"If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God,
and others will approve of you, too."
- Romans 14:18 (NLT)
There are a lot of people including Christians that need a little attitude adjustment and some need a complete overhaul. Sometimes our attitude just simply stinks. We stink up the place with our negative attitude punctuated with a capital “S.” I get after my son’s when they get a case of a bad attitude. And I tell them to leave it at the door. Attitude affects everything that you do, and a bad attitude will keep you from experiencing an abundant life. Attitude dictates how good or how bad your day will be. The good thing is that you have the power to control your attitude. You can choose to have a positive or negative attitude. The proper attitude is just as important as having a right relationship with God. How can someone expect to worship the true and living God if they have the wrong attitude? When we truly accept who God is and who we are, there is no other response possible than to have a healthy attitude of humility and a willingness to trust God in everything. What ought to be our attitude? The attitude for us to take is that of trusting and believing in the living God, His promises and the power of His might.
To overcome negative thinking you have to start with the right attitude. You may have heard the saying, “Attitude is Everything!” That’s right, attitude is everything. You cannot change how you think unless you change your attitude. Attitude is a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings, values and dispositions to act in a certain way. In laymen’s terms it simply means that it is the state of your mind. The state of your mind can either be negative or positive. There are only two choices when it comes to attitude: negative or positive. To overcome your negative thinking you are going to have to change your attitude. It was Pattie La Belle who sang, “I got a New Attitude.” She sure said that right. There are some folks who need a new attitude. There are some folks who need to trade in their old attitude for a new one. Some folks need to go shopping on EBay or Craig’s List and buy a new attitude or order one from the Sears catalog. Some might consider going to the recycling center and buying a recycled attitude. Attitude is everything. The right attitude is the difference between being a winner or a loser, a success or failure, a victim or the victor. If you are going to take the shackle of negative thinking off your mind you must learn to develop a good attitude.
A good attitude has the ability to make even the worst of circumstances at least bearable. And a bad attitude can make the best of a good situation miserable. When Paul and Silas where in prison, they could have given up and accepted doom and gloom. No, instead they went about praising God and witnessing to a Roman soldier, “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them”, Acts 16:25. They had church, right there in the midst of a dusty dirty prison cell. I can imagine that prison came alive because of Paul and Silas would not be denied getting their praise on. My personal declaration is that God is so good. Paul and Silas made the best of a bad situation. They were able to turn negative into a positive because they had the right attitude.
Copyrighted Material ©2011 Marquis Evans
