what's in your cup?

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

It’s common knowledge that our diets directly affect the health and working of our bodies. And while we may not eat right 100% of the time, most of us try to do what’s best for our bodies overall. Unfortunately, we aren’t always as careful with what we feed our minds. And it shows – not only in our view of the world, but also in our spiritual health.

What we put into our minds shapes our thinking. The way we think directly affects our character and behavior.

A few weeks back, I listened to a podcast interview with Dr. David Jeremiah where he was speaking about the importance of our cups/hearts and how we fill them. To capture the main concepts and ideas of his message I gave it a quick caption that would spark my memory and proceeded to take notes under that caption.

At that time I gave his podcast my own caption, I did not realize it, but I was writing the title of today’s blog, what’s in your cup, and I continued to jot down a few bullet points on a napkin and stuck it in a journaling notebook thinking, I know I will use this one day.

If you know me, you know I don’t believe in coincidence.

Therefore, when this became the perfect topic for this week’s blog, I could not help but smile, thinking of God and His perfect timing of things.

That podcast really spoke to me and motivated me to give some attention to what’s in my cup and to reevaluate exactly what I am pouring into myself and how, or if, it feeds my soul in a way that reveals my faith and Christ in me.

Upon hearing Dr. Jeremiah that day, I began to take inventory of my heart and my mind. I weeded out some thoughts that were damaging and could potentially, if left to grow wild, strangle out the good and healthy thoughts and could even lead me down a path of depression and anxiety.

Why does this even matter?

You see, how we fill our cup, or what we feed our mind matters and is revealed by what comes out of our hearts, which generally manifests itself through our words and our actions.

Throughout scripture filling our cup is often referred to when we are being reminded to be very intentional regarding what we are feeding our hearts and our minds. We are warned to be very protective of who and what we allow to speak into our lives, or occupy our minds, thoughts, and our hearts.

Questions I regularly ask myself are…

How am I filling my cup?

What am I looking to in regard to my daily information that forms my opinions and beliefs?

Who am I listening to?

Are they speaking words of truth according to God’s word?

Does the message I am listening to align with God’s word?

Are the contents filling my cup producing the fruits of the spirit?

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

What do people see when I am tested or encounter trials, do those around me see a person of humility who trusts in Jesus, surrendering to the awareness that I am not in control, but empowered through my trust, faith, and the hope and strength I have in Him?

Am I able to pour into them from what is filling my cup, and does it give them hope, let them know they are loved, and do they feel an unexplainable sense of peace because of the peace I have in Christ?

OR…

Do they see someone who clings to the trinity of me, myself, and I, believing I alone am in control and can do all things in my own strength?

Do they see a person who clings to the world’s promises and advice, and is now bitter, defeated, hopeless, and crumbling under the weight of my challenges?

“The world produces an almost overwhelming amount of spiritual junk food and outright spiritual garbage, and it is within easy reach of any mind anywhere no matter where one lives.” ~John W. Ritenbaugh

Folks, we live in a very self-centered world that wants us to believe WE are large and in charge. WE are the center of our own universe. WE can do all things because we all have a god inside of us.

My friends, those are lies of the enemy, and the great deceiver uses a variety of methods to lure us into filling our cups with his lies, lies that will leave us empty handed and alone in times of trials.

When I wrote last week’s blog, it’s-complicated, I, our family, was entering into what none of us could have predicted at that time, would turn into literally experiencing what I was writing about, those moments of living in the hard good, nor did I know how much it would tie in to what I am writing about today.

If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to do so because it might shed some light on this week’s blog post, and how the two tie together.

When I was writing it, I had no idea just how deep our family was going to be plunged into the depths of the hard good this past week, and we are still living in it as of today, Sunday, September 12th.

I also did not know just how much I was going to need to pull from my cup this past week.

With humility and gratitude, I am able to say, my cup was full of the fruits of the spirit because of God’s faithfulness to provide. God promises if we are intentional about the feeding of our mind with His word, He will provide what we need when we need it.

Out of respect for family, I will not go into great details, but in an effort to not be obnoxiously cryptic, here is a 30,000-foot explanation.

Our daughter-in-law, our new grandson’s mom, has had some major post c-section complications that have landed her in the hospital. Something that we thought was minor has become quite complicated, and we are currently living smack dab in the middle of the hard good right now.

