Adjusting Our Attitudes is Essential for Emotional Health
“as a man thinks in his heart so is he” - Proverbs 23:7a (KJV)
The Word of God encourages us to be good stewards of our attitudes. A steward is one who is responsible for managing and maintaining something. The word attitude is defined in the dictionary as: manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., with regard to a person or thing; tendency or orientation, especially of the mind.
For our application I submit to you a more condensed definition but one that is not suppressed in significance. An attitude is a pattern of thinking established over a period of time.
All of us to some extent have experienced a diverse degree of events and circumstances that have enjoyed positive or negative influences in our lives. A failed marriage could influence a negative disposition on God's holy institution. Perhaps you experienced a situation where a pastor or religious leader that you trusted and supported made a major decision that disclosed his heart of infidelity and extortion. As a result, you navigate with an attitude of indifference toward the church that is empowered by emotional injury. Consequently, you made a vow to never step foot in a church again. Perhaps a professing business partner’s bad choices resulted in incurring a substantial amount of debt that will not be recovered and will require you to cut your losses and start over. Maybe you have even experienced a tragic and catastrophic event that removed someone who was dear and precious to you and now the reality of not seeing them again is devastating. This situation leaves you not only with a loss of words but also leaves you feeling lost!
Regardless of circumstances or experiences, the God that gives us all that we need has equipped us with the means to maintain our mental and emotional health by His Word and His Spirit! God's word encourages and instructs on maintaining an attitude that aligns with the mind of God.
“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” - Colossians 3:2 (KJV)
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things”. -Philippians 4:8 (KJV)
We cannot always control what happens to us, but we can control our attitude about the circumstances or situations that we encounter. You can have a fleshly mentality (FM) or an anointed mentality (AM) in the tuning of your attitude. If you find yourself operating in FM, we may be in a state of spiritual subluxation, a chiropractic term which points to a partial dislocation, as of a joint; or sprain. So there are times in our life when we need an attitude adjustment.
“All the days of the afflicted [are] evil: but he that is of a merry heart [hath] a continual feast.” – Proverbs 15:15 (KJV)
God calls us to enjoy life in spite of adverse circumstances. This happens when we adjust our attitude to the mind of Christ!
For the Glory of God,
PBKSR