JACKMA
par Larry Fink"Ladies and gentlemen… brothers and sisters… I came here today with a word burning in my spirit. And if you’ll lean in… if you’ll open your heart… I believe this word can change the way you live, the way you think, the way you feel — starting right now.
You see, I’m not here to play with your emotions. I’m not here to give you a quick pep talk that fades by Monday morning. No, no, no! I’m here to give you the keys… to unlock joy in your life every single day. I’m here to tell you — you don’t have to wake up heavy every morning. You don’t have to walk through life dragging chains of yesterday’s pain. You don’t have to let other people’s storms flood your sunshine.
The truth is… happiness will not hunt you down. You’ve got to chase it. You’ve got to fight for it. You’ve got to push for it! And if you’ve ever been through some nights when you couldn’t sleep… if you’ve ever had mornings where your heart felt like lead… if you’ve ever smiled on the outside while crying on the inside… then this word is for YOU.You’ve got to understand something right here at the start — happiness will not just fall into your lap. Life does not wake up in the morning thinking, “How can I make you smile today?” Oh no… life will throw storms at you, trials at you, trouble at you. Life will test your patience, your strength, your peace. And if you just sit back waiting for joy to come strolling in like a guest at your front door, you’ll be waiting until the day you die. Happiness is not found… it is chosen.
Some of you woke up this morning thinking, “I’ll be happy when I get the raise. I’ll be happy when I find the right person. I’ll be happy when my body looks a certain way, when my house is bigger, when my bank account is fatter.” But let me tell you — that’s a trap! Because the moment you put your happiness on hold, waiting for the “right conditions,” you have handed over the keys of your joy to something you can’t control. You have made your emotions a prisoner to circumstances. And anything that owns your joy — owns you.
I’ve seen people living in mansions, driving cars that cost more than some folks’ homes, wearing clothes that cost more than some people’s rent — and yet they are miserable. And I’ve seen people who have almost nothing but a little food on the table, a tiny roof over their head, and laughter in their heart because they chose to be grateful for what they have, not bitter over what they don’t. That’s why I’m telling you — happiness is not about what’s around you; it’s about what’s inside you.
There is a war for your joy every single day. The moment you open your eyes, the enemy will start whispering in your ear: “Look at what you don’t have. Look at who hurt you. Look at how far you’ve still got to go.” And if you listen long enough, your spirit will sink before you even get out of bed. That’s why you’ve got to decide, before your feet hit the floor, “I will be happy. I will be grateful. I will not let today’s blessings be buried under yesterday’s burdens.”
Now hear me — this is not about pretending everything’s perfect. This is not about faking smiles or ignoring pain. No, no, no! This is about refusing to let pain be the driver of your life. You can acknowledge what’s wrong without surrendering your peace to it. You can walk through the valley without letting the valley walk through you. That’s the power of choice.
I remember times in my own life when everything in me wanted to curl up and quit. Moments when my mind said, “Why bother? It’s not getting better.” But I discovered something — the breakthrough didn’t start when my circumstances changed. The breakthrough started when my mind changed. When I stopped saying, “I can’t be happy because…” and started saying, “I will be happy even if…” That’s the shift! That’s the moment you take your joy back from the grip of life’s chaos.
Some of you have been living on “emotional autopilot.” You let the weather decide your mood. You let people’s comments decide your worth. You let the news decide your hope. And all the while, your joy is being hijacked by things that don’t even deserve that much power in your life. But the Bible says, “The joy of the Lord is my strength” — and if joy is your strength, then every time you let something steal your joy, you are letting it steal your strength.
That’s why, if you want to live happy every day, you’ve got to guard your joy like a treasure. You’ve got to wake up in the morning and say, “This joy is mine. This peace is mine. I worked too hard, prayed too much, cried too many tears to let somebody’s attitude or some unexpected problem take it away from me.” You’ve got to own your joy.
Let me tell you, some mornings you won’t feel like choosing happiness. Your feelings will say, “Stay in bed. Stay mad. Stay discouraged.” But your feelings are not the boss of your life — your choices are. Your feelings follow your focus. So if you keep your eyes on what’s wrong, your heart will feel wrong. But if you set your mind on what’s right — even if it’s small, even if it’s just one little thing to be thankful for — your feelings will have no choice but to rise to the level of your focus.
