How The Holy Spirit Helps Us To Always Experience a Winning Attitude - I Cor. 2:14-17
Illustration:Author Jamie Buckingham once visited a dam on the Columbia River. He’d always thought that the water spilling over the top provided the power, not realizing that it was just froth, that deep within turbines and generators transformed the power of tons and tons of water to electricity--quietly, without notice, not like the flashy froth on top.
Illustration:
Let me tell about a man who in my book is a world-hugger. His parents called him Billy Frank. His wife calls him Bill. His face is drawn by the gravitational pull of years. The wrinkles on his brow betray a life of hard work and stress. His legs are weak. So, too, his arms. His hands tremble involuntarily. His voice, once strong, is tired. He’s an old man now. For most of his 82 years, this man has touched the world by holding before it the Christ of Christmas. Jesus knows the trembling hands that hold on to him with unflinching tenacity. He recognizes his faithful follower’s tender touch. He understands that the cause for which he came into our fallen world is the cause to which this frail fellow has committed his life. Since embracing the Savior as a teenager, Bill has carried in his heart a concern for all kinds of people in all kinds of places. The races of the world have been equally important to him. Since graduating from Wheaton College, this North Carolinian has walked his talk around the block and across the seas. Yes, William Franklin Graham is a living example of what it means to embrace others with the love of God. In Billy Graham we see an elderly (but,
nonetheless, enduring) hugger of humanity.
1. The Holy Spirit helps us to make the most of every situation with a positive attitude knowing that we can do everything God asks us to do with the help of Christ who gives us the strength and power. (Phil. 4:13) Trust the Lord to help you adopt a positive mental, emotional and spiritual attitude with Philippians 4:13 as a personal promise to you from God. Ask the Lord to help you gain a greater assurance of the Spirit’s ability to work this attitude into every part of your personal life, your relationships and every aspect of your ministry.
2. The Holy Spirit helps us realize that true success is measured in God’s terms through greater love, righteousness, holiness and truth. Solomon wrote, "By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor and life." (Prov. 22:4) Ask the Lord to help you trust and obey God in all situations knowing that He will make you successful regardless of what others might say about you.
3. The Holy Spirit teaches us how the love of God overcomes all problems despite outward appearances, comments or assumptions. Paul wrote, "Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome (master) evil with good." (Rom. 12:21) Ask the Lord to help you avoid giving into depression, criticism, or adverse circumstances. Trust the Lord to help all aspects of your personal life, relationships and ministries to reflect the faith that believes GOOD OVERCOMES ALL FORMS OF EVIL.
4. The Holy Spirit teaches us how to overcome abusers of power by remembering how Christ overcame all opposition. The writer of Hebrews wrote, "Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself (reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials), so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds." (Heb. 12:3 - Amplified) Ask the Lord to help you to remember Christ’s winning attitude regardless of how stiff the opposition.
5. The Holy Spirit teaches us that no temptation is beyond our ability to overcome it. Paul wrote, "NO temptation has seized you except what is common to man. God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." (I Cor. 10:13) Ask the Lord to help you overcome all temptations to feel discouraged, frustrated or angry about your situations.
6. The Holy Spirit reminds us key scriptural promises when we are growing weary or faint hearted. Isaiah wrote, "The Creator will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint." (Isa. 40:28-31) Ask the Lord to renew your strength when you are feeling weary, tired and faint in your attitude.
7. The Holy Spirit shows us how to avoid taking bad reports, accusations or criticisms personally. Paul wrote, "I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me." (I Cor. 4:3,4) Ask the Lord to help you develop a teflon like exterior so that you do not let criticism get you to personally
8. The Holy Spirit teaches us how a positive perceptions can affect our emotional attitudes. Paul wrote, "Whatever is true, worthy of reverence, honorable, seemly, just, pure, lovely, lovable, kind, winsome, gracious, virtuous, excellent, worthy of praise, think on and weight and take account of these things (fix your minds on them. (Phil. 4:8) Ask the Lord to help you focus your perceptions on Christ’s positives so that it will enable you to always have a winning emotional, social, and spiritual attitude.
9. The Holy Spirit helps you to hang on to positive goals, purposes and satisfactions regardless of your present condition. Paul wrote, "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him." (I Cor. 2:14) Ask the Lord to help you to not give into any faulty beliefs or "mis-beliefs that deter you from Christ’s goals.
10. The Holy Spirit teaches us to realize that no person or problem can defeat, distract or inhibit us from doing God’s will as we pray and walk by faith. Paul wrote, "I keep asking that God may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may now him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hoe to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe." (Eph. 1:17-19) Ask the Lord to help you to grow in all wisdom, faith and obedience so that you can more fully assured of God’s triumphal attitudes working in and through you!
Conclusion:Sometime back the Associated Press carried this dispatch: "Glasgow, Ky.--Leslie Puckett, after struggling to start his car, lifted the hood and discovered that someone had stolen the motor." The Holy Spirit is our source of power - do not forget it.
Associated Press.
