Your Battles Belong to the Lord

by Joyce Meyer

  I once allowed a man I worked for to control my time, and I did not say anything about it. No matter what I had planned, if he decided to call a meeting or have a staff dinner, he expected me to drop everything and do as he wished. He exhibited other similar behavior, and after I finally left the job, feeling bitter because he had controlled me, God spoke to my heart that although this man was wrong in controlling people and being inconsiderate, I was just as guilty for letting him do it. I should have spoken up, but I kept quiet out of fear of losing my job. There is a time to be silent and a time to speak, and the balanced person knows the difference.

  Finances

  What about finances? Do you spend too much and purchase unnecessary items or things that get you into debt and ultimately pressure you? If so, then you need to discipline yourself to spend less and use prudence in managing the resources God has given you. On the other hand, there are some people who do not spend enough money. They are so focused on saving for the future that they never enjoy the present. They are what others call tightwads. One man said of another, “That man is tighter than the bark on a tree.” The man had grown up in poverty and had allowed the devil to cause him to fear not having enough. In the process he sacrificed some legitimate things God wanted him and his family to enjoy.

  People who refuse to do anything for themselves often end up feeling deprived even though they are responsible for it. If these people have families, the family members usually resent the rigid attitude toward spending. We should be balanced, and a good plan is to save some, give some, and spend some of our increase. This plan, if followed, will keep you out of trouble with finances, and will also allow you to enjoy the fruit of your labors.

  Time

  Another area of concern is time. We should not waste our time, but neither should we feel that we must constantly be productive. We need work, rest, play, and worship. I tend toward working too much, and that has caused me physical problems in the past. Anyone who works too much will end up with stress, and chronic stress can cause unimaginable health problems and trouble in other areas of our lives. I have to be very attentive to the Holy Spirit’s guidance in this area, and I find myself regularly making adjustments in order to stay balanced. However, I know other people who are basically lazy or passive, and they waste most of their time and do very little with the gifts and opportunities God has given them. They also need to discipline themselves.

  Appetite

  One final area I will mention is appetite. Multitudes of people, especially those in Western cultures, are not only overweight, but the types of food they choose to eat are unhealthy. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Cor. 6:19), and as such we should discipline ourselves to be healthy houses for Him to dwell in. Not everyone will be skinny, just as not everyone will be tall, but we should maintain balance concerning food, and eat and enjoy what we need without overeating. This is not meant to condemn people who weigh more than they should, but it is an encouragement to value yourself enough to be as healthy as you can be.

  Food is a great temptation to many people and understandably so. It tastes good and seems to be pushed in front of us almost everywhere we go. Rather than focusing on losing weight or being on a diet, I encourage people to focus on being healthy. I believe that as you choose healthy food in right proportions, you will ultimately weigh what is right for your body type and metabolism.

  I could talk about many areas of life when it comes to the subject of self-control because every area of life needs to be disciplined and controlled or it will get out of balance and give the devil an opportunity. Discipline is your friend, not your enemy, and it will keep you in balance and help you live the life you truly want to live.

  Just think of the areas I mentioned and how miserable people can be if they don’t discipline their thoughts, their speech, their spending, the use of their time, and their appetites. The discomfort of discipline pales in comparison to the ultimate discomfort of being undisciplined. I guess we might say, “Pick your pain: Endure the temporary pain of discipline and self-control, or endure the endless pain and misery of guilt, sickness, stress, debt, and wasting your time.”

  I believe God has given us self-control as a gift to help us live balanced lives, and I urge you to value the gift.

  CHAPTER 20

  Internal Rest

  “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

  Matthew 11:29 ESV

  In December 2017 I suddenly became very ill. My mouth was extremely dry and my blood pressure was high. I felt shaky, had shortness of breath, and lost my appetite. Of course I went to my doctor, who found no apparent problem, so I went to two other doctors who specialize in certain areas, and they found no problem. I was understandably frustrated because I felt really bad and was losing weight rapidly. I asked a doctor who is also a minister and a friend to put me in the hospital for a few days and run all the tests necessary to find out what was wrong. When all the tests came back stating I was very healthy, and medical professionals said they had never seen blood work as good as mine in anyone my age, I asked, “Well, what is wrong with me?”

  I was told I had adrenal fatigue and chronic stress from working too hard for too long and that I needed some long-term rest and changes in lifestyle. The doctors emphasized that I needed to learn how to rest internally. In others words, I was to let my mind and emotions be at rest, not just my physical body.

  My first question was, “What do I do while I rest?” This question shows why I had a problem, but I have discovered that many people are in similar situations. During the time that has gone by since that diagnosis, I have learned how to schedule my life better, accepted the fact that I cannot always do what I have always done, and come to understand that I must be willing to make changes.