Don’t misunderstand me — choosing happiness doesn’t mean you’ll never cry, never hurt, never be frustrated. It means you refuse to let those moments define your day. It means you’re not giving your power away to things that were never meant to control you. It means you’re planting joy like a seed every single morning, knowing it will grow if you keep watering it with gratitude, prayer, and positive expectation.
So I challenge you… tomorrow morning, when the alarm goes off, before you check your phone, before you complain about how tired you are, take a deep breath and say out loud, “This is the day the Lord has made — I will rejoice and be glad in it!” Speak it even if you don’t feel it, because joy is not just a feeling — it’s a declaration. And when you declare it, you create it.
Stop waiting for perfect days to live a joyful life. Make a decision right now — in the middle of your imperfect situation — that you will smile, you will laugh, you will love, and you will live. Because happiness is not a chance you stumble upon… it’s a choice you make on purpose.
And today… I choose joy.Pain is real. Let’s not pretend it’s not. Life will hand you moments that cut you so deep you wonder if you’ll ever stop bleeding. People will walk out on you without explanation. Doors you prayed for will slam in your face. Sometimes the very ones you trusted will be the ones who hurt you the most. I’m not here to tell you to ignore that pain. I’m here to tell you — don’t let it live in you. Don’t let pain park in your heart and set up camp like it’s paying rent.
Because here’s what happens when you let pain settle in — it starts to rearrange the furniture in your spirit. It shifts your joy into the back room. It locks up your peace in the closet. It throws your hope out the window. And before you know it, you’re living in a house where pain is the landlord, and joy has become the unwelcomed guest.
I know somebody here has been carrying hurt for years. Somebody left you, and they moved on with their life, but you’re still stuck replaying the scene in your mind. Somebody betrayed you, and they’re sleeping just fine at night, but you’re the one losing rest, going over every “what if” and “why.” Let me tell you — pain will drain you dry if you let it. It will take the energy you need for today and waste it on the wounds of yesterday.
Some of you have built your identity around your pain. You’ve been hurt so long, you don’t know who you are without it. Your conversations are shaped by it, your decisions are filtered through it, your relationships are hindered because of it. And here’s the truth — as long as you keep making room for pain to stay, joy will never feel at home in your life.
Now don’t misunderstand me — I’m not saying you shouldn’t grieve. I’m not saying you shouldn’t acknowledge what happened. But there’s a difference between grieving through something and living in it. One is a process that leads to healing. The other is a prison. And too many of us have hung pictures on the walls of our prison cells and called it home.
When you let pain park in your heart, it becomes bitterness. And bitterness is a silent thief — it will rob you without making a sound. It will steal your laughter. It will steal your peace. It will even steal the way you see the blessings God is trying to send you. Because bitterness will make you suspicious of good things, always waiting for the next disappointment. That’s why you’ve got to deal with your pain before it hardens into something worse.
I’m talking to somebody right now who’s been saying, “But I can’t let go — they owe me an apology.” Hear me — if you wait on an apology before you release your pain, you’re giving them the keys to your joy. You’re telling them, “Until you do something, I can’t heal.” No, no, no! Don’t hand that kind of power to anyone. They may never say they’re sorry. They may never own what they did. But you can still choose to be free. You can still say, “You hurt me, but you will not hold me. I cried, but I will not keep crying. I was down, but I will not stay down.”
Some pain is like a weight — the longer you carry it, the heavier it feels. You start strong, thinking you can manage it. But over time, it breaks you down. And here’s the danger — when you carry pain too long, you start transferring it. You end up hurting people who didn’t hurt you. You end up pushing away people who are trying to love you. That’s why God doesn’t just want to comfort you in your pain — He wants to heal you from it.
But healing won’t happen until you open the door and tell pain, “You can’t live here anymore.” You might have visited, but you can’t stay. You might have sat in my living room, but you’re not welcome to build a bedroom in my heart. I’ve got too much life ahead of me to keep reliving what’s behind me. I’ve got too much purpose to keep replaying my past.
I know what you’re thinking — “But it still hurts.” And yes, it does. Healing is not about pretending it doesn’t hurt; it’s about not letting the hurt control the way you live. It’s about saying, “This pain is part of my story, but it will not be the title of my life.” It’s about walking forward even when it’s uncomfortable, trusting that every step takes you further from the wound and closer to the wholeness you were made for.
