Worship God and Pray by Joyce Meyer

You know what God said to me? It was a lesson for me back then. I didn’t know what I’m telling you now. God said: you think you won but really you lost again because it’s not always the one who gets their way who wins. Very often, it’s the one who’s willing to sacrifice and let the other person have what they want that I call a winner. (but see, I had a lot of stuff in my life that had to go. I had a lot of those little sucker branches down there. Aaaaaaaaah! What if this tree could feel? Those little sucker branches suck the life out of the rest of the plant. Any healthy plant has to be pruned. The bible says if you don’t bear fruit, you’ll be pruned and if you do bear fruit, you’ll be pruned so you’ll bear richer and more excellent fruit, so I figured it out: you’re pruned if you do and pruned if you don’t, so it doesn’t matter. Just go ahead and take your pruning and get it over with.

And then Romans 8:29 says we are destined to be molded into the image of Jesus Christ. We start out as just a hunk of clay. God comes along and starts to: “ow! Ow! What are you doing? Ow! Stop it! What are you doing! Aaah! That doesn’t feel good. I don’t like that. What are you doing?” Preparation. We have to let God be God in our lives. Don’t just fight one more day to get your way. Don’t just try to find 25 new ways to change the people in your house. Just worship God and pray and obey him and be happy and love God? You know what? People will start wanting what you’ve got. They’ll be jealous of the peace you’ve got