We End Up With What We Stir Up

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire!  (Luke 24:32)

Don’t stir up trouble.

You’ve heard that before.  It usually comes right before you say something you shouldn’t, and your mom says, “Don’t stir up trouble.”

That applies to so many areas of life.  We end up with what we stir up.

Take fear, anxiety and stress.  You watch scary movies, crime programs, doom and gloom news, shows that are negative and divisive, and you wonder why you’re fearful, anxious and stressed?  That’s what you’re stirring up!  Turn it off.  And listen, don’t worry about missing the news.  The State Department is not on the verge of calling you to ask for your advice.

If you’ve watched so many zombie and vampire and alien shows that you’re thinking, “It could happen...”  It can’t happen!  You just keep stirring it up in your brain.

What about the unfairness of life?  Don’t ever stir up that line of thinking.  Don’t think about it for one second.  Are you pouting because you didn’t win the genetic lottery?  Someone is prettier than you?  More handsome than you?  Faster than you?  Taller than you?  Stronger than you?  Don’t stir up those thoughts!  Instead, enter into His gates with thanksgiving.  Be thankful unto Him and give Him praise.  Find out what God has given you and work it.  Maximize it.  Grow it.  Look at what you DO have, and turn that raw material into something great!

We end up with what we stir up, so be careful what you stir up.

Let’s say you like to steal.  You’re a kleptomaniac.  You get a thrill out of shoplifting.  How can you stop?  Don’t stir it up.  Those desires will die if you don’t give them oxygen.  Let him who stole steal no longer.  How?  Don’t stir it up!

What if you love food.  You love to eat.  You’re a problem eater.  How can you stop?  Proverbs 23:2 says put a knife to your throat.  Not literally.  It’s figurative.  It means cut off those desires.  It means “Don’t think about it.”  Don’t allow yourself to stir up those thoughts about food all time.

Thinking about it.  Dwelling on it.  Tossing it around in your mind.  That is how you stir it up, and we end up with what we stir up.

What about old offenses, what those people did to you?  For goodness’ sake, don’t ever stir up that wicked mess.  Let it go!  Don’t think about it.  If you’re going to stir up anything, stir up forgiveness! 

Our brains can get stuck in a loop, in a cycle, but we can break the cycle by not stirring up the wrong things, the wrong thoughts.

Don’t stir up worry.  That’s a dead end.  Stir up faith instead, and hope and trust in God.  Meditate on God’s word and just watch how that stirs up all the right things in your life.

What about adultery, or lust?  That is something that never gets anywhere unless you just keep stirring it up.  It’s evil and has no life of its own unless you keep stirring it up and try to fake some life into it, and still it's going to drag you into the dead pool in the end.  So please, don’t be the next idiot that destroys your family over a cheap momentary low grade B-movie thrill. 

We end up with what we stir up, so let’s stir up good things!  Like Philippians 4:8, “...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy...” think on these things.

The things we think on are the things we stir up, and the things we stir up shape our life.

So beware what you stir up in your mind, knowing that we end up with what we stir up.

May God bless you today!

I’m Doug Apple.