Note: Below is a transcription of this Walking Our Talk podcast. Please excuse any grammatical or punctuation flaws, as the transcription is a written version of our fluid conversation.
Pauly [00:00:07] Welcome to walking our talk with Alan and Pauly Heller, join our conversation as we discuss practical ways to apply spiritual principles to your everyday life and help you walk your talk one step at a time.
Alan [00:00:28] Hello, this is Alan Heller with Walk and Talk, we are walking our talk, I’m alone in this studio today. I would love to spend a little time with you and be able to talk about something that I think everybody has to deal with at one time or another. And that is how to keep our cup full when everyone’s poking holes in it. So the title of this podcast is Keeping Your Cup Full. And the question is, what does fill your cup? Many people don’t understand what does that. So we’ll take some time and we’ll talk about how to keep that cup full.
Alan [00:01:16] So, first of all, what is a full cup look like? I read in the scripture that whatever we do, we’re to do it hardly unto the Lord and Colossians 3:23. We also talk about the Lord filling our cup through his spirit, Ephesians 5:18 says be filled with the Holy Spirit. So we have spirit, our soul, and our body. So let’s start with what fills our cup. It is in terms of the spirit we’re filled with, the Holy Spirit. We have peace inside because that’s one of the characteristics of the fruit of the spirit. We have joy. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. So one of those characteristics of the fruit is joy, Galatians 5:22-23.
Alan [00:02:23] And then I think one of the things that is very important is that we have a thankful or a joyful heart, and that comes when our cup is full. Giving thanks and everything is what First Thessalonians, 5:18, says. This is the will of Christ concerning you. And so many people are asking what is the will of God for me?
And the answer is, I know one thing that is the will of God because he says it in his word, is to give thanks and everything, to rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. And then in that First Thessalonians passage, he says, giving thanks in everything because this is his will concerning you. How are you doing at giving thanks in everything?
Alan [00:03:17] I deal with people who come in who are very heavy, downtrodden. They just don’t even know why their cup isn’t full. And it takes time to sometimes to know what is it that fills my cup. Well, we have a soul, we have our mind, will and emotions, we need to be mindful of the Lord and his will seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these other things are going to be added to you. And many times we are so distracted like right now the coronavirus is just becoming what they’ve called now a pandemic. And people are going to all kinds of extremes. There’s no toilet paper, no sanitizer on the shelves. I think, you know, each of us has to figure out what does it mean for us to protect our family and do what we think is right. Our trust has to be in the Lord and trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him. He says he will direct our path. So being mindful of the Lord. In our soul to be mindful of the Lord and obedient to his word by his spirit, John, 15, says abide in him, make my home in him, and he says he will abide in me.
Alan [00:04:53] And then spending meaningful time with the Lord in his word. So how do you get time in his word? I have so many people that I work with and they feel like their lives are falling apart or they’re depressed or they don’t know what to do with their life. It’s amazing that when they spend time, 10, 15, 20 minutes in the world, not just checking it off their list, but learning to meditate and learning to ask themselves, what does this what do I see in this passage and what does it mean to the people that it was spoken to? And then finally, what does it mean to me? Many times we go right to the application instead of doing the observation, what do we see in this passage? And then what do we believe God saying to us? So meaningful time and his word is going to fill our cup.
Alan [00:05:57] We need to have our emotions under control of the spirit. This is great when your two-year-old is pushing all your buttons and you are going bananas. And of course, we don’t always keep our emotions under control. But again, that passage in Galatians 5:22 and 23 says, but when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, which is really Christ control. How do I do that in a campus crusade went years ago when we were with athletes in action? Dr. Bill Bryant used to talk about spiritual breathing and I think we’ve talked about this once on our podcast. But it’s worth mentioning, again, basically you’re talking about just like you physically breathe, you spiritually breathe. And when you physically breathe, you exhale. Or in the spiritual realm, you confess your sin, you exhale the bad air, the CO2 and you inhale the good air.
