Attitude!

ATTITUDE

[at-i-tood, -tyood]

“Manner, feeling, disposition, position, etc., with regard to a person or thing;             tendency or orientation, especially of the mind: a negative attitude, group attitudes.” (Dictionary.com)

I found myself praying on this last Friday afternoon that God would give me a new ATTITUDE.  Piper and I had been working through the effects of another new medicine and sleep had been an on and off again thing for the last week.  Needless to say, I was a bit on the tired side and was beginning to lose some patience with not yet seeing the desired results and increased weakness (at times) in her.  As Piper and I were coming into the kitchen on that day, I knew that I did not want to channel any frustration toward my lovely wife and neither did I care for myself when I am anything less than positive and encouraging around her.  That’s when I stopped mid-stride and asked the Lord for some help with a different ATTITUDE in the responsibility I took a solemn oath and signed on to do almost forty years ago!  When I said “I do,” I did then and still purpose to do today!

On Friday I realized that in order to continue doing well in the good times and the bad, I would require a refreshing in the ATTITUDE department.  So I began to pray about it and then on Saturday morning I hit the books to see what God’s infallible word had to say about ATTITUDES.  I knew that I would most likely need to study from a modern translation because I was pretty sure that the King James and many of the traditional translations did not use that word a lot.  And I was right as the KJV doesn’t have one single use of the word ATTITUDE.

So I defaulted to my favorite God’s Word © translation knowing that I had seen that word employed within its pages.  I did a quick search of the word ATTITUDE and the very first of the 23 hits was found in the Old Testament in Numbers 14:24.  Here we find the situation after 10 of the 12 spies that Moses sent to scout out the land that was promised to them by God gave a negative report sighting that “All the people that we saw there are very tall... We felt as small as grasshoppers, and that is how we must have looked to them.” (Numbers 13:33-34 God’s Word ©)

Well as you probably remember, God was not real happy with their fearful and doubting response and threatened to wipe out all the Children of Israel due no doubt, to His frustration after all He had miraculously done for them after being held captive in Egypt for some 300 years!.  But Moses interceded for the people and asked the Father to give them a second chance.  So God relented and declared that He wouldn’t kill them but stipulated that these folks were not going to enter the Promised Land when that opportunity came up again.

But for the two holdouts who professed a positive report with Caleb as the spokesman excitedly exclaiming “Let’s go now and take possession of the land.  We should be more than able to conquer it,” God had another plan!  In chapter fourteen He tells Moses: “But because my servant Caleb has a different ATTITUDE and has wholeheartedly followed me, I’ll bring him to the land he has already explored.  His descendants will possess it.” (Numbers 14:24 God’s Word ©)

Fear, doubt and unbelief in the integrity of God’s Word caused the vast majority of the people to lose what they had struggled for so long to attain.  The “Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge” explains that “Caleb had another spirit (or a different attitude from the rest of the people), not only a bold, generous, courageous, noble, and heroic spirit, but the Spirit and influence of God, which thus raised him above human inquietudes and earthly fears.  Therefore he followed God fully; literally…”

You know… that’s exactly the kind of ATTITUDE that I desire… no… that I NEED in order to be raised above the restlessness, uneasiness and disquieting thoughts that attack me when I am tired and sore and see my wife having a rough time of it.  When the symptoms are in opposition to the truth of God’s Word, I NEED Caleb’s ATTITUDE to say that in God’s power and strength, I am more than able to conquer this need. 

For like God would later tell Joshua as he led the Children of Israel to the very gates of the Promised Land at Jericho some forty years later, that “No one (or no-thing, or no symptom that is contrary to My Word) will be able to oppose you successfully as long as you live.  I will be with you as I was with Moses.  I will never neglect you or abandon you.” (Joshua 1:5 God’s Word ©)

What do you think?  Is that the kind of ATTITUDE that you possess or wish that you could possess?  Well, it is yours for the taking!  I heard the President of our Bible College say on Sunday that “The ATTITUDE you display is determined by what you’ve been feeding on.”  What have you been feeding on?  My Bible tells me that “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17 KJV) 

So… check yourself out today.  Do you have the ATTITUDE of Caleb, or are you being persuaded by what you see and feel around you that is contrary to the faith giving Word of God?  I’ve intermingled with folks on both sides of that question and believe me, I like the Caleb side the best!  Have a great week.  Stay in tune to God’s Word and keep asking yourself… “What or Who’s ATTITUDE am I expecting to have today?”