Outlook and Attitude

It doesn’t take long to discover that the Christian life is certainly not a continuous experience of fun and laughter. And yet, we ought to be careful to acknowledge a serious problem when our Christian life deteriorates into a chronic series of joyless days and melancholy weeks. While we’re obviously not exempt from severe loss and terrible pain, even then our grief ought to be tempered by an evident dose of optimism and confidence. Because of our secured relationship with God through Christ “we don’t grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Even when facing the worst of potential outcomes we can expectantly say, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). This perspective needs to be more than an undetectable philosophy tucked somewhere in the back of our minds. Luke tells us that when Paul and Silas sat locked in stocks in a Philippian jail their hearts and their voices were found “singing hymns to God” (Acts 16:25). When you find that capacity lost because you’ve given yourself over to pessimism and despair, you need to remember Scripture’s warning of discipline to those who do “not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart” (Deuteronomy 28:47). No, not every day will be “a good one” but let us remember that our biggest problems were solved two thousand years ago and the happiness Christ has stored up for his disciples can never be taken away (1 Peter 1:3-9). So no matter what your week looks like, serve and worship God today with optimism and joy.

For more sermons and devotionals on Hard Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org 

Feeling It

Some rationalize their disregard for doing what is right because they say their “hearts are not in it” and they “don’t want to be hypocrites.” They may consider themselves to be off the hook in neglecting prayer, Bible study or church attendance because they don’t “feel it,” but of course they are not. God will not shrug his proverbial shoulders and say, “Well then, if you don’t feel it, don’t bother.” Instead of abandoning our Christian duties because we feel inauthentic, God calls us to adjust our attitude and mindset. The psalmist says of God, “You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently” (Psalm 119:4). The Hebrew word translated “diligently” is the same word we find in Deuteronomy 6:5 where you and I are told to love the Lord “with all of our might.” It involves mental effort, gumption, determination, focus and thoughtfulness. Consider David who seems to be concerned about “going through the motions” of worship, when he turns his exhortation to his own soul and mind: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name” (Psalm 103:1). The neglectful are correct when they admit inauthenticity is a problem, but their proposed remedy is ruinous. We must never walk away from the Lord’s commands when we feel weak or lethargic, instead, with the Spirit’s help, we must retool and retune our hearts to sincerely and wholeheartedly engage in keeping his precepts.