Joyce Meyer

But see, God, he didn't just see where I was at.

He saw where I could be if he worked with me.

And he knew my heart.

I mean, frankly, at that time, I didn't know those were things that would be

you know, a bad witness to people.

I mean, you're not going to go to hell for smoking, but you know, it's still wasn't a good witness.

It wasn't a good thing to be doing.

That's what helps people when you're honest with them and you're not just religious with them.

I don't,

I have to be practical with the gospel.

I don't want to just preach a bunch of stuff that sounds good, but it goes over everybody's head and they really don't know what to do with it when they get home.

Every time I preach, I want people to have something that they can go home and put to practice in their life if they lean on God.

Well, there's a lot of different pieces to that answer, but...

You have to know that God loves you before you can get started anywhere.

And it's hard for us to believe that he loves us because we are sinners.

We still do sin and do things wrong.

And so I had to first get that revelation.

And I studied love for over a year.

And I would go and look at myself in the mirror and say, God loves you.

God loves you.