NO SUBSTITUTE FOR DISCIPLINE

In my last post (June 12~THE SECRET OF STAIN REMOVAL) I shared about the secret of stain removal. My focus is really on how the Holy Spirit works in our lives to change our attitude. Furthermore, the change I’m thinking about is not the temporary, surface type, where we project a different attitude for a short period only to revert to the fleshly, noxious attitude that has been the norm for far too long in our lives. Do you desire deep, life-transforming change in your life? Jesus shared powerful words with his sleepy disciples (their sleep may have been both physical and spiritual):  “Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak!" (Matthew 26:41 NLT) In multiple translations this last portion is: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Several times in the past week, since the June 12 post, I’ve encountered the word, DISCIPLINE, in my reading, listening and studying. When I think about the stain, which I mentioned in my previous post, I think about how hard my wife and mother-in-law worked to remove it. There wasn’t a single stain removing solution that magically caused the pizza sauce to disappear from my mostly white shorts. There were multiple solutions used, along with intense scrubbing. The process required time and patience. This patience is necessary because sometimes there’s progress and sometimes there isn’t.

There’s no substitute for discipline and hard work. I wish there was, for your sake and mine. I wish there was a “secret” prayer, or a “secret” source of spiritual strength we could turn to when we desire change in our lives. Here’s what I believe to be true: Change, of all types, is a PROCESS. Sometimes there’s PROGRESS and sometimes there isn’t. The key, and I didn’t come up with the phrase, is to FAIL FORWARD. When the change process in your life suffers a setback, or stalls out for a period of time, acknowledge [admit] the failure and re-discipline yourself to make forward progress. Don’t become frustrated by your failure to the point it causes you to give up.

“The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” We don’t quote these words from Jesus as an excuse. They’re a reminder of how much we need to depend on the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness. Friend, be encouraged today: Your spirit may be willing to see change, but even more importantly the Holy Spirit is willing and able to help you.

I want to continue along the theme of change in my next post, but I close with these lyrics from Kari Jobe’s song, YOU ARE FOR ME, which is one of my favorites:

So faithful

So constant

So loving and so true

So powerful in all You do

You fill me

You see me

You know my every move

You love for me to sing to You

I know that You are for me

I know that You are for me

I know that You will never

Forsake me in my weakness

THE SECRET OF STAIN REMOVAL

Ready, aim, ugh! So many of us, if not all of us, have tried to change something about how we’re living our life. Adjusting our attitude, my theme in recent posts, is one of things many people try to change about themselves. They’re tired of having a negative or critical or hopeless, or bitter or an all-the-above attitude. But maybe you’ve noticed, if you’ve become trapped by a bad attitude, it’s extremely hard to change. I recently bought a nice pair of shorts for our upcoming Caribbean cruise. Wouldn’t you know it, the first time I wore these mostly white shorts I got a small spot of pizza sauce right on the front. My wife and mother-in-law have both tried different methods to get the stupid spot out of my shorts. It’s much better, but a faint red stain can still be seen.

In my most recent post (June 7~Changing Your Attitude) I wrote: “…deep, life-transforming change is the result of the Holy Spirit working in our life. See what Paul writes in Romans 8:6 “…the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace.” (CEV)” Deep, life-transforming change is an inside/out process. This isn’t how the motivational, self-help experts usually approach change. They place the greatest emphasis on a person’s mind and mouth, what they think about and what they talk about. What they’re suggesting is more of an outside/in process, even though they include the mind. The mind portion of their teaching tilts towards telling yourself what to think about. I don’t want to completely dismiss this approach, because our mind and mouth are very important. But if you sincerely desire change, you have to go deeper than how you think and what you say.

I want to make what I believe is an important observation. The limitations of all the self-help teaching is demonstrated by the fact that all of these experts have to continually produce new books, blogs and videos. They have to keep holding more seminars and conferences. The reason for this, IMHO, is two-fold: One, there’s serious money to be made in producing these types of materials, so the machine has to keep creating new resources. Two, they have to create new tools because the present tools are only effective for a limited period. So, while all the self-help teaching can be helpful, there’s too much “self” involved in the process to be of help.

The inside/out process of deep, life-transforming change reaches beyond a person’s mind and mouth. You might be thinking, “What’s deeper than our mind?” There’s a spiritual dimension to all of us, which is the place from which all of our thoughts and words emerge. This is the place where our spirit dwells. The Apostle Paul connects the kingdom of God to “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:7 NIV) In my next blog post I want to go deeper into how we can experience the deeper working of the Spirit in our spirit, so the change within us is not temporary, but truly transformational. So, next time I’ll share the secret of stain removal. 

CHANGING YOUR ATTITUDE

In my two most recent posts I’ve been considering the theme of ATTITUDE. If you listen to the self-help experts, many of them basically say the same thing, and that is to change your attitude you simply need to change your attitude. The basic idea is that change is a matter of the will. You will yourself to a new attitude. You use willpower to overcome a negative or bad attitude. There’s no doubt that the things we tell ourselves have a huge influence on our attitude. We can talk ourselves into a good attitude or a bad attitude. I’ve done it and you’ve done it. At the same time, deep, life-transforming change is the result of the Holy Spirit working in our life. See what Paul writes in Romans 8:6 “…the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace.” (Contemporary English Bible) In the New Living Translation this same verse reads: “…if the Holy Spirits controls your mind, there is life and peace.”

So the question I have, and the one I want to explore in future posts is: How does the Spirit work within us to change our attitude?

AN ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

In my last post (May 30 ~ A Different Attitude) I started looking at the importance and impact of our ATTITUDE in determining the trajectory of our life. Last night I watched the NBA playoffs, the Boston Celtics versus the Miami Heat. In the post-game interviews the coach of the Celtics talked about his all-star point guard, Rajon Rondo. I wasn’t aware, but I guess Rondo is the type of player and person who one night he thinks he’s the greatest point guard on the planet and on another night he thinks he’s the worst. One of Coach Doc River’s hardest tasks is to help his star player maintain the right attitude. It can be the difference between winning and losing, success and failure.

The late Norman Vincent Peale once made the following point: “Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude towards it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.” Attitude is a big thing and a small thing. It’s a “big thing” because of it’s importance and influence our attitude has upon how we live our lives. It’s a “small thing” because changing our attitude doesn’t have to be a major, time-intensive process. I believe we can decide to think different, and it will reap immediate results. It may take a process to maintain our new attitude, but it starts with a strong decision to think differently.

Psalm 73:21-22 (Complete Jewish Bible) “When I had a sour attitude and felt stung by pained emotions, 22 I was too stupid to understand; I was like a brute beast with you.”

Most of us have had the unpleasant experience of being dominated by a sour attitude. Someone who loved us enough to speak the truth into our lives caringly (or not so caringly) confronted us and said: “You need an attitude adjustment.” If the state of our attitude has become so obvious someone is moved to say something to us, it must be pretty sour and stinky. If you’re among the chronically cranky you’re likely going to be offended by the subject of today’s blog.

The Apostle Paul, who never seemed to back away from provoking someone towards an attitude adjustment, asks a question in Galatians 4:15 (God’s Word): “What happened to your positive attitude?” As you reflect on your general attitude towards life right now, would you say you possess and project a positive or negative attitude? Is it possible someone who cares about you is just about ready to ask, “What happened to your positive attitude?” In my next post I want to look more into how to adjust our attitude. I want to be a person with a winning attitude, and I want the same for you.