Joyce Meyer: Authentic Happiness?

Jesus told the crowds, “Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).

The cross was an instrument of death. Therefore taking up your cross is to die to yourself.

I struggled for years with low self-esteem, depression, loneliness, fear of people, etc. Our culture screams that in order to be somebody you have to know how to love yourself above anything else, because if you can't love yourself, you can't begin to love others. This is far from the truth, but I believed it anyway. I searched for ways to learn to love myself - what better way to do that than to focus on God's love for me. I went to church with the intent of wanting to be uplifted and assured of God's love for me. This was was kept me from staying depressed all the time. Nevertheless, the Bible does tell us we should be joyful and of course we should never hate ourselves because we have all been beautifully created by God, but our main focus in life should never be on ourselves. It should all be about Jesus Christ.

I struggle with this 'me me me!' mentality all the time. I'm not skinny enough, my hair isn't pretty enough, my face isn't clear enough, I don't have enough stuff for my kitchen, I need ____ and I need ____. I think everyone in our culture deals with this and most people don't even realize that they are doing it. But what we need to keep in mind is that we are no longer living for ourselves if we are Christians. We should be striving for Biblical attitudes towards life.

Joyce Meyer is the author of over 50 self-help books that include Biblical principles. Yet, she is called Pastor (which is another thing I don't believe is biblical, but let's continue on.) If she is called Pastor, that implies that she is a teacher of the Bible. Teaching Biblical principles and the teaching the Bible are two completely different things. It is taking the parts of the Bible that you like, coming up with your own spin on things, teaching those, and ignoring the rest of what the Bible teaches. I've fallen as victim to many of these teachings throughout my life, it is very easy to get sucked into a self-topical sermon, especially one that you can relate to. You end up not learning a thing about the Bible though.

I know people who love her and people who can't stand her. This is what made me wonder about this ministry. What is her ministry? Why does she teach biblical principles (basic rules and ideas of the Bible)? I read some of a few of her books and checked out her website, even listened to a couple of her teachings. She does have a lot of good to say. From the average Christian's perspective, she is very inspiring and you can learn a lot about yourself from what she says. But what good comes from learning about yourself? That is the problem. I don't know how much God can be glorified by anything that she says. I mean, she tells people they need to get motivated or that they are selfish beings... yes, we know this... this is why we became Christians in the first place. On the surface, everything appears to be biblical but if you take the time to really look at what she's teaching, it doesn't look so biblical anymore. In fact in many cases she is not being true to what the Bible actually teaches. That worries me, because a lot of people love her teaching. 2.5 billion people have heard her.

So this brings up the question - is it wrong for us, as Christians, to want to be happy and motivated? Of course not. We do need to look at everything from a Biblical perspective though. We are God's children, we are not of this world. The way Joyce Meyer teaches leads you to believe your happiness comes first and then Jesus. She writes paragraphs about how we have such a hard time getting motivated to do stuff and then she'll add a verse in there, totally out of context, and say it relates to what she's talking about. Very similar to what many pastors do these days - they play with the Bible like a toy, turning it into something it isn't. I cannot take Joyce Meyer's ministry seriously because her main focus does not appear to be Christ. Her books are all about enjoying yourself, loving yourself, and motivating yourself. She also seems to be more interested in emotions than faith.

The Bible points us to one person, Jesus Christ - not ourselves. In fact the Bible says the exact opposite. The Bible was not written to increase your self-esteem. Self-esteem is not a Biblical principle. You should never read your Bible with the intent of it just making you a better person or increasing the quality of your life. Many people do this and it is wrong. You read the Bible to help you grow in your knowledge of Jesus Christ and through that you develop a relationship with our God. When you become a Christian, your life is dedicated to God. You die to yourself.

Quotes by Joyce Meyer:

"One of my greatest desires is to see people thoroughly enjoy the quality of life Jesus died to give us—to actually be happy." - Joyce Meyer

I'm literally floored by this statement. All I could think when I read this was, "Wow." No, Joyce. I am sorry but you are wrong. Very wrong in fact. Jesus did not die so that you or I would have a greater quality of life. Jesus came to testify to the truth of the Bible (God's Word). Jesus died because we are horrible, rotten sinners and we all deserve to go to Hell and if he did not die for us, we would be in big trouble. He saved us from our sins that we commit on a daily basis. Jesus died so that we would follow him and be fulfilled through him only. He even said this:

Mat 10:22

“and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

To be a follower of Christ means that you will be hated, persecuted, and despised all throughout your life. When I was younger I didn't understand this because I lived most of my life trying to please everybody and just "going with the flow". But we just can't do that if we are to be true followers of Christ. If you are loved by everyone and don't cause any controversy by what you believe - examine yourself to see if you are truly in Christ. It is in no way easy to follow Christ.

This is exactly why I am skeptical of any Christian ministry that the secular world accepts. They are not persecuted by the secular world, because they do not tell the truth.

In fact, the more persecuted you are for your faith, the better off you are. The 12 disciples of Jesus (except John who was exiled) were executed for preaching Christ.

If we follow Christ, we will not be rewarded with authentic happiness, we will not have a perfect life, we could even have what is viewed as a "horrible life", but we will be blessed. Not with earthly treasures, health, wealth, and prosperity - but with love, hope, joy, patience, peace, kindness, God's provision...

"I have great news for you: God wants you to be happy today and every day. He really does. Jesus’ statement about life in John 10:10 is absolutely amazing to me: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).”" - Joyce Meyer

God does not want us to just be happy, he wants us to glorify Him in all that we do, he wants us to live for him. Through that we may experience happiness, we may experience trials, we may experience sadness. I searched through multiple translations of the Bible and I cannot find the version that says "that they might have and enjoy life" Not even the The Message adds that part. Not only has she taken it out of context but she changed the meaning to that Bible verse. Yikes! John 10:9-10 is a proverbial way of saying that Jesus is the only way to be saved from sin. That scripture is referring to the life we have in Christ for all eternity, not the sinful life we have on Earth. The fullness of life refers to our eternal security.

Did you know that if you don't like yourself, you are never going to like anybody else, and you won't be able to help your spouse like himself or herself? - Joyce Meyer

"Remember, He died so we could experience authentic happiness." - Joyce Meyer

No, he did not die so that we could experience authentic happiness. He died so that we could be saved by faith in his son, through the grace of God. Of course that alone should make one jump for joy and weep tears of pure joy!

Those are just a few quotes I found on a couple pages in one of Joyce Meyer's books... the ministry has over 50 books.

(I originally posted this on my blog titled Biblical Homekeeping)