Welcome to 15 Minutes in the Word with New York Times best-selling author Joyce Meyer.

On today's program, Joyce will be teaching from her series, calm down and cheer up.

The Bible is full of scripture describing God's love for each one of us,

and it tells us how, through salvation in Christ, we can know true joy.

But keeping our joy isn't always easy when the difficulties of life creep in.

So how do we remain calm and cheerful when circumstances are worrisome?

Today, Joy shows us practical ways we can calm down and choose God's joy in every situation.

Let's discover how his peace and joy can transform our lives.

Now, here's Joyce with today's teaching. Well, I'm so glad that you're with me today because I have

some things to share with you that I believe are going to make your life better. I started a series

on two days ago called Calm Down and Cheer Up. In the first two days,

we really talked about the calming down part. Today I want to talk to you about what I'm

going to call the duty of joy. And that may sound strange. Well, why would joy be a duty?

Well, it is a privilege and it's a blessing,

but I believe it's a duty from the standpoint of our witness to the world. You know, if we're

sorrowful and sad and discouraged and downtrodden all the time, that's not going to say much about

what having a relationship with Jesus does for you.

And the Bible says that we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth, and so

we need to live lives that are a witness to other people that are lost. And if you're joyful

around people, if you're calm when you should be upset,

and you're joyful, and joy can be anything from extreme hilarity to a calm delight. When I talk

about being joyful, that doesn't mean that you have to be on the ceiling all the time laughing your head off.

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