Is life challenging for you right now? Joyce has an encouraging word — You are stronger than you think. Watch now

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 a 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 nev 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

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

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’m 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 is 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 and 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 beg 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 we hope you enjoyed

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