You are stronger than you think. Do you believe that? God is your strength to help you in all that you do and you can rely on Him with everything. If you’re in need of encouragement today, then listen as Joyce reminds that we can do anything with Christ and no trouble is too big for Him!

Joyce Meyer, one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers and New York Times best-selling author, shares encouragement and advice to help us enjoy our daily lives.

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.

you know i don’t know what you might be

dealing with

but i’m sure that there’s a lot of

people watching as well as people here

in the studio with me that you don’t

have a lot of

difficult challenging things going on

in your life right now and when we’re

going through challenges

one of the things that the devil loves

to tell us one of the

thoughts that he likes to keep putting

in our head over and over

is i can’t do this

it’s just too much for me it’s too hard

i can’t do this

i can’t take it and today i just want to

tell you that you are

stronger than you think you are

and i’m going to say that a good number

of times so i want you to let that get

down on the inside of you

the enemy wants us to think that we’re

weak

that we can’t do it it’s too much for us

it’s overwhelming it’s too hard

but the truth is is that if you think

strong you’ll be strong

and if you think weak you’re going to be

weak

and so there’s obviously a lot of things

that we cannot do i would say most of

the problems that any of us have

we’re not up for it especially if it’s a

long-standing problem

you know it’s one thing to have a

short-term problem

it’s another thing to have a long-term

problem that you pray about and pray

about and pray about

and you just don’t seem to see

much of a change it’s also difficult

when you

have a problem and you stand strong and

you see god’s deliverance and then you

get to breathe easy for about a day

and then here comes another one and then

another one

and another one and uh i’m particularly

fond of

what the bible says that that jesus said

in luke chapter 4 when he was taken out

by the enemy into the wilderness to be

tempted of the devil 40 days and 40

nights

it finally gets around to saying and

when the devil had ended his complete

cycle of temptation

he went away to wait for more opportune

time

so it seems like there’s times when

he doesn’t just attack once but he’ll

attack

over and over and over and over now just

this past weekend we did a conference

and we were just remarking before we

started doing the show here

how many different things we had in that

one conference

that were problem type situations

equipment that didn’t work just just all

kinds of different situations

and so i just want to tell you that if

you’re going through something really

difficult right now

you’ve been having to stand strong for a

long time and you’ve just

got this thinking i can’t do it it’s too

much

you’re just the person that i’m speaking

to today because god wants you to know

and he wants you to begin to think i can

do whatever i need to do

through christ who is my strength

and i am stronger than i think i am

i think all of us to be honest can do a

lot more than the devil would like to

have us think that we can do

and the truth is is if you think you

can’t you can’t

and if you think you can you can now

obviously we can’t just do anything that

we want to do

because we decide to think that we can

but anything that god wants us to do

anything that’s his will for us any

assignment that we have

from him we can do

whatever we need to do we have several

young ladies here today from the mercy

ministries home that we

support here in st louis and all of you

have been hurt pretty badly in some way

shape or form or

whatever the situation is you’ve got

your life pretty messed up

and so the enemy would love to have you

think that you’re never going to get

over it

i know for me because of being abused by

my dad one of the things that i just

pretty much

settled in and accepted and decided was

that

well i mean i’ll do okay but i’ll always

have a second rate life

my life will never be what it could have

been

come on do any of you ever hear that my

life will know if i only i wouldn’t have

if only well yeah we’d all like to go

back and do everything perfect

but the whole thing is is god is able to

take

our worst mistakes and actually

work them out for our good and i can be

honest with you and tell you and

those that are watching from home

because god is god

it doesn’t make any sense in the natural

but because god is god

actually whatever happened to you that

was hard

if you trust god you can actually

end up being a better person than you

would have been

if it would have never happened and so

god really wants us to take a real

positive attitude toward things and it’s

hard

it’s hard when you’re hurting i have a

book that i’ve written that

we’ll be offering soon or it may already

have been offered depending on when this

show goes on

tv but it’s about trusting god and i

said you know it’s much easier to write

a book on trust

than it is to do it when you need to do

it

so all of us no matter what the bible

says no matter what promise is here

we have to decide to believe it we’re

either going to believe it

or we’re going to doubt it and the bible

tells us pretty clearly that

all the things that god wants us to have

comes through

believing so you’re stronger

than you think you are can everybody in

here say that i am stronger

than i think i am how about one more

time i

am stronger than i think i am

and you know i’m pretty big on making

positive confessions and

verbalizing your faith and so i would

encourage

all of you especially if you’re going

through a rough time right now

every time you hear one of those i can’t

thoughts

it’s too much for me you open your mouth

and say out loud if you’re in a place

where you can

i am stronger than i think i am and i

can do whatever i need to do

through christ who is my strength maybe

right now you’re dealing with a sickness

a long-term sickness maybe you’ve had

pain in your body for

quite a while maybe it’s financial

situations maybe it’s a relationship

situation

but i can tell you that god will not

allow more to come on you than what you

can bear but with every temptation he

always provides the way out the

amplified bible says that he

he provides an escape to a safe landing

place

and i like that so whatever we go

through if we’re trusting god

now none of this works if you don’t

trust god but if we’re trusting god

