935 All Stirred Up

Within you is something more than you have ever known or realized. Power is in you. Strength is in you. Wisdom is in you. Life changing love is in you. Exactly what is needed for the situation and circumstances you face is right inside of you already. As a follower of Christ, God has offered his Spirit to dwell within you. That Spirit is what guides you when you can’t see the way. That Spirit is what nudges you within to confirm or deny that which you do not know with your head. That Spirit is what gives you hope and strength when you feel there is none. That Spirit is what puts you in the right place at the right time for exactly what you need. That Spirit is an advocate who is FOR you, not against you. And as if that wasn’t already good enough, this Spirit God has given you comes with GIFTS! Gifts that give your life meaning and purpose. Gifts that set you apart to do something special. Gifts that guide you to the life God envisioned for you. The question is, have the gifts within you settled? Have they been going unused for so long you don’t even know what’s inside you anymore? While you may not fully know what’s inside of you, God put it there, so he knows. And he knows he doesn’t want it to go to waste. He knows within you is the answer to so many of these problems. Within you is the hope someone else desperately needs. Within you is the power to make some things happen, and it’s time for them to be happening up in here! So, what does God do when he knows you’ve got it in you, but it’s settled to the bottom because you haven’t been using it? OH, HE STIRS IT UP! Yes, just like sugar at the bottom of a pitcher of sweet tea, it needs to be stirred. The surface level doesn’t even know whats deep within until it’s stirred up. So here comes trouble. Here comes disturbance in your calm, little, protected life. Things start falling apart, plans start failing, people start acting crazy and doing stupid stuff. Everything’s a mess and nothing is in it’s place anymore. Oh yeah girl, it looks to me like you got stirred up! And in the stirring, that which had settled within you is now moving! 2 Timothy 1: 6 says “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you.” Stir it up. And when you don’t stir it up yourself and you just settle for what’s easy, life has a way of getting stirred up for you! Why is that? Because God doesn’t want the gifts of his Spirit to go wasted. And they go wasted when life is calm and predictable. As humans we settle into patterns that become ruts and we go through our days with glazed over eyes and shallow breaths. I’m just dragging my butt out of bed because I have to, but you better believe I did it at the last possible second. I’m just here checking boxes, going through the motions, doing the bare minimum to get by. Throwing the kids some food, hauling them to school, doing my work, throwing some more food at hungry people, cleaning up the messes, and going to bed exhausted knowing tomorrow I do it all again. I’m just hoping things will eventually get better, but I’m not sure how that’s going to happen because I’m not willing to do anything different. Oh honey, God sees that and says “oh heck to the no … she’s not going to let what I put within her just settle to the bottom like that. I gotta stir this up!” All stirred up means what’s been going unused and settled to the bottom suddenly gets brought to the top and mixed all within. Here in the uncertainty, here in the hardship, here in the falling apart and wild mixing, the gifts within us get stirred up we start doing things we didn’t think we had the power or strength to do. How incredibly sweet! Yes girl, stir it up!