What Are You Stirring Up?

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another,  and all the more as you see the Day approaching.  - Hebrews 10:24-25

As I was waiting for a meeting to start I read through this portion of scripture and thought this is a good filter for the meeting I am about to have.  My goal in this meeting should be to stir up love,  to stir up good works and to be encouraging.   So before I give any counsel, I need to ask myself if this counsel is going to stir up love?  Is it going to stir up good works?   And finally is it encouraging?

Then I thought, this should be my filter with every conversation I have in life.   I should want every conversation I have to leave the other party stirred up to love and good works.  I want to make sure I speak words of encouragement or at least have those I meet in life leave encouraged by our exchange and not discouraged.  I'm also reminded about what the apostle Paul admonished the Ephesians concerning their conversations.  He said, "Let no corrupt talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."  Eph. 4:29

We would all do well to take the apostles advice and use it as our filter in our day to day interaction with others.  In doing so we will edify others and keep ourselves from conversations that can lead us into sin.  More importantly we will be glorifying and doing the will of God.

Therefore, we should consider the following before we speak.
1.  What am I going to stir up by saying this?
2.  Am I stirring up love with what I am about to say?
3.  Am I stirring up good works with what I am about to say?
4.  Is my conversation encouraging the other party in some way?
5.  Are my words building up or tearing down?

John Chrysostom's short explanation of Paul's instruction to the Ephesians sums this blog up perfectly "what ever edifies your neighbor, say this and nothing more..."

The Internal Struggle

O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes.  Psalm 119:5

In this verse I get a sense that the Psalmist has an intense desire to follow God's statutes.  I get the sense that he is pleading to follow God's ways, but something is obstructing his path.   Something is continuing to harass him as he tries to walk in the way of the Lord.  Therefore, the Psalmist cryie out in frustration because his all to common way is to allow this hinderance to keep him from doing what is right in God's eyes.   He recognizes the internal struggle between his flesh and the Spirit as they both seek to control his desires.   So he cries out and pleads that God would direct his steps so that he would not be pulled to the right or to the left, but he would walk in the ways of Lord.

The apostle Paul express this same sentiment in Romans 7:15-20.  He writes "For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.  But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.  So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.  For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.  But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me."

Let us not read Paul's statement as an excuse for our sin, but let us be aware of the internal struggle we have as we deal with our sinful nature that always with us.  This should prompt us all the more to plead for God's help to lessen our inclination to yield to our sinful desires.

In commenting on this Psalm C.H. Spurgeon adequately describes the Psalmist' intent in his prayer as a "...sigh of regret because the Psalmist feels that he has not kept the precepts diligently, it is a cry of weakness appealing for help to one who can aid, it is a request of bewilderment from one who has lost his way and would fain be directed in it, and it is a petition of faith from one who loves God and trust in him for grace."


Let us pray that God would direct us, guide us, and lead us so that we would keep His statutes.