What's up with the attitude?

Yesterday I was reading in the book of Job and it reminded me of how self-destructive my bad attitude can be. Every time I see someone with a bad attitude on reality TV, on the news or in a restaurant I don't like what I see. A bad attitude is ugly, rude and ungrateful. When I work with kids I don't respond well to a bad attitude, so why do I think God is okay with my bad attitude? It's easy to make up excuses and pretend like it's okay to have an attitude because I have a bad day, because I'm stressed or because someone offended me. Still, I'm aware that my own attitude is my own responsibility. When kids are rude to their parents everyone suffers. The parents get tired and irritated and the kids will loose some privileges for that day as a result of their actions. I'm thinking that it's a bit the same with us and God. I know God loves me and wants to bless my life but he can't respond with blessing when my attitude is negative, ungrateful and discontent. I am in control of my own thoughts and the words I choose to let out of my mouth. My words can either be words of complaint or words that praise God.


Job is a man in the Bible who had all the reasons to complain about his life. Job was suffering and facing tremendous pain and darkness in his life, but instead of crying out to God for help in humility he chose to complain and accuse God. Job's friends tried to give him some advice but none of them spoke wisdom into Job's life. In the end a man much younger than Job was courageous enough to speak up and he spoke wisdom and truth into Job's life. The young man's name was Elihu. Elihu wasn't afraid to point out that instead of praising God and choosing to revere him Job was complaining, being self-righteous, focusing on his own glory and what other people thought of him. Job was also showing that he didn't trust God and even took it as far as to accuse God of being wrong and unjust. My conclusion from reading through chapters 29-42 in the book of Job is that God takes a bad attitude very seriously. Here's a few of the words that the young man Elihu spoke to Job:


"Far be it from God to do evil,
from the Almighty to do wrong.
He repays everyone for what they have done;
he brings on them what their conduct deserves."
Job 34:10-11

"Is he not the One who says to kings, 'You are worthless,'
and to nobles, 'You are wicked,' who shows no partiality
to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor,
for they are all the work of his hands?"
Job 34:18-19

"God is mighty, but despises no one;
he is mighty, and firm in his purpose."
Job 36:5

"But if people are bound in chains,
held fast by cords of affliction,
he tells them what they have done-
that they have sinned arrogantly.
He makes them listen to correction
and commands them to repent of 
their evil.
If they obey and serve him,
they will spend the rest of their days
in prosperity
and their years in contentment."
Job 36:8-11

"The Almighty is beyond our reach and
exalted in power;
in his justice and great righteousness,
he does not oppress.
Therefore, people revere him,
for does he not have regard for all the
wise in heart?"
Job 37:23-24


The book of Job ends with God speaking to Job out of the storm. Job listens and repents from his sins, he realizes that he has been self-righteous, complaining and falsely accusing God. After Job prays for his friends God restores his fortunes and gives him twice as much as he had before. God then blesses the later part of Job's life even more than he blessed the earlier part of his life. Reading the book of Job reminds me to be intentional about checking my own attitude every week. It's so easy for me to slip into a bad attitude when I'm tired, stressed or having a bad day. It helps when I remember that God is always present, he sees everything I do and my life can either be honoring to God or dishonoring to God. Adjusting my attitude is my responsibility. I don't respond well when other people are ungrateful, complain and accuse me, neither will God respond well to me treating him that way. Every new day I have the power to choose to express gratitude, joy and praise to God, instead of spewing out complaints and negativity.


It's astonishing what a huge difference a change of attitude can make in my life. I had a moment two weeks ago when I received some bad news, instead of complaining about it I decided to thank God for how great he is. I prayed for God to intervene in my circumstances and decided to restrain myself from spiraling down the path of negativity and worry. A few days later I received some great news and was happy to see that my new approach had made a difference. God watches every move I make, who am I to complain when everything good in my life comes from him? He is my provider of all good things and I will choose to praise him always!

When your worst enemy is yourself

Sometimes we pray to God asking him to deliver us from something that is in the world, like a disease for example. Other times we need to ask God to save us from ourselves. Sometimes we aren't miserable because of what has happened to us, we are miserable because we are stuck inside of ourselves. There is no more miserable place to be than to be stuck inside yourself, inside your own selfishness and negative attitude.


Pastor Steven Furtick from Elevation Church talks about how gratitude is what we need to find a way out of the misery. Once we get to the place where we stop complaining about what God has given us and start doing what God has called us to do we will no longer be miserable. God can use everything that comes our way to work together for good, even the messes that we have gotten ourselves into. God has a purpose and provision for each one of us but if we allow ourselves to get stuck in the now, complaining about our current situation and becoming angry and bitter, we might never make it to where God wants to lead us. A purpose-filled life isn't going to be easy nor comfortable, but if we keep an attitude of gratitude and keep moving forward nothing can stop us from fulfilling our destiny.


