Your attitude is how you react to the world around you. It is composed of ideas, rules, and affinities that exist in your mind. What you think something is affects how your treat it. How well you like someone, or what you predict they will do influences how you interact with them. How you interact with others affects how they interact with you which affects how you respond- in a continuous feedback loop. The fact that your attitude sets the tone for initial interactions, coupled with the feedback effect of all interactions indicates that a proper attitude is crucial to living a christian life.
Each of the definitions above can be applied to your life as a christian in a specific way. You must formulate a mental position about the world around you that is in accord with God's will. You must believe your position is true and allow it to influence how you act. You must be ready to let your attitude not only influence your actions, but spur you to new actions and you must be consistent in your behavior.
Just like an astronaut must constantly maintain control of his spacecraft, you must constantly control your attitude.
but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
I will say to God: Do not condemn me, but tell me what charges you have against me.
Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.
There are many more bad examples of attitudes in the Bible, but these point out three of the primary factors of bad attitudes.
Cain was rebellious in that he wished to sacrifice according to his own will instead of God's. Job was prideful in that he thought he was righteous enough to be justified before God by his own behavior. Jonah was jealous when God offered the Ninevites an opportunity to be forgiven.
All three of these men formulated their attitudes based on their own desires. They wanted things to be how they thought things should be. When how these men wanted things to be were not how God wanted things to be, their bad attitudes brought them into danger of God's wrath.
So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."
When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
These examples show men who had good attitudes— attitudes based on God's will, not their own.
Abraham, at God's command, packed up everything he had and moved to a new country. Caleb knew that nothing could prevent the Israelites from conquering God's enemies. When Nehemiah heard that the remnant from the Babylonian captivity were oppressed and afflicted and that the wall of Jerusalem had fallen, he not only wept at the fate of his countrymen, but admitted the guilt of the nation before God and prayed not only for forgiveness, but also that king Artaxerxes would let him go rebuild the wall.
The attitudes of these men were created in the assurance of God's truth. They knew that whatever God asked of them could only lead to their own long term benefit and that though God is perfectly just, He is pleased by humility and repentance.
Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."
Jesus, of course, had a perfect attitude in every situation.
He loved people enough to depart from the immediate presence of God, his father, to dwell among them on earth and once among the wretched and sinful population of the earth, He truly cared about them not just to the point of offering them the truth of His teaching, but to the point of tirelessly healing the sick and feeding great crowds when he would have rather been resting alone. Yet even all this was not enough. Jesus obeyed the will of God against his own desire when He offered the ultimate sacrifice of his perfect life on the cross.
We are human and are incapable of escaping the power of sin by any other means than Christ's blood. The least we can do is study the pattern he set for us and emulate his attitudes to the best of our abilities. We must all strive to treat others the way Christ would have. The only way we can do this is by working to make our attitudes match His.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Too many christians today have a pre-defeated attitude. They have forgotten that "the good guys win in the end". They face the world with a downtrodden, underdog, guilt-ridden attitude that handicaps not only their christianity, but their whole lives. They are dismayed at the wickedness in the world because they have let it into their minds and allowed it to block their view of the good.
We must to remind ourselves that we are children of God and co-heirs with Christ. God is our father and just as an earthly father loves and cares for his children, so does our heavenly father love and care for us.
As children of God we need to realize that guilt is not an issue. Christ died that our sins could be forgiven and as we continue to pattern our attitudes after his and live our lives according to God's will, this forgiveness continually absolves us of guilt. Not only are christians justified in God's sight, but nothing can separate us from God. If you relentlessly create and attitude of attachment to God, you will attain a pre-victorious spirit.
Christians who approach God fearfully and doubtfully not only show a bad attitude, but display a lack of faith that leads to a pre-defeated spirit. God loves us as his children. Just as His son Jesus said "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." (Luke 18:16), so does God call us to Himself.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage— with great patience and careful instruction.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Attitudes affect our behavior because they are ingrained into the way our personalities work. In order to create Godly attitudes we must ingrain Godly ideas, feelings, and inclinations into our hearts. We must endeavor to make our minds like His.
How can we make our minds like God's if we don't know how God thinks? No one can fully know the mind of God "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9), but we can know God through His Word "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1). We can come to know God through the study of His Word. In fact, to be acceptable to him and to do the work he has for us we must.
Not everyone can stand up in front of a crowd and preach even a short lesson at a moment's notice. Not everyone can do it with plenty of time to prepare, but we can all encourage. We can all let our actions speak louder than our words. While we don't all need to go through every day with a sermon outline in our pockets, every christian needs to be looking for any opportunity to demonstrate their gratitude to God by showing his love to others.
Christians must love each other— period. If we can't love each other how can we love God? "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1 John 4:8)
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
It has been said that without the dark there is no light. Christians need to develop and attitude of faith in God that will assure them that as long as they look to Him for guidance and support— their eventual reward is assured.
If Jesus, God's perfect and only begotten son was not blessed with a life free of pain, trouble, and trials why should we, poor weak humans expect to be rewarded with ease and pleasure? Indeed, it is only through surviving the tribulations that life forces on us that we can truly appreciate the loving providence God has for us.
We must remember, though, that it is God that gives us the strength to pass through the tumultuous events of life that test us and that when we are empowered by God nothing can prevail against us. But it takes work and practice to live the life that God desires of us. Just as athletes must exercise and train their bodies, we must exercise and train our spirits each day.
In order to please God we must excel in Godly attitudes.
Excelling in attitude consists of:
Excelling in attitude is an ongoing process. We may speak of someone having an excellent attitude, but exceling is never finished.
Do your best to excel in attitude every day.