Attitude - Episode 1
Today, I want to spend a few moments encouraging you as you begin your week. Regardless of the situation you may be in, good or not so good, I believe how we approach each day is important for every one of us. What do we mean? I want to spend a few moments and talk about attitudes. It’s been said that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we respond to those situations that come into our lives. I think that’s true. Attitude is important. And it’s a mindset. But it is something that can be changed. In fact, maybe some of us watching this video are struggling with our attitude. We’re negative about, could be work, a relationship, some other situation in our lives. And these negative attitudes filter down, they affect us in how we handle things at work, in relationships, and life in general. And often our attitude is negative because we’re focused on ourselves to the point that even if God is trying to break through to us, to help us change our thinking, or someone in our life is trying to help us to think about how we’re acting, we don’t listen. Because, well, we’ve chosen at this point to have a bad attitude. And so I want to just share a couple of things with you taken from the book of Philippians chapter 2 about how we can reverse a negative attitude. Let me read just a few verses, and then we can discuss them.
Paul writes, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. But in humility, count others more significant than ourselves. Let each of you look not only for his own interest, but also to the interest of others.” And then he says in verse five, “Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. “ And then he goes on later to say about Christ that He took on human form and He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. That He took on the form of a servant.
And I think that the two things that I just want to share briefly can help us begin to change our negative attitudes. So first is this: Turn outward. What do we mean? Well, Paul writes that to the people there at the church of Philippi, consider others as more significant that themselves. He’s not saying that they should not care about themselves, but what he’s doing is encouraging them to get outside of themselves and begin to look around at other people, the things going on in their lives and to turn outward, to maybe change thinking about just themselves and begin to think about other people and what maybe what they can do, if they have a negative attitude, to maybe invest in the lives of other people.
You see, when we have that negative attitude, as we have already noted, we can be very much self-focused and self-centered, we can be selfish and sometimes even arrogant. Paul mentions that. And that is one of the ways we will cover up a bad attitude. Let’s be honest. We develop a bad attitude for many reasons. We might feel cheated at work, or in another situation we feel unappreciated. Soon, we’re grumbling and we’re complaining. So Paul says instead of thinking just about ourselves, turn outward. Look for those opportunities to find out what’s going on in other people’s lives.
And then the second thing is, once we do that, once we turn outward, look for opportunities to serve others. The word “mind” that Paul uses in verse five can also be translated as “attitude”. So, he says let this attitude be in you that was also in Christ. And what was that attitude? It was the attitude of being a servant. If you look at the life of Jesus, that’s what He did. He fed thousands, He healed people, He taught Biblical truth. In other words, when Christ came to earth, His mindset was, “I am here to serve.” In fact, He stated that Himself.
So I want to encourage us today if we’re struggling with a negative attitude to step back and evaluate why we’re having that attitude, and then begin to turn outward, look at other people’s lives, see what’s going on with other people. Maybe there’s other people struggling and they just need someone to come alongside them and encourage them. So, focus on doing that, and look for an opportunity to serve people. Well, this is Scott Reeve Pastor of Oakridge Community Church. Next week we’ll share some other thoughts on living Biblical. Talk to you then, have a great day.