Alan [00:07:19] Ephesians 5:18, don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled continually with the Holy Spirit. And so we ask him to fill us. But before we do that, we confess. Lord, I just lost it, I, I blew it. I got angry and mad at my child and spoke to them in a wrong way or my spouse or my roommate. And so I just simply confess or agree with God. I blew it. I sinned and then we ask God to fill us with his spirit, and when he fills us with his spirit, he says we are cleansed. He says in First John 1:9 if you confess your sin, he is faithful to forgive your sin and cleanse you not from some, not from partial sin, but cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So that is a cup filler. So just simply asking. But you have to first acknowledge or confess and agree with God. I’m not doing it the way you want me to.
Alan [00:08:31] Let’s talk about I mean, take a moment, maybe turn off the podcast for five minutes and just say what drains my cup? What are some of the things in your life? Let me just give you some examples. It could be the very kids that God has given you. Kids can drain your cup because they always have needs physical, emotional and spiritual. The media, of course, our phones. I have some people in my life that they don’t realize most of the day, as soon as they wake up, when they get in the car, when they come back home, when they’re just about to go to sleep, they’re on their phone all the time, could be playing games, could be responding to people. What’s interesting about the phone is it makes us feel important. And it what it does is it clicks into our pleasure center. 
I mean, when the ding happens on your phone, don’t you feel good and want to answer it? Right. Because I’m important. And so we need to learn to discipline ourselves and put those things away at different times. They’re a great tool, but at times they can take over our life.
Alan [00:09:43] Some other things that distract us too much on my plate. I’ve just said yes to too many things. I might be physically tired. I might be emotionally tired, I might be sick. Physically, I don’t feel well. I could be bored or maybe I ate too much and now I’m sluggish. So what drains your cup and turn off the podcast and take a moment.
Alan [00:10:10] Then what fills your cup again? Take five minutes to look at what are some things that fill your cup. I know for me the other day I just had too much going and I just said I’m going to just take the morning and from eight o’clock till twelve o’clock I’m just going to go play golf and just forget about my counsel and all my responsibilities and just go have a good time, because for me, golf is a good time. Maybe for you, it’s a cup drainer, but for me it’s a cup filler. Learning what does fill your cup? Is it being alone or is it being with people? For some people, they need to go to a party to fill their cup. For me, I’m with people all the time dealing with them in the emergency room of their emotions and difficult situations. So we have different things that fill us and different things that drain us.
Alan [00:11:13] You need to find out what fills your cup. Could be reading, could be playing a game basketball or board game. Could be suduko. I don’t know. Could be bowling, could be a physical activity, could be a mental activity or it could be just going and lying on the beach and looking at God’s beautiful ocean and creation. Many times just going up into the mountains can relax us. So take a moment, turn off the tape here. Think about, what is it that fills my cup?
Alan [00:11:50] So this is Alan Heller, we’re walking our talk, we’re learning how to keep our cupful when everyone is poking holes in it, a full cup is demonstrated by being filled with the Holy Spirit. How do we do that? First, we need to confess our sin if we have any dealing with people or even against God, and then we need to ask him to fill us with his spirit, as Ephesians 5:18 says, and then we need to walk in the power of that spirit. And then we talked about you were thinking about what fills your cup. And so if you want, feel free to email me and alan@walkandtalk.org. I’d love to hear what fills your cup. And so we need to keep our vision clear.
Alan [00:12:44] One way to keep our vision clear is, as we said, spending time with God and his word on a regular basis. It’s amazing to me how many people I work with sexual addiction, the men I work with. And every time they’re in the world, they’re not tempted as much. Every time they are not in the world, they end up sinning and having a hard time.
Alan [00:13:10] So another one is carrying out your vision. God is giving you so. When you’re carrying out the vision that God’s giving you, the call on your life, whether it’s being a mother with three kids that are under the age of 10 or whether it’s being a business executive, a president of an organization with 200 or more, you know, it doesn’t matter. But when you’re carrying out or fulfilling the goals that God has given you and the call in your life that will fill your cup.
