Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude
A person with everything going for them can fail miserably. Conversely, a person with nothing going for them can be a veritable Slum-dog Millionaire. What is the difference? Typically, it comes down to attitude. Your attitude will determine your altitude.
Is your attitude like Bad Luck Schleprock, the cartoon character from Bedrock who hung out with the teen-aged Pebbles and Bamm Bamm?
Schleprock walked around with a grey cloud over his head… pouring rain on him even on otherwise clear and sunny days. When Schleprock appeared on the scene… things tended to go wrong.
And do you remember Scheprock’s motto? He frequently was known to say:
“Oh wowsie wowsie woo woo. Miserable day, isn’t it?”
If that describes you… then perhaps you need to consider changing to a better attitude. Try taking on the words of the Psalmist as your life’s motto:
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24 [ESV]
I was inspired by the words of Beth Allen:
With the right attitude human beings can move mountains. With the wrong attitude they can be crushed by the smallest of grains.
Adjust your attitude… and God will adjust your altitude.
JOY!!!
by Judy Ann
Joy.
It’s not a warm, happy feeling you’re supposed to have now and then when things are going well. It’s much more than that. Joy is one of the most powerful spiritual forces in the world.
Look again at Nehemiah 8:10 and you’ll understand why. If you were to diagram that scripture and remove the phrase, “of the Lord,” you would find what it’s truly saying is this: Joy is strength. The two are interchangeable.
That’s what makes joy so crucial. You can’t live a life of faith without being strong in the Lord–and when God wants to make you strong, joy is what He uses to do the job!
Joy is not just a state of mind. It is not a fleeting emotion. Joy is a very real force, and the devil doesn’t have anything that can stand up against it. Just as fear has to yield to faith, discouragement has to yield to joy.
Since joy is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, you already have it residing within you. But you must develop it, confess it, and live by it if you want to enjoy its power.
Whatever circumstances you are facing today, you can be full of joy. You can be strong in the Lord. You can draw on the supply of the Holy Spirit within you and come out on top.
Rejoice!
I’m blazing with glory, God’s glory!
I smash the bands of marauders,
I vault the highest fences.30 What a God! His road
stretches straight and smooth.
Every God-direction is road-tested.
Everyone who runs toward him
Makes it.31-42 Is there any god like God?
Are we not at bedrock?
Is not this the God who armed me,
then aimed me in the right direction?
Now I run like a deer;
I’m king of the mountain.
He shows me how to fight;
I can bend a bronze bow!
You protect me with salvation-armor;
you hold me up with a firm hand,
caress me with your gentle ways.
You cleared the ground under me
so my footing was firm.
When I chased my enemies I caught them;
I didn’t let go till they were dead men.
I nailed them; they were down for good;
then I walked all over them.
You armed me well for this fight,
you smashed the upstarts.
You made my enemies turn tail,
and I wiped out the haters.
They cried “uncle”
but Uncle didn’t come;
They yelled for God
and got no for an answer.
I ground them to dust; they gusted in the wind.
I threw them out, like garbage in the gutter.
you made me a leader of nations.
People I’d never heard of served me;
the moment they got wind of me they listened.
The foreign devils gave up; they came
on their bellies, crawling from their hideouts.
Psalm 18:28-50 [MSG]
Then [Ezra] told them, Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet drink, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. And be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold.
Nehemiah 8:10 [AMP]
A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
Proverbs 17:22 [AMP]
Spiritually Minded
by Judy Ann
It is possible to renew the mind to the Word of God.
You can replace carnal thoughts of worry, fear, self-pity, and other self-defeating thoughts with peace.
You can keep your mind filled with self-doubt, self-rejection and become self-absorbed — or you can become spiritually minded and change your self-image replacing negative thoughts with God’s thoughts toward you.
Choose to be God-inside-minded.
Heavenly Father, I bind my mind to the mind of Christ, my will to the will of God and my emotions to the control of the Holy Spirit.
I choose to walk according to the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, setting my mind on the things of the Spirit.
To be spiritually minded is life and peace. I count myself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Amen.
1-2With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. 3-4God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
5-8Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
Romans 8:1-8 [MSG]
Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.
