Starve It part 1
Here's the straight fact: What you feed is what will grow. What you magnify in your life is what manifests in your life. If you're always stressing out about worse case scenarios... not only are you going to wear yourself slap out... but you are, in a sense, going to bring those doom and gloom prophecies to pass. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. If all you have is doom and gloom... that's what you're going to add to the proceedings. But if you're heart is full and your mind is clear... if you're bursting at the seams with God's love... THAT'S what you'll add to the proceedings. You know those people that just light up every room that they enter? Those people that you're just drawn to? That you want to be around no matter what kind of day you're having? That's light shining from within. LOVE shining from within! But I called this Rant series "starve it" because I want to write something practical. Something helpful. And I feel like a lot of us (me included, sometimes) struggle with "How do I get rid of the things in my life that I don't want in my life?" We think we need to battle them. Conquer them. Overcome them. Vanquish them. I can't tell you how much I've heard, over and over again, about "Spiritual warfare." Taking down everything from demons to rated R movies. Religious folk seem to want to fight every thing and every body. But let me, for the next few days, try to offer a different viewpoint. A different idea. In my opinion, a more excellent way. And basically, in a nutshell, its Colossians 3:2, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." I truly believe that the best way to get rid of the things in your life that you don't want in your life is to starve them. Because, like I said, what you feed is what will grow. If you stop feeding those things--and even when you're "fighting" them you can still be feeding them... because sometimes all those things want is your attention, be it positive OR negative--they will shrivel up and die. I remember a conversation I had with a friend years ago. They said something about needing to be distracted. And I said, "I think focusing on the right thing is more important than just distracting yourself from the wrong thing." And it WILL serve pretty much the same purpose. If all you're doing is focusing on, dwelling on, brooding on the wrong thing... you're feeding it. Making mountains out of molehills, in some cases. Some people thrive on that confrontation. Its all they want. So if you just disengage, you aren't giving them what they want. You're giving YOURSELF what you need. Don't always focus on the problem. Focus on the solution. SET your affection on things above. There's another passage that I think I'm going to quote, maybe tomorrow, about thinking on only good things. Its in Philippians chapter four if you can't wait. But that's where I'm at. Set your affection on the good things. Think about those. And don't engage in the bad things. Don't fight evil, but overcome evil with good. Feed and nurture the things you want in your life. And starve the things you don't want in your life. Let them shrivel up and die all on their own while you're busy living your best life. The abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. HIS life of love!