Alan [00:13:45] Another thing would be solitude and prayer. Solitude is something that’s very hard to find these days. There are two or three places that I love to find solitude. We are, Pauly and I, are empty nesters. And so one of the ways I can do that is just waking up in the morning. Our particular place where we live is very quiet and that’s wonderful sometimes. But sometimes all I can see is all the things I have to do and things I have to fix. And so no matter how hard I try, I end up not having solitude. And so I go to a couple of different places. 
Here in Phenix, there’s a place called Kanon in the Desert, which for those of you who are listening in Phoenix area, it’s a Lutheran convent. These women, as soon as you enter the property, you feel like you are walking in God’s kingdom and there’s peace and rest because they pray constantly for the people that are coming there. And so that’s south of Shea on Fortieth Street. Another place I go is spirit in the desert that’s up north and carefree again just a half hour away. But beautiful scenery, very quiet and a wonderful place to get away. The question is, where is it for you? What does it for you? Is it getting away for a day? Is it getting away for a couple of hours? I used to go also to some of the nice hotels and just sit out and watch their fountains and their beautiful flowers. I didn’t have any responsibility. And I think that’s part of what solitude is all about, is listening to God in a quiet place and not talking, but listening.
Alan [00:15:32] And then the other thing is just prayer, asking God, Lord, speak to me, Lord, I am so overwhelmed with all my activities and all the things I have to do. I just I need you to fill me with your spirit and speak to me. And then another thing that keeps our cup full, Henry Blackaby asks the question and experiencing God, are we unhurried? With our time with God, if Jesus, when he was tempted by the devil, he was sent out into the wilderness by the Lord, he was tempted and the first thing he did was, quote, scripture. And how did he quote scripture? Because he spent time in it. He also would go away and be with his father and be able to talk to him.
Alan [00:16:22] So another thing that can help in this area is knowing your shape, Rick Warren put together an amazing tool for churches to be able to help people not only know their spiritual gifts, but also think about their motivation, their heart, their abilities, you know, what their talents are of their personality and their experiences. And for him, it was being able to be plugged into the church for you, it might just be a good idea to think about. What are your spiritual gifts? For me? I am a pastor. No matter where I go. I pastor people. I counsel, coach, disciple. I help Christ be formed in people. That’s just my sweet spot. I also am a discerner. I also exhort and sometimes end up scripture says were to encourage, rebuke, exhort, correct, teach and train. And so I’m an exhorter. So when I teach, usually it’s encouraging you to do something specific that will help your spiritual walk.
Alan [00:17:35] So we’re going to have to wrap this up in the next few minutes, but we’ll do a filling your cup, too. And for right now, think about what’s your spiritual gift? What is your motivation? What’s your heart, your passion, what keeps you up at night because you’re so excited about it. What abilities have has God given you? So the abilities are things that maybe you know, I knew a friend who was a great administrator, organizer of people and management of an organization, and yet he didn’t like to do it. He really liked to be with people and go on mission trips. And so our abilities are really important to figure out because sometimes we think everyone can do the ability that we have. And I think I’ve talked about Pauly is an editor and so show edit the calendar show, edit the menu when we’re going out to eat. And did you know there are three spelling mistakes here and I’m going no I just, I just want the turkey sandwich. So your personality and then your experiences there are hurtful, there are educational experiences, there are just experiences that you have had in your life that you can share with others. So if you have any questions, feel free to text me at 602-499-2711 or email me at alan@walkandtalk.org. And this has been Alan Heller with Walk and Talk and we are hoping that you will walk your talk today by filling your cup.
Pauly [00:19:20] This has been walking our talk with Alan and Pauly Heller, where we put into action those principles, we know from God’s word one step at a time, you can find more help at our website: walkandtalk.org.