Eat the Cookie...Buy the Shoes: Giving Yourself Permission to Lighten Up

by Joyce Meyer

  I tried to run before I learned to sit and it was disastrous. I felt that I was called to teach other people the word of God so I quickly started a ministry. But I experienced unbelievable stress—so much stress that I was sick and unhappy most of the time. I was trying to run, but I had never learned to sit, stand, or walk yet. Now after more than thirty-three years in ministry I am running fast. I am in the spiritual fast lane, hopefully helping millions of people through the teaching ministry God has given me. I know how to run with God, but I also now know how to sit, stand, and walk in God, and I can do them all simultaneously.

  Seated in Christ

  The Bible always depicts Christ as being seated after His death, resurrection, and ascension. It says that He ascended on high and sat down at the right hand of Majesty, there to wait for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet (see Heb. 10:11–13). In other words, Jesus not only did what He was sent to do in rest, but He then entered another dimension of the rest of God to wait for God to do the remainder of what needed to be done. I like to say, “Do your best and God will do the rest.”

  We must learn to do what is assigned to us from God and never waste time trying to do what only God can do. We cannot go beyond what God has given us grace to do. I can want to change. I can study God’s word in areas where I need growth, I can pray about change, but only God can change me. I can do what I can do, but I cannot do what only God can do. Until I learned the difference I lived in stress. I can want a loved one or a friend to live a better life, to be closer to God, or to stop destructive habits. I can pray for them and I can offer help if they will take it, but only God can change them. Saying that we trust God is not hard to do, but true faith enters the rest of God. We do not enter God’s rest when we are trying to believe, we enter it when we have believed (see Heb. 4:3, 10). As we talk about rest remember that it is equivalent to being seated! Have you learned how to sit?

  Even God rested from His labors of creation and took time to enjoy what He had done. He did what He purposed to do and then He rested. Jesus did what He was sent by God to do and then He rested. Our biggest problem is often that we don’t know when we should be finished. When we labor in the flesh without God’s help then we have no rest; all we have is frustration and stress.

  Each day we have certain purposes that we wish to accomplish and at the end of the day it is proper to rest, not only physically, but our soul also needs a rest. We need rest physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

  We are spiritually seated with Christ in Heaven. Our feet may be on earth, but spiritually we are with Christ in Heaven. Christians live in two realms at the same time. A. W. Tozer said it well: “Our trouble springs from the fact that we who follow Christ inhabit at once two worlds: the spiritual and the natural. As children of Adam, we live our lives on earth subject to the limitations of the flesh and the weaknesses and ills to which human nature is heir. Merely to live among men requires of us years of hard toil and much care and attention to the things of this world. In sharp contrast to this is our life in the Spirit. There we enjoy another and higher kind of life.” 1 There we can enjoy the rest of God no matter what is taking place in the natural realm.

  Our circumstances on earth don’t have to disturb us spiritually if we learn how to stay seated. As believers in Jesus Christ we have had a co-death and co-resurrection with Christ. The Bible says, “We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin” (Rom. 6:6).

  We are also told in Scripture that “He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). We must learn to identify with Christ and to believe that what He has right now, we also have through our faith in Him. We will not get it at some later date, we have it now (spiritually speaking)! God not only allowed Jesus to shed His blood for the remission of our sins, but He has also put us in Christ so that when the Lord Jesus was crucified God crucified our old man with Him, too. That we were crucified with Christ is a fact in God, but it is impossible for the human mind to explain this fact. That is why we must believe with the heart, rather than trying to reason things out with the mind.

  Let us understand that whatever God has done in the past in Christ is always now for us. God is the God Who is forever now. He is the great “I am!” All the facts in Christ are now and they never pass away, they are forever. The cross of Christ is now, the resurrection of Christ is now, the ascension of Christ is now, the coming of the Holy Spirit is now, and the filling of the Holy Spirit is now. We are seated with Christ now. We must not treat what Christ has done as mere history, but thanks to God all that He has done is forever and it is ours now!

  Faith allows us to rest mentally and emotionally. Even our will gets a rest when we have faith in God. We don’t worry or reason, we are not upset or downcast, and we are not trying to make something happen that is not God’s will—we are at rest! Paul was singing in jail. Jesus was praying for others while being crucified. Joseph decided that if he was going to be a slave, he would be the best slave his owner ever had. He decided that if he was going to be a prisoner (even though he did not commit a crime) that he would be a prisoner with a good attitude.

  We need to be honest about what the real cause of our stress is. Is it really our circumstances in life, or is it the way we respond to the circumstances? There is a rest available and we must strive to enter it. Entering the rest of God should be our number one priority after receiving Jesus as our Savior. I ask you again: have you learned to sit and enter God’s rest?

  Have you learned to sit and enter God’s rest?

  Learning to Stand in Christ

  We can never stand against the enemy (Satan) unless we learn to do it from our first position of being seated in Christ. Rest is a place of power!

  And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

  Romans 16:20a

  If we stay calm, God will deliver us. We may say that we are trusting God, but there is no evidence of trust unless we stay seated in Christ.

  The Israelites were seriously stressed due to their seemingly impossible situation of being literally between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army! They had no natural way of escape. Yet God told them to hold their peace, remain at rest, and He would fight for them (see Exod. 14:9–14).

  Standing is a position of knowing the end from the beginning. We know the word of God and what He has promised, and we choose to believe it more than what we see, feel, or think. We stand firm in our faith knowing spiritually we are delivered and expecting to see the manifestation of it at any moment. We wait expectantly! We will get weary at times because we usually have to wait longer than we thought we would, but Jesus has said that if we will come to Him any time we feel even slightly weary, He will give us rest. He will give what equates to a spiritual vacation or a vacation for our soul.

  Learning to Walk

  A walk is made up of many steps, and each one is a choice. Our walk with God refers to how we live our daily life. Once we have learned to sit and stand, we are ready to start taking steps that will eventually enable us to walk. We are not walking with God simply because we attend church or read our Bible. Our walk is about our choices. The Bible says that we should walk (order our lives, conduct, and conversation) in the revealed will of God (see Ps. 119:1). It says that we should walk (order our lives) by what we know to be true (see Phil. 3:16). Knowing truth gives us a responsibility to act upon it. I recently watched a tragic situation unfold as a brother in Christ became entangled in an affair with another woman even though he was married and had two children. The sin of the affair opened him up to all kinds of deception and his situation went from bad to worse as he told many lies and got himself deeper and deeper in trouble. His family was destroyed and he ended up in jail. God used that situation to s
how me that the more knowledge we have of God and His will the more responsible we are to obey it. When one who truly knows better shows no reverential fear of God and arrogantly chooses sin, he opens a door in his life that allows the army of hell to march in. Knowing is not enough; we must do and the doing is called our walk with God. We can be in church services ten times a month and still not walk with God. We must walk in obedience.

  We are told many times in the Bible to walk in love. Love is merely a word or theory unless it controls actions toward other people. Love can be very mystical unless we understand that at the very foundation of love is daily concern for doing what will benefit others. What will make their lives better and help them?

  We are to walk by faith. We live and regulate our lives by our conviction about our relationship with God (see 2 Cor. 5:7). Every action, emotion, and thought becomes subservient to what we believe about God. Enoch walked with God and had continual fellowship with Him, and the Bible says that “he was not, for God took him [home with Him]” (Gen. 5:24). It sounds as if Enoch got so close to God that the world could no longer hold him; he slipped over into the spiritual realm and simply disappeared. The Bible does not say that Enoch died and went to Heaven. It says that he walked so closely with God that he simply was no longer here. Noah walked with God (see Gen. 6:9), Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob walked with God (see Gen. 48:15). They made their personal relationships with God a priority. They sat in God (remained at rest), they stood against their enemies, and they walked with God. They also ran their race and are recorded in the Bible as men of whom the world was not worthy. They made choices and formed habits that they walked in day after day and year after year. We see from the beginning of time men walked with God.

  Walking a long way is not difficult if you know when to sit down awhile and rest. Sometimes your walk is hindered and you need to stand a bit in one place, yet all the while you are making progress. Habakkuk said that when nothing is working right in our circumstances that we can rejoice because God is our Strength, our personal bravery, and our invincible army; He causes us to walk (not stand still in terror, but to walk) and make (spiritual) progress on the high places of trouble, suffering, and responsibility (see Hab. 3:17–19).

  Walking a long way is not difficult if you know when to sit down awhile and rest.

  We are instructed to walk in the fear of God, walk as Christ walked, walk worthy of the Divine calling, walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and walk through the fire, the flood, and the storm. Walk in integrity, walk in righteousness, walk in liberty, walk as children of light, and don’t walk after the flesh. We can see that walking is a full-time job, so it is no wonder that we must first learn to sit and stand. I am fairly certain that if I make a commitment to walk in all of these areas as God asks me to do, I will occasionally need a vacation for my soul!

  Let’s Go for a Run

  My daughter quite often says to me, “I am going to go for a run today.” In the last two years she has become a runner, but she started walking fast and doing a little light jogging long before her trainer let her run. She didn’t just decide to run and start running—it doesn’t work that way. I tried that method many times and each time I hurt either my feet or my back. My chiropractor finally told me that I was too old to start running now. He may be right about running physically, but I can still run spiritually. However, the same principle of preparation applies in the spiritual realm that applies in the natural realm.