  It is fairly easy to adjust our schedules to enable ourselves to get more physical rest, but we can lie on a beach in the sun all day and still not rest because we are not resting our souls. We can be in bed and still worry, trying to figure out solutions to problems or endeavoring to fix situations that are not even our responsibilities.

  Much of how we handle our lives internally is initially determined by our temperament, but we can and must learn balance. Being a type A, choleric personality, I tend to be very busy inside. But thankfully, God has shown me a great deal since December 2017, and I am doing well at this point in my life. I am able to fulfill all of my responsibilities, but I am doing them while resting internally. I trust God more and depend on myself less.

  As I have shared my story with others, almost without exception people whose temperaments are similar to mine have asked me the same question I asked the doctor: “How do you rest?” The kind of rest Jesus offers us is not rest from work but rest in work. It is not an invitation to lie on the sofa all day and do nothing; it is an invitation to accomplish a great deal, but to do it in peace.

  The more we can develop and maintain the type of rest Jesus offers us, the easier life becomes and the more we release God to fight our battles for us instead of always feeling like we are personally fighting something.

  The devil does all he can to keep us from understanding and entering true Sabbath rest. Hebrews 4 teaches us that the promise of entering God’s rest still remains (v. 9), and that those who believe can enter it. Scripture encourages us to “strive to enter that rest” (Heb. 4:11 ESV; italics mine), and when we do, we cease from our works of the flesh (see Heb. 4:10).

  To “strive to enter” indicates that we may have to learn some new lessons, change some of our ways, and make an effort to do things differently. I still have a lot to learn about this, but I want to share some of what I have learned about resting internally. I hope that it will help you as you go forward, learning how to let God fight your battles because they belong to Him.

  Worry

  I have written about worry in previous chapters, but I want to say more about it here. Worry is useless, but most of us
continue to do it, especially in certain areas, until we finally realize that the longer we worry, the longer we delay the help God wants to give us. If we truly believe that our battles belong to the Lord, then we must remain peaceful. I urge you to pay more attention to what is going on inside of you. Your private thoughts and feelings about what is happening in your life at any given time can cause stress and steal your peace. Often we spend hours worrying, rotating our minds around and around problems, searching for answers without even realizing we are doing it. If you feel your neck and shoulder muscles getting tense, or if your stomach begins to hurt, the first thing to do is to consider what you have been thinking about.

  Worry produces physical symptoms that can be a blessing because they alert us to the fact that we are worrying. Then we can ask God to help us and we can choose to cast our care on Him (see 1 Pet. 5:7). Don’t forget that God told the Israelites to hold their peace and He would fight for them (see Exod. 14:13–14).

  One thing we must do in order not to worry is to learn to deal with our lives as they are and not as we would like them to be. The same approach goes for the people in our lives. We must learn to love them as they are, and not the way we would like them to be. Some of the writers from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries wrote about “acceptance with joy,” meaning that if a situation wasn’t going to change, they learned to accept it and remain joyful. Doing so doesn’t mean nothing will ever change, but it does mean that for the present time, we trust God’s will and timing in every situation. We simply cannot base our joy and peace on our circumstances. If we do, the devil can manipulate them continually, causing us to be upset most of the time. Whatever we might be going through at any given time will pass, and until it does, we can decide to enjoy our lives and keep our peace.

  Paul wrote to the Corinthians that his desire was for them to be free from all distressing care, which would require learning to deal with life as it was (see 1 Cor. 7:27–35).

  We show humility by casting our care on God. When we refuse to worry, we are saying in essence, “I know I cannot solve this problem, but I trust that God can.” Then He goes to work on our behalf, and we experience the benefits of letting Him fight our battles for us.

  Dave always says, “Do your responsibility; cast your care.” I think that is why Paul instructs us to do everything the crisis demands and then stand firmly in our place (see Eph. 6:13). We cannot do any more than we can do, and when we try to go beyond that point we become frustrated and lose our peace.

  Ask yourself right now if there is anything you can do about any situation in your life that is frustrating you. If the answer is, “No, I can’t,” then cast your care, keep your joy, and let God do what you cannot do.

  By nature I would tend to be a worrier because I am a “fixer.” I want to fix problems. Nothing is more frustrating to me than a problem I cannot fix, so I have had to learn to take the same advice I am offering to you.

  False Sense of Responsibility

  Many people live with a false, or an overactive, sense of responsibility. They feel responsible for things for which they are not responsible. In fact, continually fixing things for other people may hinder them from learning to handle their own problems. The tendency toward false responsibility is partially a temperament trait, but it still needs to be dealt with.

