Spiritual Growth - VB

The Importance Of A Positive Attitude – Part Two

For spiritual growth to continue, however, requires maintaining a positive attitude. Having noted in the previous lessons the need for a positive attitude in and towards our spiritual growth let's consider a few thoughts about maintaining a positive mental attitude. Choose to be positive! We can control our attitudes, our moods. We may not be able to control or change our circumstances, but we can control how we react to them. For example, we can choose to rejoice when times are hard as James commanded - Ja 1:2 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,” And as we understand the value of difficult times - Ja 1:3-4 “for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” ; Ro 5:3-4 “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,” When we know that hope and prayer can help us to rejoice - Ro 12:12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” -- With a proper understanding, we can maintain a positive attitude despite our external circumstances - 2 Co 4:16-5:1 “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”; Ph 2:17-18 “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”

How do we control and maintain a positive attitude? By avoiding negative self-talk and looking for the positive. Such as "I can't do it..." to "I can do it...". Such as "It's too hard..." to "It's easy with God’s help...". By constantly reminding yourself of such things as:
You can do what God wants you to do (i.e., grow) - Ph 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”; 2:12-13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
The more effort you make, the more results you will see - Ga 6:7-9 “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”; 1 Ti 4:15 “Practice these things, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress.”
Your labor will not be in vain - 1 Co 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

We can control and maintain a positive attitude by avoiding negative people. Choose your friends carefully - 1 Co 15:33 “Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals."’ Stay away from "toxic" people (whose negativity poisons other people's attitudes by feeding their negativity to others). Otherwise you will join what Rick Pitino calls "The Fellowship Of The Miserable" and the killers of the dream. By surrounding yourself with positive people; people who will encourage you to do what is right - He 10:24 “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”; people who refresh your spirit, not discourage it - 1 Co 16:17-18 “I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such men.”; Phe 4-7 “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.” Become an encourager, by noting such people like Barnabas, "Son of Encouragement" - Ac 4:36 “Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus,”; 11:22-24 “The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.” When we become the encourager even though our emotions or our brain may tell us that our positive statements of encouragement to others is a lie, the more our brain hears what we say to others, the more it accepts the statements as being true. – So with the right self-talk and the right companionships, we can avoid becoming hardened by the sin of negativity - He 3:13 “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

We can control and maintain a positive attitude by living in the present, not the past. If anyone could have bemoaned his sinful past, it was Paul - 1 Ti 1:12-15 “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” Yet he chose not to dwell on past mistakes (or even past successes), but to press on in the future - Ph 3:12-14 “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Live in the present, with an eye to the future. This is what Paul did, reaching forward to the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus - Ph 3:12-14. It was the future glory that enabled him to endure the present trial - 2 Co 4:17-18 “For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” -- This mature attitude (Ph 3:15 “Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.”) is what helped Paul to maintain a positive attitude even in the most difficult of times - 2 Ti 4:18 “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

We have every reason to have a positive attitude about our spiritual growth.... God is ready to help us grow - Ph 2:12-13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” He provided tools to help us grow (the Word, prayer, etc.) - 1 Pe 2:2 “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation”; Ph 4:6-7 “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” He designed the church to provide an environment conducive to growth - Ep 4:16 “from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Our labors will not be in vain, nor go unnoticed - He 6:10 “For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.” Even when we fall, He provides forgiveness - 1 Jn 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

The challenge we face is not allowing our positive attitude to be destroyed through negative self-talk, through negative people or through trying circumstances. The choice is ours.... We can choose to be positive through faith in God. We can block out negativity that surrounds us. We can live in the present (instead of the past), with an eye on the future. Will we make the right choice? Have you made to choice to follow God?
"And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." - Josh 24:15