Keeping a Right Attitude

Attitude: A mental position; the feeling one has for oneself.

Our attitude is half the battle; the way we think and/or feel about a situation will either keep us in it or get us out of it. We tend to think we are running the show, but the truth of the matter is, the only thing we are running is our mouth. We are not our own. We were bought with a price and that price was the precious blood of the Lamb (Jesus, of course!). When we make a purchase, the item becomes ours, right? So it makes sense that when Jesus made His purchase, we became His.

When He allows things to happen TO us, it always seems as if it's at an inconvenient time FOR us. As a result, our mental position of that thing becomes out of order and we get upset with the Lord because it was not OUR plan. What we don't want is to become a Jonah. The Lord told Jonah to go to Nineveh (Jonah 1:2) and to cry against it -- in other words, to tell the people to repent of their wickedness. Jonah did not have the right attitude; he decided to get on a ship going to Tarshish; a trip to Nineveh wasn't on his agenda for that day, so he went another way.

Of course, the Lord knows just how to get our attitude right - you might remember how He prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah up (Jonah 1:17). Jonah quickly got the message and his attitude right and prayed unto the Lord his God (Jonah 2:1-2) out of the belly of hell. The Lord heard Jonah and spake until the fish and it vomited him out on dry land (Jonah 2:10). Jonah got his mental position -- his attitude -- right. The Word tells us that Nineveh was a three-day journey, but Jonah made the trip in just one day!

Let's get our attitude right toward the Lord because He knows just how to get us in check! Remember, our wrong attitude about things didn't mean anything yesterday; it doesn't mean anything today and won't mean anything tomorrow either. let's get in agreement and respect our Saviour.

with all that's said let the Church say Amen and...Amen!

Too Relaxed?

Relaxed: not strict; easy; informal

We've become too relaxed; we're in a microwave generation where we want thing to show up right now. For example, if we're sick, we want to be healed right now. Out of work? We want a new job right now. Car broke? We want it fixed right now. When praying, we want answers RIGHT NOW. But there are no shortcuts and no bypassing with God - we must learn to slow down and prevail in prayer and learn to conquer this unrestful nature on that's on the inside of us.

1) If we don't learn how to slow down and stay on our faces continually before the Lord and allow him to work on us, we might become like Solomon. He became too relaxed; which allowed his wives to turn his head from following the Lord. I Kings 11:4 tells us, "For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that this wived turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God..."

2) We can't have such an informal spirit that we become lazy like David. II Samuel 11:1 says, "And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when the kings go forth to battle that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem." He became so relaxed that he did not go off to battle with the other kings. Instead, he stayed home and saw Bathsheba washing herself, he took her and later had her husband killed.

Let's not allow the spirit of relaxation to come upon us. Instead, we must remember to prevail in prayer, to conquer our unrestful nature, and simply trust in God. When in doubt, remember Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

Singing Soldier

Singing: To use the voice to make musical tones; a form of praising.
Soldier: A skilled warrior; to push forward.

There are circumstances and situations that are going to come that were preordained and tailor made just for you and me. Now in our journey we must walk through them to see whats on the inside of us and how much we really trust God. We must be singing soldiers because one day there will be a battle (i.e. circumstance or situation) that we are not going to want to fight.

We have to remember that these battles were preordained, so we must have the attitude that Paul and Silas had when they were locked up in jail (Acts 16:25) -- they understood and recognized what the will of God was for them and that He had already pre-purposed the situation. The scripture tells us at midnight that Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and He delivered them - just as He will deliver us when we become singing soldiers.

Ephesians 5:17 - "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." The Lord wants us to understand that He's the head of all things - the author AND the finisher.

Never forget that we are singing soldiers - when circumstances arise, we must start speaking to ourselves in psalms and spiritual songs - singing and making melodies in our hearts to the Lord (Ephesians 5:19). This doesn't mean that we are going to be perfect all of the time - but we are soldiers - we get up and we push forward.

Psalms 96:1 tells us to sing unto the Lord a new song - NOT a song of murmuring and complaining. A new song - something like, "Lord you are too Holy, too just, too righteous to allow anything to cross my path that's not for my good and your glory."

My friends, keep trusting, believing and being a singing soldier and you will see that He will show up for you!

We Need a Plan

Plan: Method for achieving something; to have in mind as an intention or purpose
Works: The action or labor required to accomplish something

Jesus has the Master Plan; His works and plans were finished before the foundation of the world. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, "For I know the thoughts <plans> that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jesus has a plan for us - now it's up to us to have one as well.

If you were building a house, you would have a blueprint, right? Every day you would go over your plans so you would know where the walls were supposed to go, where the closets should be and where those all important bathrooms would be. How much more do we need a spiritual plan?

God's works and plans are already within us, we just need to pull them out. We can do that by:

1) Planning to make Jesus first in our lives by seeking Him early each day. Isaiah tells us to seek Him early while he may be found and call upon him while He is yet near.

2) Planning to spend time in His Word every day because His Word is our blueprint; our roadmap. If we don't faithfully refer to our blueprint, how will we know what the Lord's expectations of us are? How will we know how He wants us to live our lives? How will we know where to put our walls up to successfully shut out the enemy? We need our roadmap to teach us how to love and show love; how to be thankful and grateful and how to forgive. Simply put - His Word shows us how to get back to Him.

3) As we are told in I Thessalonians 5:17, we must plan to "pray without ceasing." Prayer is our communication with the Lord - would we go months without communicating with our best friends or spouses? No, we're typically communicating with them as often as we can - whether they want to hear from us or not! The Lord actually wants to hear from us, so we need to take every opportunity we have to speak with Him.

Our works are to believe in Him, as His works were to believe in the Father that sent Him. As the scriptures tell us - He did nothing without the Father - and we are to do nothing without Him. 

When our spiritual plans are in place, our natural plans will be added unto us.