  If you have learned to sit, stand, and walk in God, it is time to start running in and with God. David said that he would not merely walk, but run in the ways of God (see Ps. 119:32). Are you ready to run your race with steady, active persistence? Are you ready to be patient and persevere until you reach your goal?

  If you have learned to sit, stand, and walk in God, it is time to start running in and with God.

  Runners in Paul’s day stripped down to a loincloth to prepare for the race. Are you ready to strip off anything that is hindering your run with God? Their bodies were oiled (anointed) for the race. We must live with God in such a way that He can anoint us for service in His kingdom. Runners must be disciplined and focused if they intend to win the race. Deciding to run is a big decision and being successful at it requires a huge commitment.

  Are your spiritual priorities in order? If not, this is a good time to make some decisions. God has a race for you to run and His plan is for you to win, but you will have to learn to sit, stand, and walk. You can only win your race if you know how to run with your soul on vacation.

  CHAPTER 13

  My All in All

  The tiny word all is used 5,675 times in the Bible, give or take a few depending on what translation you are looking at. It is a small word that means a great deal, and yet we pay so little attention to it. If we read a Scripture that has the word all in it and ignore the all, it changes the entire context of the Scripture. The word all takes us into infinity. Where does all stop? How far does it go and what does it include?

  Jesus is the Lord of All. Our Al-mighty God, all-sufficient Savior, all blessings flow from Him, and He is all that we need. We frequently say that God is our all, but have we ever stopped to truly understand the impact of that one little word? All leaves nothing outside of God’s control. As long as we believe that some things are out of God’s control we cannot have a proper soul vacation because there will be something for us to worry about, try to figure out, be upset about, or try to control and change. We will not live life as something to be celebrated because it will keep us worn out all the time. We will probably be intense and unable to relax.

  As long as we believe that some things are out of God’s control we cannot have a proper soul vacation because there will be something for us to worry about.

  God Knows All Things

  God knows all things (see John 21:17)! Don’t miss the “all” of that statement. He knows the end from the beginning so He must know everything in the middle. He also has all power, all authority; all things are under His feet, and He fills everything everywhere with Himself (see Matt. 28:18 and Eph. 1:21–23). He sees all, hears all, and is everywhere all the time. If these things are true, then why do we still worry and become anxious? Why do we get emotionally upset when we have a problem or things are not going our way? It must be because we truly don’t believe that He has all power, knows all things, and loves us with all of the love that exists in the universe.

  How many of our sins does He forgive? Does He forgive some, most, or all? The Bible says that He forgives them all and continually cleanses us from all unrighteousness. It is one those all and forever-now things. When Jesus died on the cross sin was dealt with once and for all, according to Hebrews, and the cleansing goes on continually; it is without interruption and for all time (see 1 John 1:9 and Ps. 103:1–3). God did not put our sins off to the side so He could glance over at them occasionally; they are not in front of Him enabling Him to see them continually; nor did He store them in a box somewhere so He could get them out if need be and remind us of them. He did not cover them up, nor sweep them under a rug, but He has removed them completely (see Ps. 103:12). He has cast all of our sins behind His back (see Isa. 38:17). He is not looking at them and He does not want us to look at them, either.

  We don’t need to pay for them because that has been taken care of as well. All of our sins have been completely forgiven and there is no longer any sacrifice we need to make. Go back and read that again, please. Did you see the “all” and the “have been”? They have been (not will be) all (not some) forgiven! Jesus atoned for our sins, and that means our account has been reconciled, balanced and we are at one with God. We have peace with God through Jesus Christ. We can live with our soul on vacation and we can celebrate life as it was meant to be celebrated. We can give ourselves permission to lighten up and enjoy God and the life He has provided for us. We don’t need to be sad, depressed, and discouraged about our past, not even the past of one moment ago! God does not want us to live life alwa
ys looking in the rearview mirror. We need not forfeit any joy or enjoyment. With good news such as this, how can we not celebrate?

  All of our sins have been completely forgiven and there is no longer any sacrifice we need to make.

  All Things Are Possible

  If there are no impossibilities then we can live in constant victory and nothing can threaten us or make us feel afraid of the future. With men a great deal is impossible, but with God all things are possible (see Mark 10:27). Everything that is in the will of God will be accomplished in His way and timing.

  Is life too much for us? Is there anything that we just cannot handle? Not according to God, for He says through the Apostle Paul that we can do all things through Christ Who is our Strength. We are ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infused inner strength into us (see Phil. 4:13).

  Before we will let go and let God be our all in all, we usually have to find out the hard way that we cannot do it all. The hard way means that we keep trying and failing over and over until we admit total dependence on God. It can be a long and painful journey and some never reach the end of themselves, but for those who do, it is the beginning of living with their soul on vacation. They know they can’t do it all, but they also know that God can and they decide that watching Him do what needs to be done as only He can do will be entertaining. I love to watch God work. It is one of my greatest pleasures in life.