Listen, joy cannot thrive in a heart that’s overcrowded with yesterday’s sorrow. Peace cannot bloom in soil filled with the weeds of old wounds. At some point, you’ve got to clear the ground. At some point, you’ve got to choose to let go — not because they deserve it, but because you deserve peace. You deserve to laugh without feeling guilty. You deserve to wake up without the heaviness. You deserve to live free.
It’s time to evict the pain. It’s time to tell it, “You had your season, but your lease is up. You’re not going to drain my spirit any longer. I’m reclaiming my joy, I’m reclaiming my mind, and I’m reclaiming my life.” Because the moment you stop letting pain park in your heart… you make room for joy to move back in.Your mind is a battlefield. Every single day, thoughts come knocking at the door, and you get to decide which ones you’re going to let in. Some of those thoughts bring peace, clarity, and vision. But others — oh, others come in like thieves in the night — carrying doubt, fear, insecurity, and discouragement. And if you’re not careful, you’ll hand them the keys to your mind and let them wander around, rearranging the furniture of your thinking.
Negative thinking is like a chain. It’s heavy, it’s cold, and it keeps you bound in the same place, even when your body is free to move. You could have every opportunity in front of you, but if your mind is chained, you will find a reason why it won’t work. You’ll find a reason why it’s too late. You’ll find a reason why you’re not good enough. That’s why the enemy doesn’t have to destroy you — all he has to do is get you to destroy yourself with your own thoughts.
I’ve met people who were talented, gifted, blessed — but they lived under a cloud of constant negativity. They never tried new things because they told themselves they would fail. They never stepped into new relationships because they assumed they would be hurt again. They never celebrated small victories because their mind always whispered, “It’s not enough.” And before long, their life became the reflection of the limitations they kept in their own head.
Some of you are sitting here right now and your body is in the room, but your mind is trapped in a prison of “what ifs” and “it’ll never work” and “I’m not good enough.” That prison is built brick by brick with words you tell yourself every day. And if you want to push yourself to be happy every day, you’ve got to tear that prison down — brick by brick.
The mind is powerful. The thoughts you think will eventually show up in the way you live. If you keep telling yourself, “I’m tired, I’m stuck, I’m not loved,” then don’t be surprised when your energy is drained, your life feels stagnant, and your relationships are cold. But if you start telling yourself, “I am strong, I am capable, I am loved, I have a future,” those words will begin to shape your reality. That’s not just motivation — that’s transformation.
But here’s the tricky part — negative thinking often disguises itself as “being realistic.” You tell yourself you’re not being negative, you’re just “facing the facts.” But what you call facts are often fears dressed up in logic. The truth is, you can look at reality and still choose to expect the best. You can acknowledge the challenge without surrendering to the thought that you can’t overcome it. That’s not ignoring the truth — that’s refusing to let fear write the truth for you.
Some of you need to audit your thoughts. Stop letting every idea that crosses your mind take up permanent residence. Not every thought deserves your attention. Not every idea belongs in your spirit. Just because it knocks doesn’t mean you have to open the door. You’ve got to learn to say, “No, you can’t live here” to the thoughts that tear you down, drain you, and rob you of peace.
And let me tell you something else — negative thinking is contagious. If you surround yourself with people who complain, doubt, and fear all the time, their mindset will start to rub off on you. You’ll find yourself speaking their language, thinking their thoughts, and living their limitations. That’s why you’ve got to protect your mind and your circle at the same time. If someone is always speaking death into your dreams, it’s only a matter of time before you start believing them.
You’ve got to replace negative thoughts with truth. And I don’t mean just “happy thoughts” — I mean real truth that reminds you who you are, what you’ve overcome, and what you’re capable of. Every time the thought says, “You’re not enough,” you’ve got to answer back, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Every time the thought says, “You’ll never get through this,” you’ve got to respond, “I’ve been through worse, and I’m still here.” You’ve got to fight back — not with fists, but with focus.
Here’s what I’ve learned — the longer you entertain a negative thought, the more it digs its roots in your mind. The faster you confront it, the less power it has. Some of you need to start cutting off negative thoughts the moment they show up. Don’t nurse them. Don’t rehearse them. Don’t give them coffee and a chair at your mental table. Shut them down.