Good because we are celebrating new life with this sweet little boy. Hard because his mama is experiencing some major health challenges.

Here is one of life’s truths that I can currently, personally testify to, and I can assure you is a fact, and not just a feeling.

Adversity reveals what is in your heart.

Why can I say this? Because I have lived it.

If you want to know how you have been filling your cup, adversity is the truth teller, the ultimate, pull the band aid off moment.

Nothing will shine a light on our heart and what’s in it faster than life’s complications, challenges, and curveballs, and we all know, NO ONE escapes this life without adversity, complications, or challenges! No ONE!

I highly recommend asking yourself the aforementioned questions on a regular basis so you can course correct BEFORE adversity strikes.

This is why all throughout scripture, Jesus is reminding us that what we fill our hearts/cups with is crucially important. What we have in our hearts is what will sustain us, lift us and others up, provide strength, encouragement, and hope in the midst of trials, or it will cause us and others to fret, stress, feel discouraged, and hopeless.

“Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)

A while back, I came across a teaching story in the form of a meme on Facebook, and it came back to me again this week as I was thinking about this blog and about how what emerges from within us is directly related to that in which we choose to immerse ourselves.

This is an additional way to think about what spills out of us, or out of our cup/heart, especially in times of stress or disruption.

Here is the story.

You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and accidentally bumps you and shakes your arm, making you spill coffee everywhere.

Why did you spill the coffee?

Because someone bumped into you, right?

Wrong answer.

You spilled the coffee because coffee was in the cup.

If tea had been in it, you would have spilled tea.

Whatever is inside the cup is what will come out.

Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you,

whatever is inside of you will come out.

So, each of us has to ask ourselves..... what's in my cup?

When life gets bumpy, what spills over?

Joy, gratefulness, peace, and humility?

Or anger, bitterness, harsh words, and reactions?

We choose what's in our cup!

(**This story has been attributed to many different sources, but there is no consensus on authorship.)

“Our cups are jostled to show us what’s inside, so that we can develop a mature Christian character. It’s rather painful sometimes to have to face up to the mess that’s spilling out of our cups, but the sooner we face it, confess it, and ask God to change us, the better equipped we’ll be to let God fill our cups with himself, so that when we spill over, people see the likeness of Christ in us.” (christianworkingwoman)

I am sure most of you have heard the old Native American saying, we all have two dogs that live inside us, the one we feed, is the one that will succeed. The exact same concept applies to the filling of our cup. What we pour into our cup, aka our minds, is what determines the direction of our heart and our actions.

“You’ll hear a lot of concern these days about water pollution and air pollution. And those concerns are important. But there may be a more important pollution in our lives: mind pollution. The Bible tells us that what we feed our minds is just as important as what we feed our bodies.” ~ Rick Warren

Warren goes on to say…

When feeding your mind, you must choose from four kinds of content.

1. Poison- These are the concepts that will derange, degrade, or demoralize you. For instance, pornography will do that.

2. Junk food - Most of the stuff on television is the mental equivalent of junk food. You’ll find little to no nutritional value in it. You can eat junk food, but you’re not going to get very wise.

3. Brain food- This is the “good stuff.” It educates you in areas like math, history, English, and geography. You need to fill your mind with brain food. It’ll make you a well-rounded person.

4. Super food- This is the Bible. God’s Word will teach you what you won’t find anywhere else. It answers fundamental questions like, “Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Does my life matter? Is there a purpose to my life? Is there meaning? Am I significant?” You’ll only get answers to those questions in the Bible. We need to feast on God’s Word daily.

2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to “…take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” This is a great idea, but is it even possible? If we trust in God’s word, we know it’s possible.

The answer to capturing your thoughts is right there in Scripture. “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) Capturing your thoughts requires stillness, something most Americans, and many Christians, have no time for. And as long as we have no time for prayer, our thoughts, emotions, and feelings will continue calling the shots.

“In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable. Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4: 8-9)

Something to consider: How healthy is your cup? Are you ready to pour out the love that’s within you to a hurting world in need? If your cup isn’t healthy are you willing to make the necessary purge so you can refill it with healthy input that produces healthy outputs?

Parts of this blog were paraphrased from, 7-verses-about-the-power-of-your-thoughts.

Why does this even matter?

Adversity reveals what is in your heart.

do you know?

it’s complicated