Romans 6:6-11 [MSG]
Attitude Adjustment
as shared by Joyce Meyer
If you feel a little grumpy because you had a hard time sleeping… think of the homeless family that doesn’t have a bed to sleep in.
If you find yourself stuck in traffic… think of those people who have never owned an automobile.
The next time you are sick of your job… think of the man who has been out of work for three months.
If you don’t like the direction that your relationship is going in… think of the person who has never experienced or known what it is like to love or be loved.
If you would like more time off from work… think of the woman in a third-world country who does demeaning work, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for just $10 a week to feed her entire family.
Should your automobile break down and you have to walk a mile for help… think of the paraplegic who would love to be able to take that walk.
If you notice a new grey hair in the mirror… think of the woman on chemotherapy who wishes she had hair to examine.
If you don’t know for sure what your life’s calling is… be thankful, because some people did not live long enough to think about their life.
If you are victim of a person’s bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities… things could be worse: you could be that person.
Attitude Check
by Brotha DC
As a young Air Force officer, I was happy to find a body of fellow believers on our military installation. Being far from home, in a foreign nation… it was comforting to know that there were men and women who were my prayer partners. Even more, a special little tradition that they practiced.
When one believer saw another, they would yell out:
Attitude check!
The requisite response was…
PRAISE THE LORD!
On one occasion, I was in a rotten mood. The enemy had engineered some rotten events in my life, and I was not handling them according to the Word of God. Rather than rejoice in the goodness of Jesus, I wanted to go on a rampage in response to what satan had set up.
I thought I felt like turning green, busting out of my uniform, and running around yelling “Hulk SMASH! It’s clobberin’ time!”
I felt like I needed to curse or something.
At that moment… I heard these voices behind me yelling…
Attitude check!
Oh, how I wanted to tell them to have a big steaming cup of SHUT THE HECK UP!
Fortunately, the Holy Spirit in me chastened me to repent and change my mindset. The words stuck in my throat like a clogged pipe… but I managed to force out a grudging
Praise the LORD…
Over the years, I smile at the memory of people popping up when I least expected it… giving an ad hoc attitude check. I actually miss that, wishing my brothers and sisters in Christ would give me an attitude check. But in all reality, I understand that the Lord wants me to perform self-service.
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
2 Timothy 1:6-7 [ESV]
If the embers of the gift of God are cooling… fan them into a full blaze. Stir up the gift that is in you… and use it to not only keep your attitude up, but to encourage your brothers and sisters to keep their attitudes in check. For, as great men and women have said… your attitude will decide your altitude.
Moving Forward
by Judy Ann
Father, I submit to the ministry of transformation by the Holy Spirit realizing that I am moving forward. I trust you to complete the work you have begun in me in the name of Jesus, and I will not worry about what others say about me. Whatever you have planned for me to do, may I do it all for your glory! Amen!
Let no person deceive himself. If anyone among you supposes that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool [let him discard his worldly discernment and recognize himself as dull, stupid, and foolish, without true learning and scholarship], that he may become [really] wise.
1 Corinthians 3:18 [AMP]
And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.
Philippians 1:6 [AMP]
So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you’re eating to God’s glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God’s glory. At the same time, don’t be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on the toes of those who aren’t as free as you are. I try my best to be considerate of everyone’s feelings in all these matters; I hope you will be, too.
1 Corinthians 10:31-33 [MSG]
Father, it is no longer I that lives, but Christ Lives in me. I rely on Your ability, and choose to specialize in the impossible. You are guiding me and filling me with courage. I let go of yesterday, I let go of regret, I relinquish all resentments and I give you my pain. I relish in this present quiet moment — I wait upon You acknowledging that You are God. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
Galatians 2:19-21 [MSG]
I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.
Philippians 3:12-14 [AMP]
Want to go Deeper?
Free Powerhouse Audio Teaching
Perhaps you are interested in allowing the Holy Spirit to take you deeper into the adjustment of your attitude. One resource that may be helpful is our long-form audio teaching Attitude of Gratitude, which is available for on-line listening… free of charge.
For immediate access to this material, click here and enjoy!
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