Because if you don’t break the chain of negative thinking, you will sabotage your own joy. You will build a wall between yourself and the happiness you were meant to live in. You will talk yourself out of blessings that were already on the way. And that’s the tragedy of it — many people never lose the battle to their circumstances; they lose it in their mind long before they even fight.
Today, I’m telling you — it’s time to break the chain. It’s time to stop letting your mind bully your future. It’s time to stop letting your thoughts talk you out of what you were built to do. You’ve been living under that cloud long enough. Push it back. Speak light into it. Remind yourself that joy is yours, peace is yours, hope is yours. And the moment you win the battle in your mind… your life will follow.
And I don’t know about you… but I’m ready to think free.The problem with too many of us is we keep waiting to feel good before we do good. We wait to feel motivated before we move, to feel grateful before we give thanks, to feel joy before we choose it. But feelings are like the weather — they change without warning. If you’re waiting on your feelings to line up before you live your life, you’ll be on pause forever. That’s why you’ve got to feed your spirit before you feed your feelings.
Because feelings are fickle. One text message can ruin them. One conversation can shift them. One bad memory can sink them. You can’t build a consistent, joyful life on something so unstable. But your spirit — oh, your spirit is different. Your spirit is the anchor. Your spirit is the part of you that can stand strong even when your emotions are weak. If you strengthen your spirit, it will carry you through the days when your feelings try to bury you.
When you wake up in the morning, the first thing your feelings want to do is remind you of everything that’s wrong. They’ll point to the bill that’s due, the relationship that’s strained, the task list that’s overflowing. But if you start your day feeding your spirit — with gratitude, with prayer, with worship, with affirmations of truth — you will set the tone before the day sets it for you.
Some of you wake up and the first thing you feed is your phone. You open it before you even open your eyes all the way. And before you know it, you’ve fed your feelings a buffet of bad news, other people’s drama, and social media comparison. And then you wonder why you feel empty before the day even starts. It’s because you’ve been feeding your feelings junk food instead of feeding your spirit what it needs to thrive.
When you feed your spirit, you’re making a choice to focus on what builds you, not what breaks you. You’re pouring into yourself before the world has a chance to drain you. You’re saying, “I’m going to put something good in me so that something good can come out of me.” Because here’s the truth — whatever you feed the most will grow the most. If you feed fear, fear will grow. If you feed doubt, doubt will grow. But if you feed your faith, your peace, your hope, your gratitude — those will grow, and they will overpower the lies your feelings try to tell you.
I know somebody here has had mornings where you didn’t want to get out of bed. You didn’t want to face the day. You didn’t want to talk to anybody. But the days you chose to get up anyway, the days you opened your mouth and gave thanks anyway, the days you pushed a praise out of your mouth when your heart felt heavy — those were the days you proved to yourself that your spirit is stronger than your feelings.
See, feelings will tell you to wait until you feel like smiling before you smile, but your spirit knows if you smile, you can shift the atmosphere around you. Feelings will say, “Wait until the problem is solved before you have peace,” but your spirit says, “I can have peace in the middle of the storm.” Feelings will tell you to wait until things get better to be grateful, but your spirit says, “Be grateful now — and watch things get better because of it.”
Some of you are still waiting for your feelings to cooperate before you make changes in your life. You say, “I’ll forgive them when I feel like it.” But what if you never feel like it? You say, “I’ll start working on my dream when I feel ready.” But what if you never feel ready? You say, “I’ll start being happy when I feel happy.” But don’t you see? That’s backwards. You’ve got to act your way into feelings you want, not feel your way into actions you need.
This is why gratitude is so powerful. Gratitude feeds your spirit in a way nothing else can. When you stop to thank God for what you do have instead of complaining about what you don’t, you are strengthening your spirit and weakening the voice of your feelings. Praise works the same way — when you praise, even in the middle of pain, you’re telling your feelings, “You don’t get the final say today.”
I’m not saying it’s easy. There will be mornings where the heaviness feels like it’s sitting on your chest. There will be nights when you can’t seem to lift your head. But that’s when you’ve got to remember — you are not powerless. You can put something in your spirit that will carry you when your feelings try to collapse you. Read something that builds you. Listen to something that inspires you. Speak something that affirms you. Sing something that lifts you. Pray something that strengthens you.
