How many of us really believe that God wants every living individual to be happy and whole? It’s true! God wants the absolute best for all of us, and He tells us this in His Word. He tells us in John 10:10 that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to the earth to make a more than abundant life available to everyone. He sent Jesus Christ to show us the path to joy everlasting. This is tremendously Good News! But how many of us are truly experiencing the happiness, wholeness, and abundant life that Christ made available to us all? The reality is that some of us have been on this Christian journey a very long time, but we’re not joyful. We’re sad, and we don’t feel as though there’s anything we can do about this. Not true! We can be transformed, and this is what our Heavenly Father desires for every individual, that they will be transformed by the power of His Word!

Genesis 1:27-28 The Message (MSG) tells us, “God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!” This is God’s Word, and this is also God’s Will. His Will is for us to prosper, to be productive, expand, and have dominion and authority over our lives. We were not created to be weak and effective. God created us to thrive and be fulfilled through our relationship with Him. He is the Supplier and Source of all good things, and His Will is to share with us through His love, power, and strength.

We are destined to expand, increase, and continually flourish through the ‘Godlike nature’ that God has given us. We’re to take charge, and this means that no circumstance, condition, or situation should rule us. We are empowered by God to adjust our minds and hearts to the point that they are on board with His power. And if we’re not thinking these kinds of high-level thoughts about God’s deliverance, healing, and power over our lives, then we’re thinking, feeling, and responding to our lives with a lower-level attitude of doubt and insecurity. God commands us to immediately change this. He tells us in Ephesians 4:23(NIV) to “be made new in the attitude of your minds.”

God is not going to come inside our heads, throw out all the bad thoughts and attitudes, and replace them with new ones. He holds us responsible for doing this. He’s given us free-will choice. He’s empowered us to reign, to take dominion and authority over our lives; therefore, we must take the initiative and stack our negative thoughts and attitudes against the mind and attitude of Christ. If we’re not thinking and acting like him, and if we’re not taking authority over our lives by having faith in God’s Word, WE MUST CHANGE.

The goal that God has set for all human beings is to be the very image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore, to understand God’s Will and plan for us, we need to know as much as we can about who our Lord and Savior is. Colossians 1:15-20(NIV) helps us tremendously. It tells us, “15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Colossians 1:15-20 gives us the image of Christ, and when God looks at us, He doesn’t see the mistakes we’ve made or all our baggage, God sees the Christ in us! He sees who He created us to be in Christ, and we must begin to see ourselves this way as well. He created us to be like His only begotten Son, and therefore, we are empowered to rise to this level of love, giving, sharing, and living. Romans 8:29(NIV) declares, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” Christ is our identity. He’s our Big Brother, and we should be living by his example. This means we’re to love ourselves and others through Christ, and we are to love God with all our minds, hearts, souls, and strength.  

God has called us to live in Christ, and He gave him up as a sacrifice for the sins of us all. Through Christ, God has given us all things, so the question we must ask ourselves is how we have chosen to respond to what we have received. Many are responding, not by seeking God for all things and allowing Him to direct their path, but by imposing their own plans for their lives. When things do not work out with our plans, our typical response is to then blame God, absolve ourselves of responsibility, and have a negative attitude about life. What we fail to realize is that having a negative attitude causes us to further regress.

A negative attitude is usually rooted in doubt, unbelief, and fear, and many of us are responding to life this way. We make several excuses for a negative attitude, like “It’s just the way I am”, “I don’t like being disappointed” or “I been hurt before, so I don’t trust anyone or anything”. When we think like this, we’re allowing disappointment and doubt to have a front row seat in our decisions and choices. We think we’re playing it safe when we think something won’t work out before we even try, but there’s no power in thinking like that.

God commands us in Romans 12:2 not to conform to the negative and divisive attitudes of the world. We must not allow the world’s cultures and traditions to mold our personality. We’ve been called to a higher life, a life of love and light. We must be transformed by renewing our minds to what GOD says, not by what the world thinks or how it operates. We must strip off the old attitudes and habits and put on a Christ-like attitude and mindset, because this is living by the Spirit and living by God’s truth.

Living like Christ is living our truth! God commands us to build our lives on a strong foundation, and Jesus Christ is that strong foundation. Philippians 4:13 tells us that we can do ALL things through Christ who gives us strength. Our attitudes and thoughts should always line up with who God has made us through Christ. We are spiritual beings living a human experience, not the other way around. Recognize that spiritual beings born of God’s Spirit live by faith, not fear. We believe that through our faith, all things are possible with God because this is what His Word tells us in Mark 9:23.

Breaking down a negative attitude requires us to see it for what it is. A negative attitude is an enemy of God’s truth, and therefore, it is an enemy of our faith in Him. This mindset must be confronted and kicked to the curb. In its place should be a greater desire to live for God. When this is our motivation every day, we will find that life is much sweeter. We must think and speak the reality of who we are in Christ! We are God’s children of love and light, and we must be committed to think thoughts of God’s excellence, purity, and truth. When we do, His goodness will surely manifest in our lives.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

“Breaking Down A Negative Attitude”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.