«

Attitude

August 18, 2009

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Philippians 4:8

We have been given the opportunity to choose our attitude in life. The bad report wants to indoctrinate our thinking. But when we go to the Word, we can get an attitude adjustment by “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NKJV).

This doesn’t mean you need to bury your head in the sand; however, you are to guard your thoughts and not focus on the problem, but on what brings peace to you and glory to God. Turn every problem into a prayer. “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done” (Philippians 4:6 Phillips).

Attitude is defined as “a position assumed for a specific purpose.”* We are to assume the position of real Christians who look for broken moments and God-given opportunities to share the love of Jesus in a tangible way. That kind of attitude will change the world.

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company . . . a church . . . a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past . . . we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you . . . we are in charge of our Attitudes. —Chuck Swindoll

Press on!
Pastor Jeff

Copyright © 2009 St. Louis Family Church. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. John Bertram Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English. London: G. Bles, 1958.

*Attitude.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009.