Because when you feed your spirit first, you don’t just survive the day — you shape it. You decide what kind of energy you’re walking into the world with. You decide how much joy you’re going to carry. You decide whether you’re going to respond to challenges with panic or with peace. And the beautiful thing is, once your spirit is full, your feelings will often catch up. You’ll find yourself feeling better simply because you refused to let your feelings lead.
Don’t let your day be determined by a mood. Let it be determined by a mindset. Build that mindset by feeding your spirit first, and your feelings will have no choice but to follow.
And I don’t know about you… but I’m ready to live led by my spirit, not my feelingsIf you want to push yourself to be happy every day, you can’t just look at what’s inside you — you’ve also got to look at who’s around you. Because let me tell you something — joy is contagious, but so is misery. Peace is contagious, but so is chaos. You could be working every day to build your spirit, to feed your mind, to strengthen your heart, but if the people around you are constantly tearing you down, it’s only a matter of time before their words, their attitudes, and their energy start pulling you down with them.
You’ve got to understand — not everyone in your life is there to lift you. Some are there to drain you. And it doesn’t always come with bad intentions. Some people are simply living out of their own hurt, their own fear, their own bitterness. But if you’re not careful, you’ll start carrying their poison in your own spirit. That’s why you’ve got to be intentional about surrounding yourself with builders, not breakers.
Builders are the people who see the cracks in your wall and don’t laugh at you for having them — they help you fix them. Builders are the ones who see the vision in you even when you can’t see it yourself. They speak life into your dreams instead of death. They challenge you, not to break you down, but to help you grow stronger. Builders are not afraid of your light — they want to see it shine brighter.
But breakers — breakers are different. Breakers are the people who will criticize without offering help. They’ll remind you of your past but never encourage your future. They’ll question your decisions not because they’re concerned for you, but because they can’t see themselves doing what you’re doing. Breakers are the ones who feel more secure when you’re insecure, who feel taller when you’re standing lower. And if you’re not careful, they will have you doubting the very things you’ve been called to do.
Some of you have been trying to live happy while staying surrounded by people who drain your joy every chance they get. You get around them and feel your energy leave the room. You share good news with them and they respond with silence or shade. You start dreaming out loud and they start telling you every reason why it won’t work. And you keep wondering why you can’t keep your joy steady — it’s because you’re trying to keep it alive in a toxic environment.
I know it’s hard. Sometimes the people who break you are the ones closest to you. Sometimes they’re family. Sometimes they’re lifelong friends. But listen — loving someone doesn’t mean you have to give them unlimited access to your spirit. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean you have to keep them in your inner circle. You can love people from a distance and still protect your peace.
You’ve got to learn how to guard your joy like it’s a precious treasure — because it is. Don’t hand it over to people who trample it under their negativity. Don’t give it to people who don’t respect it. And hear me — this isn’t about being arrogant or thinking you’re better than anyone else. It’s about recognizing that you can’t afford to let the wrong voices shape your thoughts, your emotions, and your life.
The truth is, you will start to sound like the people you spend the most time with. You will start to think like them, act like them, and even believe like them. If you walk with people who are always complaining, you’ll find yourself complaining. If you walk with people who are always doubting, you’ll start doubting. But if you walk with people who dream big, who speak life, who encourage, who inspire — you’ll find your own vision growing, your faith rising, your joy multiplying.
And it’s not just about what they say to you — it’s about what they pull out of you. Builders pull the best out of you. They see the greatness inside you even when you’re tired, even when you’re struggling, even when you’re ready to quit. They speak to the version of you that’s stronger than what you feel right now. That’s why being around the right people isn’t just a comfort — it’s a strategy for survival.
Some of you need to do a circle check. Look around at who’s speaking into your life. Are they builders or breakers? Are they pushing you closer to joy or pulling you deeper into misery? And if the answer is not what you hoped for, you’ve got a choice to make. Because the longer you keep breakers in your inner circle, the more damage they can do to your spirit.
I’m not saying you have to cut everybody off. I’m saying you need to prioritize who gets your energy, your time, your ear, and your heart. Because you are too valuable, too purpose-filled, and too destined for joy to let anyone destroy what you’ve been building.
So choose wisely. Choose the ones who clap when you win. Choose the ones who pray for you when you’re down. Choose the ones who tell you the truth with love, who call you higher, who help you see light when all you see is darkness. Choose builders. Because if you want to stay happy every day, you can’t afford to be surrounded by people who are committed to keeping you broken.