  I am a very responsible person. If you give me a job to do it will get done, but often I drift out of my lane and make myself responsible for other people’s problems when I should be saving my energy and mental space for my own situations.

  Recently, I learned this in a rather cute and funny way, but it did teach me the lengths I go to in finding ridiculous situations to be concerned about. I was in the nail salon getting my nails done and two women came in together, both wanting a pedicure. Only one technician was available at the time, and he took the ladies to the pedicure stations and let them put their feet in warm water. He proceeded to work on one of them, but never said anything to the other lady about when someone would be available to work on her, so I became concerned about her. I am a communicator, and the fact that no one was communicating with her bothered me.

  Then three more people came into the salon and were told to sign in and have a seat. They were not informed how long they might have to wait, so I grew concerned about them. I found myself looking around the shop at the workers, trying to determine how soon technicians would be available for the waiting customers. I suddenly realized what I was doing, and it was almost laughable. This situation, which I allowed, caused me ten minutes of internal stress over a situation that was none of my business, nor was it my responsibility.

  The incident at the nail salon has helped me learn to stay in my own lane, and I hope it will help you, too. Whether you are still taking responsibility for grown children, friends, or people you don’t even know, I recommend that you reconsider what the stress of over-responsibility may be doing to you while not producing any positive results.

  Just as I found myself internally trying to run the nail shop more efficiently, perhaps you are trying to do something that is not only frustrating you but keeping you from doing what you should be doing.

  Anything God wants us to do will work, and we can do it peacefully. When that good fruit of peace is not present, we are probably trying to do something that is not ours to do.

  Anxiety

  When we are anxious, we use the time God has given us today to try to fix or solve something that is either in the past or in the future. All we can do with the past, especially regarding mistakes we have made, is to repent, make restitution when possible, learn from the mistakes, and then let them go and move on with our lives.

  There is no reason to be anxious about the future, because it isn’t here yet, and we have no guarantee that it will be. This is why God’s Word teaches us that each day has sufficient trouble of its own and we should not worry about tomorrow (see Matt. 6:34). We may need to make certain plans and preparations for the future, but being anxious about them is useless.

  I have lost a great deal of my life spending the present day living in the past or in the future. I don’t do that now, but I did for many years, and I pray you will not do as I did. Although there are many things I wish I had done differently, I cannot go back and redo them, so I refuse to lose another day being anxious and worried about them. God can fight the battles of our past mistakes and actually work them for our good if we will release them to Him.

  I believe God has a good future planned for all of us, and we should look forward to it with anticipation and joy, not with fear and anxiety. All storms are not in the weather forecast. Storms we don’t expect and may not want in our lives will come, but God’s grace is sufficient to help us deal with them.

  I recently spoke with a Christian woman who told me that her fourteen-year-old son had his leg amputated because of bone cancer. Her attitude was joyful and could not have been any better. She said that she expected God to use this circumstance in her son’s life to make him a better man and to help others.

  She and her son faced an unexpected, unwanted problem, but they chose an attitude that would glorify God and release Him to fight their battle. We can remember that our battles belong to the Lord and let Him fight them, or we can fight them ourselves. If we want to win them, we need to release our worries, our anxieties, and all other frustrating emotions to God and hold on to our peace while we wait for victory.

  Trust God and Enjoy Each Day

  None of us knows how long we have left to live. We trust God for long and healthy lives, but how long we live is ultimately up to Him. We may do foolish things that shorten our lives, but only God can lengthen them. No matter how much time we have, we should maximize it by enjoying it, holding on to our peace, and being more than conquerors through a personal relationship with Jesus. This only happens as we learn to do what we can do and trust God to do what we cannot do.

  God wants to—and will—fight our battles for us. Without Him, we won’t win them anyway,
but we have to release them to Him if we want the victory only He can give. I pray that you will receive His grace to enable you to do just that so you will be free to enjoy each moment of every day.

  CHAPTER 21

  Protecting Yourself from Satan, the Thief

  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

  John 10:10 ESV

  The Bible refers to Satan as a thief, and the main thing he wants to steal or prevent is our relationship with God through Christ. He doesn’t mind if we follow some form of religion, because that usually amounts only to a list of rules and regulations we attempt to follow, thinking it will put us in good standing with God. Jesus did not die for us so we could have some brand of religion, and there is a large variety to choose from; He died so we could have an intimate, personal relationship with God through Him.

  When I ask people if they are Christians and they respond by telling me what religion they are, it concerns me. No matter what religion we are, it doesn’t save us—only true faith in Jesus does that.

  When some of the disciples asked what they needed to do to be working the works of God, or to please Him, Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29 NKJV). Believing this is the only requirement is difficult for us. We think that surely we must add some good works just to be sure we are accepted.