Joel Osteen: God Will Be Better at Fighting Your Battles If You Remain Peaceful
God will fight your battles if you remain at rest and trust in His plan, Pastor Joel Osteen says.
Osteen, the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, one of the largest churches in the nation, wrote in a recent blog post that Christians should follow the story of the Israelites at the Red Sea in Exodus 14, when Moses tells the Israelites to "not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."
As Osteen writes in his blog post, Moses knew that the fear of the Israelites would prevent God from doing His job to protect them.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
This same approach can be applied to how Christians handle their daily fears, worries and stresses.
"God will fight your battles if you'll stay at rest. If you'll quit worrying about the medical report, if you'll quit being upset over the contract you didn't get, if you'll quit being stressed by those people who are talking about you. If you'll remain at rest, God will fight your battles," the megachurch pastor writes.
Osteen goes on to say that it is important to identify the "peace stealers" in your life and turn your burdens over to God.
"What's causing you to be stressed? Are you carrying a load that you're not supposed to carry? Are you allowing someone to dump their burdens on you, trying to be the savior? Turn that over to God. Don't let them pull you out of rest. Are you allowing traffic, people or a grouchy boss to upset you? They may not change, but you can change," Osteen says.
The megachurch pastor concludes his message by saying that "life is too short to let peace stealers determine our destiny."
"If you'll make this decision with me that you're going to live at rest, you'll not only enjoy your life more, but I believe and declare God will do for you what He did for the Israelites. He'll part Red Seas; He'll restore your health, and He'll bring vindication, promotion and the fullness of your destiny. He'll fight your battles if you'll remain at rest!" Osteen concludes.
Fellow evangelical leader Joyce Meyer has also spoken on the importance of maintaining peace, writing in an Op-Ed for The Christian Post that the best way to keep your peace in times of change is to uphold a positive attitude.
By maintaining God's peaceful presence in ourselves, we can pass this attitude on to others, Meyer writes.
"We live in a world that's full of anger, stress and strife. Even though many people have a desperate need for peace, they may not be interested in hearing about God and what He's doing in your life. But you can share Christ with them by maintaining a peaceful attitude week after week, and month after month. Sometimes it takes years, but God will use you in an amazing way if you will consistently walk in the fruit of the Spirit," the evangelical leader and founder of Joyce Meyer Ministries, Inc. says.