and doing the best that we know how to

do to learn and to grow spiritually

then we can be confident that god never

allows more to come on us than what we

can bear

so when you feel like i can’t take

anymore

another good thing to say is

i will not have more than what i can

deal with

god promises me so instead of thinking i

can’t take this one more day

you know you can say well i’d rather not

have it one more day

but whatever it is i can do it so

philippians 4 13

very familiar scripture i can do all

things

which he has called me to do through him

who strengthens and empowers me

to fulfill his purpose i am

self-sufficient

in christ’s sufficiency and i love this

part

of the amplified verse here i am ready

for anything i’m equal to anything

through him who infuses inner strength

into me

isn’t that wonderful i’m ready for

anything

i’m equal to anything and i think it’s

wise to think that ahead of time

i think it’s wise to think that on a

regular basis then you’re a little more

prepared for whatever comes

you are capable of amazing things

but if you don’t think you are then you

will let challenges

defeat you my mother never dealt with

the situation in our home when i was

growing up my dad was sexually abusing

me

he was he he was very mean to her he

would regularly

beat up on her he’d come home drunk and

smack her and hit her and

beat up on her and she knew that he had

other women all the time

and she just never dealt with him

and it was the hardest thing in the

world for me to understand

why she just would be so passive and let

him just keep mistreating her

and she never apologized to me for about

30 years

after 30 years after i left home when i

was 18.

she finally said i’m sorry for what i

let your dad do to you and here’s what

she said

i want you to listen to this she said i

didn’t think

that i could support you and your

brother and i didn’t

think that i could take care of you

and make it without him so i just stayed

well what would have happened if she

would have thought that she could

see her own thinking defeated her listen

you have to be very careful what you

think when you’re laying in your bed at

night

i think it’s especially important that

what you think when you first get up in

the morning

i think that we need to i mean at least

for me i find the enemy will

make a bid for my mind early in the

morning

sometimes before i ever put my feet on

the floor and so

one of the things that you can do early

in the morning

is say i am going to have a good day

whatever i need to deal with today

i can deal with it because god is with

me he won’t let more come on me

than what i can bear so if you think

strong

you’re going to be strong we prefer no

problems

and no challenges that certainly would

be my first

prayer god i’d love to have no problems

today

but i think we all know that there’s

very few days

that are like that in reality so we’ve

got a

i don’t want this in our own we got to

toughen up a little bit

we have to make sure we’re not like

wimpy whiny christians where

all we ever do is pray for god to make

everything go away

but we’re defeated by every little thing

that comes along

now second corinthians 12 8-9 is a good

example of this

not wanting to have a problem and it’s

paul

the apostle paul who had what the bible

calls a thorn in the flesh and we don’t

really know for sure what that was

if it was a person aggravating him if it

was

some kind of sickness he was dealing

with but you know

no matter how what package trouble comes

in trouble’s trouble isn’t it

and each of us you know we can always

say and you know and i say this to

people and

and it’s a good thing to say you know

when you’re having trouble

there’s always somebody that’s worse off

than you are well that’s true and that’s

good but that doesn’t mean that your

trouble

isn’t still very important to you

and god knows that and he wants to help

you

so three times paul said i called on the

lord and besought him about this and

begged that it might depart from me

i think it’s amazing that paul got it

after three times i mean some things

i’ve been praying about for years

oh god so

god said my grace is enough for you

it is sufficient against any danger and

it will enable you to bear the trouble

manfully so in other words he’s

basically getting ready to say

i’m i’m not going to remove it but i

will give you the grace

to go through it and to go through it

with a good attitude

and a smile on your face and still being

ready to help other people

if you’re like me when you have a

problem it’s very easy to turn

in on yourself and do nothing but think

about what you’re dealing with

and that’s one of the worst things that

we can do he said for my strength and

power

made perfect in your weakness

well paul apparently got it because then

right away he said oh

okay well i’m going to glory in my

weaknesses

and my infirmities i haven’t got to the

point yet where i like them and i

welcome them

but i am encouraged by this scripture

you know there’s some wonderful

scriptures about how god will strengthen

us

and i want to encourage you every day of

your life

depend on god to give you the strength

that you need you can’t just be strong

you have to depend on god

to be strong through you i don’t even

pray anymore god

give me strength i say god you are my

strength

he is our strength so just i just want

to share four scriptures real quick

psalm 119 28 my soul is weary with

sorrow strengthen me oh god according to

your word

isaiah 40 29 he gives strength to the

weary and

increases the power of the weak

isaiah 40 31 but those who hope in the

lord will renew their strength

they will soar on wings like eagles they

will run and not grow weary they will

walk

and they will not faint

ephesians 16 in conclusion be strong in

the lord be empowered through your union

with him

and that means through your oneness to

your intimate personal relationship with

him

we draw strength from god when we spend

time with him on a daily basis

that’s why i recommend do it early i

mean

even if you only think that you can

manage five minutes

i mean get up and before you do anything

else

spend some time with god let him know

that you need him

that you don’t even begin to think that

you can have a successful day

without him draw your strength from him

and i love

the honesty of the psalmist david this

is one of my favorite ones

psalm 22 19 be not far from me o lord

oh my help hasten to aid me

i love what david says like god i need

help hurry up and help me

don’t even take a long time about it

let’s just get busy and help me now