What do you do when God speaks to your heart to complete a task? Do you do it? If so, what attitude do you exhibit while you do it? Do you do it with a heart of gratitude? Or do you do it because you fear what He might do to you or withhold from you if you don't do it? The mind with which we use to do what God tells us to do is just as important as going through the motions and actually doing what God has told us to do.
(Romans 14:17-19) – For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God. And other people will approve of you, too. So then, let us aim for harmony in the Church and try to build each other up.
A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my children about their attitudes in our home. I explained to them that even when they do what I or their mother has told them to do, but do it with a frown on their face or a complaint in their mouth they are still being disobedient. When there is disobedience, consequences follow.
To better illustrate my point to my children, I told them the story about Jonah. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people to change their evil ways or He was going to destroy them. Most of you probably know the story of how Jonah initially refused to go where God told him to go. He demonstrated out right disobedience. He tried to run from God. He boarded a boat going in the opposite direction of where God told him to go. Once on the boat, Jonah goes down into the bottom of the boat thinking God won't find him there.
I stopped here and told my children, no matter where you go or how fast you try and get there, you cannot run from God.
At this moment in time Jonah had no intentions on being obedient to God. So what did God do? God shook up his world. He hurled a great wind that caused the boat to almost break up. After everything was said and done, it was made known that Jonah's disobedience was the cause of the great wind and the distress they found themselves under. To calm the winds, the other men aboard the boat reluctantly threw Jonah over board. God appointed a large fish to swallow Jonah. He spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. This was Jonah's consequence for disobeying God. During this time God gave Jonah time to think and reflect on his disobedience. When the fish expelled Jonah on dry land, he was right back where he started. This was his second chance to obey God.
Second case in point is that God will always give you another chance to be obedient to His will.
The second time, Jonah did obey God. He did exactly what God told him to do. He went to Nineveh and proclaimed to the people that they had forty days in which to repent or they would be destroyed. The people repented. After seeing the people repent, you would have thought that Jonah would be excited about all those lives that were saved. Instead, he was angry at God for saving them. He said to himself "this is why I didn't want to do this in the first place. I knew that if they repented, God would spare their lives." His attitude in which he carried out God's plan was wrong. He begrudgingly obeyed God.
Jonah was used by God to accomplish a great thing while at the same time exposing the scars that were imbedded on his heart. God uses every moment in our lives to talk to us and teach us. To open up Jonah's eyes God appointed a tree to grow up over Jonah and provide him shade as he sat to watch the people in Nineveh. Jonah was very happy about the tree that provided him shade. In the midst of Jonah's happiness, the Bible said that God appointed a worm to attack the tree and it withered. Jonah then became angry because God allowed the tree to die.
God used the tree to contrast Jonah's attitude about his assignment to his attitude about the tree. God told Jonah that he had more compassion for a tree that 1) he did not plant with his own hands and 2) that grew up overnight and withered just as quickly as it grew than he did for thousands of people who were on their way to hell but now are on their way to heaven.
God values life above death. He requires obedience above disobedience. So as believers we need to focus on our attitude in the midst of being obedient to God's word. Obedience alone is not enough. How would those of you who are parents respond to your child who does what you tell him/her to do, but does it while huffing and puffing or making sucking sounds through his/her teeth? For me, I remind my children that there are consequences to disobedience. Obedience coupled with the wrong attitude is disobedience. God our Father also reminds us, His children, of that same message. Some of us wonder why our struggles are so constant when we do what we feel God is requiring us to do. I would like to subscribe to you that some of our struggles are due to our constant disobedience with our attitudes. Like our children, we do God's will with a frown on our face and anger in our hearts.
God's word contrasts the benefits to having a faith-filled attitude to the consequences of not having a faith-filled attitude.
(Proverbs 17:22) – A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength.
(Proverbs 14:30) – A relaxed attitude lengthens life; jealousy rots it away.
Paul said in (Philippians 4: 11-13) – For I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.
I
believe our Attitude is the key to success.
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