Negative Attitudes Sabotage a Good Life
If you choose to have a negative attitude it will sabotage the good life God wants you to experience. It’s hard to reach the level of success God has for you if you are negative or hang around people who are negative. It’s difficult to maintain joy and peace with a negative attitude. That’s why it’s important to choose a positive attitude.
Attitude is a Choice
The challenge we face is that the world we live in is naturally negative. Life is often filled with negative circumstances. However, attitude is not a product of the circumstances that surround us or the world we live in, but rather it is a choice.
You can’t control everything that happens, but you can control your attitude. You get to decide how you will respond and how you will act in regards to what happens in life. Life is 10% what happens to you, it is 90% how you respond to what happens to you. Make sure to choose to respond with a positive attitude!
5 Important Keys to a Positive Attitude
Here are 5 important keys that will help you choose a positive attitude:
- Guard Your Eyes. What you focus on ultimately impacts your attitude. You have to consciously put your focus on the good. Proverbs 4:25 says, “Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.” Don’t allow the negative reports of the news and the storms of life get you distracted. Hebrews 12:2 tells us, “keep our eyes focused on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith.” We are not to put our heads in the sand and ignore what is happening, instead we must choose to look at things from God’s perspective. When we do everything changes.
- Guard Your Ears. “Faith comes by hearing…” (Romans 10:17) What we hear shapes our attitude. Just like what we hear develops our faith it can also bring fear, doubt, and a negative attitude. What are you filling your ears with? In Mark 4:24 Jesus said, “Consider carefully what you hear…”
- Guard Your Mind. “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) What you see and hear will influence what you think. So, all three of these are tied together. What you think influences what you believe and ultimately what you believe produces how you act. Your thinking is at the core of your attitude. Paul instructs us to think on these things, “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)
- Guard Your Heart. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Your attitude flows from your heart. The heart referred to here is the very center of your being – the real you – the spirit within you. Be on guard against unforgiveness, bitterness, hate, and strife. Be quick to forgive. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you, (Luke 6:28)
- Guard Who You Hang With. Psalms 1:1 tells us, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.” You become like those who you hang with. Everyone is your ministry, but everyone is not to be your friend.
Choose a Positive Attitude
Your attitude will either be your greatest asset or one of your greatest stumbling blocks. It’s completely your choice. Psalm 118:24 says “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!” Philippians 4:4 says “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice!” You can choose to say, “This is the day the Lord has made and I rejoice” or choose to grumble and complain.
Choosing a positive attitude doesn’t mean that everything is going to be perfect in life. It simply means that you choose to rejoice and be glad in it. You choose to see the circumstance in life from God’s perspective. You choose to walk by faith and not sight. You choose to believe and know is God for you and not against you and He is working everything together for good! (Romans 8:28&31) Choose a positive attitude!