Change Your Attitude

Are you struggling with the circumstances you find yourself in at this particular point in time? Are you fighting against the God-given difficulties in your life and feeling like you’ve reached the end of your patience level?

I feel like I’m not the only one in this season at present. Maybe I’m a little more vocal about it and I harp on it a little more than others, but I know I’m not the only one that has found myself in circumstances beyond my control, waiting on the Lord, fidgeting and hopping from one foot to the other, battling the desire to take things into my own hands and see if I can figure it out, instead of patiently waiting for God to reveal himself and his will to me.

I came across a quote from one of my favourite authors today and decided it needed sharing.

“Usually, the only aspect we can change about our circumstances is our outlook. So, we must adjust our attitudes, alter our actions, and put on a cloak of contentment in order to weather life’s circumstantial storms” Karen Ehman

Some days, life is just plain hard. Days roll into weeks and weeks roll into months and we feel like the pain will never end, the struggle will never cease, and we lose our joy in the process.

But all too often, the only thing we can change is our outlook. When we’re facing difficult times and there’s nothing we can do with the strength we have and the resources at our disposal, we have to learn to take a step back and change our perspective.

It’s all about how we look at it. Kind of the glass half-full, glass half-empty scenario.

An attitude adjustment is what is needed, and I know, in my case, it is needed quite frequently. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, our mind and what we choose to think on plays a HUGE part in how we feel and how we act and how we react.

We have to consciously make a choice to take off the cloak of discontentment and misery, and grab the garment of contentment, (being satisfied to the point that we are no longer disturbed or disquieted in our souls), wrap it around us and choose joy, knowing that God is in control, and that he will do what is best, and despite the storm raging around us, he will bring the peace that we need.  

I could very well be preaching to the choir here, as the saying goes, but I know that this particular choir member needs this reminder today, and if I need it, then I’m sure someone else does too!

In the quote above, she mentions the need to alter our actions. Whatever it is that you need to do to make a change in your attitude, whatever action you need to take, it’s imperative that you do it!

So many positive inspirational speeches you hear will tell you that you can control your destiny, or that you have the power to change your circumstances or that if you believe it, you can achieve it. SPOILER ALERT! They’ve got it all wrong. Most of the time you can’t, and you won’t and you shouldn’t!

There is no miracle three-step method on making the annoying things in our lives go away. Changing our circumstances rarely changes us. What transforms us in an attitude shift.

God chooses what we go through, we choose how we go through it. We have to choose to realign our attitudes with the truth of the Scripture.

Well, that’s all fine and good but how do I go about it?

I think the first thing to remember is that God is God, and you are not! He doesn’t think like we do, and he doesn’t act like we do. He is altogether righteous and holy, and we are not!

Isaiah 55:8-9  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The second thing we need to remember and put into practice, is to pray. Pray about it. Bring it to the Lord. He is the one that will lead us through, and he is the one who hears and answers our prayers.

And thirdly, do what you can, and don’t do what you can’t. I know, not very profound, is it? But sometimes it’s the simple way of doing things that make all the difference.

Carefully and prayerfully, do what you can and leave God the rest. Don’t stress about all you can’t do and the things beyond your control. God is big enough to handle it. If after praying and seeking Godly counsel, you feel an action needs to be taken, then do it. But don’t waste all your energies and brainpower on the things you can’t change. Drop it and move on, seeking the Lord as you go.

Boy, am I preaching to myself right now. I know that if my husband was reading this, he’d be saying, “that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell you all along!” Sometimes I have to write it out so I can visibly see it before it truly sinks in!

Join me in learning this little, but difficult, lesson. Change your attitude and let God work on the circumstances. Do a 180 in your outlook and focus on maintaining a vertical gaze instead of a horizontal one. Get your eyes off the problems and choose to look to God.

 

“Learn to glance at things, and gaze at God!”

 

Micah 7:7

Therefore I will look unto the LORD; 

I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.