I Believe..................

"That either you control your attitude
or it controls you."

I cannot tell you how absolutely truthful I believe this statement to be.  Romans 12: 1- 2 from the New Living Translations puts it this way:  "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

I also like The Message paraphrase of the same reference, which says this:  "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

Ephesians 4: 22 - 24 from the New Living Translation says this:  "...throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy."

Over the years, I have found that my attitude over my day directly reflects what type of day I will have; my attitude over my relationships shows up in the actions toward those with whom I am in relationship.  It should come as no surprise, then, that my attitudes about God guide how I will relate to God and to His plan for my life.

As is true with many people, I have struggled with many demons throughout my life.  Those struggles have taught me that I choose how to battle my demons.  I am not doomed to live in unhappiness, guilt, shame, and seclusion.  God did not design me for that and does not desire that kind of life for me.  If I live there, it is because I have chosen to do so.

That seems like such an easy thing to understand and act upon.   It has taken me my entire life to this point to realize these things and to begin to move toward the true light of forgiveness and the transformation of renewing my mind and my attitudes through Jesus Christ. 

For most of my life, I had felt trapped in an unhappy place and very much a victim of my circumstances.  I am not saying I was not a victim of some actions perpetrated upon me by others who should never have done those things to me.  However, by choosing to remain the victim instead of walking in the renewal freely given me by Jesus Christ, I was also choosing to live a life of constant unhappiness and desperately searching for something more.

I recently heard Joyce Meyer say that we are educated beyond our application.  That made real sense to me.  I know the Word, and have been hiding it in my heart since a child.  However, there is a great divide between knowing it and applying it.  I think what Ms. Meyer was saying was that we know, now we must do.  The 'more' we're constantly searching for has already been revealed.  It is now up to us individually to apply what we know to our daily living and walking with the Lord.

When the knowing is applied, then the 'more' will become all that God meant it to be in us.  I am more grateful than I can express with words that I have learned that lesson.  It took many years and enough tears to fill a river to get here, but it is so worth it to finally understand! 

I pray that anyone reading this and struggling with these issues, or others, will understand that God gave you everything you need to live a victorious Christian life when you asked Jesus Christ into your heart.  Whether we take advantage of all He gave us is completely up to us.  We must choose daily, sometimes minute-by-minute, that renewing of our mind...turning our hearts, minds, thoughts and attitudes to the Lord and to His will and plan for our life.

I pray today you will choose that renewing in order to experience God in all His majesty and His plan for your life in all He meant you to be.