The people from history who we still celebrate and remember today are not the people who felt they had a right to sit around and complain and point their finger at all the problems in the world. These are the people who stopped complaining and got up and decided to do something about the problems. They didn't let anything stop them. They kept moving forward because a safe and comfortable life was never their goal. These people were more interested in making an impact than they were in living comfortably in the here and now.


God has big plans for our lives, but each one of us get to choose if we will stay put "sitting under the plant" like Jonah, or if we will get up and go do something that matters. This sermon really hit home for me personally. I definitely feel like the ungrateful hitchhiker in Steven's example sometimes. I come to God with all these demands of what I want my future to look like, rather than to just trust God's plan for me and keep a grateful attitude. I'm so glad life usually doesn't end at 30, but that we get to live for about 100 years, because I still have sooo many things to learn about life.

Killing Comparison

Today, more than ever, being content in life can be really difficult. Social media has given us many great benefits but one of the negative side effects of social media is that we compare ourselves with others more than ever before. It's hard to feel content when you are constantly comparing your real life with pictures of people's highly edited lives online. What can we do to kill the comparison in our lives and recover contentment so that we will feel more satisfied with our lives? Craig Groeschel offers us three great tips:

1.) We can kill the temptation to be envious of others by taking a break from social media or by avoiding certain accounts that we know tend to trigger our envy.

2.) We can choose to celebrate the blessings in other people's lives. We can choose to celebrate with those who celebrate, rather than to envy what they have. We control our own emotions, our emotions don't control us (unless we let them).

3.) We can cultivate gratitude. The more we learn to thank God for what he has already given us in life the more our envy and discontentment in life will fade away. The definition of envy that Craig mentions is powerful: "Envy is resenting God's goodness in other people's lives, and ignoring his goodness in your own."

Yahweh

I grew up with my only experience of church being the Lutheran church in Finland. Church meant you would sit on hard wooden benches, listen to a sermon I didn't understand and stand up and sing hymns every now and then. Church was boring and it really didn't make any sense to me.


After I had become a Christian at 23 years old I started to go to church every now and then, at first mostly online and eventually I started to look for a church to join. As I was visiting many different churches there were many things that annoyed me: "Why do we have to sing so many songs in a row at this church?", "Why do some people lift their hands towards the sky in this church, that's so weird!", "This pastor is too boring, I liked the other one better."


A few years later I can look back at those days and laugh at how much negativity and criticism I came to church with in the beginning. Today I know that I don't go to church to be entertained, I go there to hear from God and to fellowship with other believers. I don't look for faults in every sermon and pastor, I listen and let God speak to me in my heart through the Holy Spirit. I'm no longer uncomfortable with some people lifting their hands or others clapping, I have realized that what we don't understand we often consider weird.


Church on Sundays is one of my favorite times during the week nowadays. When I sing worship songs to God I feel a deep sense of gratitude in my heart for everything God has done for me and I often feel overwhelmed by how good He is to me. I easily get tears in my eyes as I think back at all the things God has brought me through and how he has made a way where there was no way. "Nothing is impossible with God" is not something I have just heard people say, I have seen it become true in my own life. Having lived through experiences like that is what makes people want to clap their hands and raise their hands in church, it's an expression of deep gratitude and awe of what God can do for those who love him.

How to become more grateful in life

During the weekend we were celebrating Thanksgiving here in Canada. I find it really easy to be grateful this time of year. I'm grateful to get to spend time with all our wonderful family members, I'm grateful to have a warm home as the weather starts to get colder outside and I'm grateful for all the tasty Thanksgiving food we were able to enjoy.


The question is how do you keep an attitude of gratitude on days when things aren't looking so positive? It's so easy to become one of those people who love to criticise and constantly complain about everything. In this sermon pastor Craig Groeschel teaches us how to develop a heart of gratitude.

Gratitude is the best medicine

It's very hard to make decisions based on love if your heart has become hard and full of bitterness. The lack of gratitude hardens a heart, so the best medicine for getting cured from bitterness and discontentment is gratitude. When we thank God for something and choose to put our trust in him it softens our hearts so that we are open to love again.

Changes in life can be incredibly painful, often even more painful if we fight against it. On the other hand change also has the ability to open us up, to open life up, and to get us to where we needed to be. When life is great, say thank you and celebrate! When life is bitter, say thank you and grow.