~ Step 3: Evolve Your Attitude ~
NOTE: This Discipleship Model is a special 7-part
series showing a clear path to spiritual victory. One step will be posted each
day for a calendar week. After completion of this series Abundant Life Now will
“resume regular programming.”
Attitudes have a
lot to do with what life is all about. “Your attitude should be the same as
that of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 2:5). But how do you transform your
attitude? First you must understand what an attitude is.
In simple terms
your attitude is a habitual pattern of thinking. For example, when you hear
words or phrases you have automatic thoughts. What are your automatic responses
when you hear the following: taxes, Congress, Post Office, God, Green Bay
Packers, Dallas Cowboys, Chevrolet, love, mother, the IRS? Your thought
response is a large part of your attitude toward each of those words.
Your attitude is
formed by repeatedly thinking the same way about something. Those words in the
list to which you had no strong responses are ones for which you have not
formed strong opinions (attitudes).
Attitudes are insidious. We think a
particular way once. The next time it easy to think the way we did the last
time on a particular issue. That is why it is critical to constantly test the
correctness of our thinking.
To change your
attitude you must change your pattern of thought with regard to the particular
issue. There are a number of ways you can do this. One is with an affirmation
(affirmative statement), or what I like to call the use of replacement.
Replacement ~ Imagine a glass which is half-full of milk
and is glued to a surface. Your task is to fill the glass with pure water. One
way of accomplishing that is to pour a pitcher of pure water into the glass. As
the glass fills it becomes half water and half milk. As you continue to pour, the
water replaces more and more of the milk until eventually the glass contents
are as pure as the water in the pitcher. You have replaced the milk with water. It was a conscious effort on your
part! It took some work—but it worked! The same principle works in our thought
lives.
Suppose you have a negative attitude
toward the Post Office. But then you read the following newspaper story about a
young boy who wrote to God. Since the local post office didn't know quite what
to do with the letter addressed to the Almighty, they decided to open it.
“Dear God, My name is Jimmie, I am
eight years old. I don't got no parents, and my sister is real sick. I need
$500 real bad!” The guys in the post office were moved, and they took up a collection. They sent Jimmie $300 in
cash. Later there was a second letter in the dead-letter file from Jimmie: “Dear
God, The Post Office ripped off $200 of your dollars!”
Would your attitude toward the Post
Office change a little?
Habituation ~ A
traumatic event may change an attitude almost instantly, however most of the
time are attitudes are formed by habituation. An example of habituation is the
gradual dulling of our sense of outrage resulting in a slow acceptance of society's
degenerating moral standards. A common example is those who were once shocked
at reports of marital infidelity, divorce, and premarital sex who now regard
these practices as inevitable, especially among young people.
The route to effective discipleship
is to “be made new in the attitude of your minds” (Ephesians 4:23).
Our
Pattern ~ “Therefore,
since Christ suffered in His body, arm
yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his
body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly
life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1-2, emphasis added). “Your attitude should be the same as that
of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 2:5, emphasis
added). “We
[disciples] take captive every thought
to make it obedient to Christ” (Corinthians 10:5b, emphasis added).
Step 1: Paradox
~ Understand your partnership
with God.
Step 2: Thinking
~ Choose to control your
thoughts!
Step 3: Attitude
~ Increasingly rely on properly
cultivated attitudes.
The next step will focus on your reasons for your actions.
~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW
