February 3, 2016
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5
Sometimes someone like myself has to use their head or in this example use a thesaurus. I decided to write today on attitude. In using a concordance, there were a few examples of verses for attitude. I believe I selected the best one but there was one particular point of interest. As you will note, the Scripture verse I selected did not state the word attitude rather mindset was used. It made me wonder how many Bible verses are similar in using a different word than the one which may be preferred. I do not want to dwell on this but thought it was an interesting observation. I will now concentrate on ideas related to attitude.
Reading the verse, how many of us can actually say, with honesty, we have a similar attitude as our Lord? Unfortunately, I feel confident the percentage is not very high. If we did, I am sure the world would be a lot better place to live in. I hope you will agree with me in believing God isn’t happy with the world He created. Simply take a look at the conflicts in the world and this will prove what I mean. Why can’t we?
The ancient Israelites had this problem as they were stubborn and too often their attitudes were better than God’s. They probably thought why should He cares but He did. Eventually, after what I believe was too long a time, they got their act together and turned to God in knowing what was best. The opposite occurred with Solomon.
He did everything right in the Lord’s eyes in following his father David as king. However, 1 Kings 11 showed a different leader. Verse 4 notes “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God.” Several verses later, the Lord informed Solomon of his attitude, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees,. . . I will most certainly tear the kingdom way from you. . .”
Prayer: Lord, we ask for forgiveness with our attitude at times and to make it pleasing in Your eyes as well as who else is involved within a given situation. Amen
Jeff Spang