June 29, 2012

What's Inside?




It isn't wrong to visit new places or meet new people. But to believe that life will be better somewhere else is a dangerous mindset. If you can't find a way to be content despite your current circumstances, then you will be unhappy anywhere.

This is why the Bible talks so much about the human heart.  What is our attitude?  What is it we really love?  If all we care about is how life treats us then we will live bitter, discouraged, disappointed lives.  And that ugliness will affect everyone around us.

But if we follow what God commands, to love Him and live for Him, then we no longer worry about whether-or-not life is fair to us.  We live contented, joyful, selfless lives and that affects everyone around us.

Most of the time we don't have any control over the circumstances we find ourselves in.  And if our  mentality is to react to events in life then we can be certain to be discouraged.  We have to be prepared before things happen so that we know how to react.  Its a choice we make, either to be ready or not.  

And learning to make the right choice can be difficult because it isn't something you learn in school.  It isn't something you learn in the university.  It isn't even something you learn in your career.

Attitude is how we choose to react.  And we learn what choice to make based on what person, or persons, we look to as role-models. Suffice it to say that many people today are looking at all the wrong role-models.  But I can't judge them.  Its not my place and its not yours either.  Because honestly, if you are like me then there are times when you really don't want to know what's inside of you. Sometimes you might even be tempted not to care.  

But thankfully Jesus Christ transforms each of us from the inside out.  He will not rest until we reflect His beauty and majesty.  In this light then, inner transformation is not up to us.  It is a supernatural effect of what Jesus accomplished when He died on the cross and resurrected to life again.

The bottom line is this: Circumstances don't change our attitudes.  Rather, they only bring to the surface what is already inside of us.  We cannot, by our own wills, change what we are inside.  But God, through Jesus Christ, can and will change us for the better.  And that should bring all of us hope. No matter what circumstances we face.


" Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

~ Philippians 1:6


2 comments:

Beth said...

I agree with you. We are only as happy as we choose to be.

BelovedBomber said...

Usually circumstances reveal something in me that still needs worked on...glad God doesn't quit on me.