Attitude has such a vital expression, not only with how you serve, but also with how you believe. I like the definition of attitude: A manner or feeling with regard to a person or thing.
Another definition: A position of the body.
As we make the adjustment of our attitude, it’s important to understand that in order to change (which is a requirement according to 2 Corinthians 5:17) you need D.I.C.: Direction, Instruction, and Correction. The biggest problem with all three of these categories and your ability to receive from them is your attitude. Attitude sifts life, sifts instruction, sifts direction, and it sifts correction, which are all based on what it believes. (Belief produces your attitude and your attitude produces your behavior.) Do you need to tweak your belief? Yes!
Tweaking is growth and growth is change. If you’re not changing, you’re not growing. And if you’re not growing, you’re dying. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child and acted like a child.” There was a different level of living. When I became a man, something changed. It’s a process called “growth.” When you were a baby, all you said was “Goo-goo, gaga!” It was cute then, but when you’re 20 years-old, and you’re still doing that, it’s annoying! Can you imagine a 20 year-old trying to have a conversation like that? People will run away from you!
You have to understand that in order to grow you have to change.
Life requires growth in order for it to operate properly. But the biggest hinderance to growth is a bad attitude! Somewhere in life, you picked up an attitude and your attitude remained there as everything else grew: your body, relationships and your responsibilities. But you’re attitude remained stagnant. So you came into life, into responsibility, relationships and ministry with a stagnant attitude sifting everything while you’re supposed to be growing. It has retreated back to a comfort zone. It has now restrained your ability to fulfill the will of God, because everything about God is growth.
The children of Israel died in the wilderness and didn’t make it to the Promised Land because they refused to grow. They kept their old attitude…an attitude still in Egypt. Whenever something went wrong, they brought Egypt back up. They couldn’t change because they were stuck in Egypt.
You have to change your attitude. And that’s the easiest part!
Our attitude is shrinking the size of God’s potential in our lives, because we’re sifting all of our understanding through a limited level of knowledge. That’s what a bad attitude does!
Attitude is important and unless it’s willing to change it’s going to stagnate growth, and not produce it. Life is all about tweaking. As your attitude begins to mature, everything begins to change: words, actions, belief system, etc. When you’re 20 years-old you can no longer sift with the same attitude that you had when you were 12. You cannot go through life still speaking “goo-goo, gaga!” People will avoid you.
Read Romans 12:1-2.
Are you changing? If you’re not, you’re going to have to go back and find out where your attitude stopped you. Like we already said, it’s your attitude that sifts all of these areas: Direction, Instruction and Correction. You need all three in order to change!