fast food parking lots and

taking naps in order to be able to drive

home from speaking engagements I would

do you know there were maybe no more

than 100 or 200 miles from here we

didn’t have the money for planes and so

we could only go over we could drive and

I remember not having enough money to

stay in hotels and how

to take little naps in those parking

lots so Dave could drive the rest of the

way home and I’m so thankful now that

I’m able to travel a little better than

I was then and what we drive does not

have ball tires and rusty wheel wells

you need to shake it up you need to get

that get the remembrance of those good

things shaken up and then you see when

you pour that on your salad dressing

you’re gonna get the good stuff mixed in

with the oil shake it up a little bit

let me give you a few statistics that’ll

should cheer you up you know if you can

read you’re better off than two billion

people in the world today think about

that at least while you’re in quarantine

you can read books hopefully a lot of

mine a lot of times people say I’ve read

all your books and I think well I doubt

that because I’ve written about a

hundred and forty if you can receive

medical care for sickness and disease

you’re better off than 11 million

children who die every year from

diseases 11 million every year because

they can’t go to a doctor they can’t get

any medicine if you’re not hungry right

now or if you are hungry and you can

walk across the kitchen to the

refrigerator and get something to eat

you’re better off in the 800 million

people who are right now at this moment

near to death because of starvation

think about that if you have clean water

to drink you’re better off than 230

million people living in 26 countries

who are drinking disease-filled water

that more than likely will end up

killing them and this one just blows me

away if you make more than three hundred

and seventy dollars per year you are

better off than 1.3 billion people so

maybe we shouldn’t complain about our

income three hundred and seventy dollars

a year and then one other scripture I’ll

share with you today there’s a scripture

in Hebrews that says hope is the anchor

of our soul you know so often we read

over scriptures and we don’t really

think

much about them but I did a whole series

on hope back in 2012 and I I wanted to

dig into that scripture so if you think

about an anchor a ship can drop anchor

and it will keep the ship from floating

off in different directions well if you

think of your soul it’s your mind your

will and your emotions and when you’re

having rough times usually those areas

are the ones that just want to go wild I

mean your emotions go wild and your

thoughts go a while and your will gets

you know I’ll do this while do this well

I’ll do that well I’ll do something else

but the Bible says that hope is the

anchor of our soul and that means that

if we will drop that anchor of hope in

any kind of trouble it keeps us anchored

to God and we don’t have to learn how we

feel rulers or what we think rulers are

what we want rule us and you can find

those scriptures in Hebrews 6:18 and 19

don’t ever give up the hope of seeing

change this is not going to last forever

one of these days I’ll be doing a

Facebook live and we’ll be talking about

how great we’re doing since the pandemic

is over so it won’t last forever

and I want you to remember this if

you’ve gone through you can bring

somebody else through and I love that

let me end with the story that I love

it’s called puppies for sale a little

boy saw signing the store window that

said puppies for sale he had always

wanted a puppy so he went into the store

and asked to see the puppies soon a

beautiful golden retriever came walking

out followed by the little puppies one

was lagging behind due to a problem with

his leg immediately the little boy asked

the price of the puppies and the owner

said they were $30 well the little boy

only had two dollars and seventy cents

so he asked if he could give that now

and pay 50 cents a week until he got the

puppy paid off and as the owner pondered

the boys offer the little boy said I

want that one and he pointed to the

puppy that was crippled and the

so if you want that when I’ll just give

him to you I won’t sell him to you

because he’s crippled and the little boy

said no I will pay full price for him

because he’s worth just as much as the

other one the owner said no son you

don’t really understand that puppy you

won’t have any fun with the boy insisted

that he wanted that one and the owner

insisted that he didn’t suddenly the

little boy pulled up his pant leg

revealing a shriveled leg with a heavy

metal brace on it and he said I do want

that one because I will understand him

and I will love him just the way that he

is and you know what I think I think

that we’re gaining compassion during

this I know that more than anybody I

think about him pray for the people that

have lost their jobs or maybe people

that were self-employed and they can’t

even get unemployment I think about the

people there’s so much worse off than I

am and you know I could have compassion

on them because I was homeless for a few

hours and I did have breast cancer and

there are things that I have gone

through in my life and this is just

going to be another thing that I had

that I can add to my list of things I’ve

gone through that will help me have

compassion and understanding on other

people we love you so much and our

prayer teams are praying for you all the

time and we believe with you that

something good is going to happen to you

even today god bless you