How Joyce Meyer Overcame Apathy’s Exhausting Grip
A few years ago, I reached a point where I was feeling weary … tired of the world around me … tired of doing the same thing all the time. I’ve been doing this a long time, and my passion and zeal for the call of God on my life was gone.
So I prayed, “God, give me passion and zeal again for the ministry You’ve called me to do. I refuse to let myself get tired of living for You, doing what You’re leading me to do on this earth!”
I had to stir myself up and resist the temptation to give in to weariness and an apathetic attitude.
Isaiah 60:1-2 (NIV) says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you….”
The same verse in the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition, says to “arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you—rise to a new life]!”
Prostration means you’re lying down. When I was weary, I was lying down on the inside, in my heart. I had to “get up” and rekindle my desire for God to use me and shine His light through me in this dark world.
This was a decision I had to make for myself, and you have to do the same thing.
We can’t afford to waste our time waiting for our circumstances to change or for someone else to make us happy. As believers in Christ, we have the power of the Holy Spirit in us, and we can decide to stir ourselves up on the inside and “arise, shine” in the way we live.
I want to make this practical for you and show you two ways you can do this. Matthew 5:16 (AMP) says, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence….”
The first way is by doing good deeds. This basically means we should help someone or just be good to somebody. If you pay attention to people around you, it won’t take long for you to see something you can do to make someone else’s life better.
It could be simple, like holding the door open for someone, allowing them to go before you. Or maybe you can give an encouraging note to a friend who is going through a hard time. You could mow the neighbor’s yard, pay for someone’s groceries, babysit for free, give something you have to a person who needs it … the list of possibilities is endless.
The second way is to live with moral excellence. Excellence is not common in our world today, but as sons and daughters of the Most High God, we should be excellent in everything we do.
I’m not talking about being perfect; being excellent means you do the best you can at everything you do. You strive to always do what is right in God’s eyes—even when no one is looking.
For example, when you’re at work, don’t take company time to do personal business on your computer, and then when your boss comes in, make it look like you’re working. Your boss may not be watching every minute of the day, but God is.
We need to get to the point where it’s more important to us to please God in everything we do, whether others see us or not. Because God is always with us and He always sees everything we do.
The older I get, the more I realize how important it is to live for God all the time because we don’t have time to waste. Before I got really serious about my relationship with God, I wasted so many days being upset because I didn’t get my way all the time. I was so focused on trying to get what I wanted that I wasn’t thinking about how God could use me to make a difference in this world.
It was a miserable way to live. But I discovered that helping others—walking in love to glorify God—is the key to being truly satisfied, content and happy.
So I want to ask you: Are you weary, apathetic and struggling to shine the light of God’s love? Are you tired of wasting your days being discouraged that you aren’t making progress in your relationship with God or changing in areas of your life that need to improve?
If you are, I want to provoke you to get up on the inside! Make a decision that you refuse to live this way any longer—no matter what your circumstances are, what you’ve been through, how others have hurt you or how long you’ve been struggling.
Stop waiting for God to do something and wake up to the truth that in Christ, you already have everything you need in your spirit to make a major difference in your part of the world. There is a greater purpose for your life than just getting what you want or settling for a frustrating, unfruitful existence.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you!”
