Ten Steps to Your Best Life by Brent Crowe Sample

DAY 6 - Attitude: A Gift to be Used Everyday

Our attitude is our inner disposition, as displayed by the outer posture and position of our beings. It is the spirit or the persona of a person, produced from the correlation of the heart and mind. It is best to think of the mind and the heart by focusing on the conjunction “and.” This little conjunction makes the attitude function in a healthy or unhealthy manner. Therefore, the right attitude is essential for a life worth living. And according to the apostle Paul, our attitude was a gift from God when we were made new creations in Christ. When Paul uses the word, spirit, he is not referring to the Holy Spirit, but rather to something that results from the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. Our spirit is our disposition or our attitude.

Paul was clear that “God has not given us a spirit of fear…” An attitude of fear results from a sinful inward focus that is overly concerned with self and what one could potentially lose. For example, 2 Timothy was the last letter Paul would ever write because he was about to be killed, yet that was not his focus. It is important to know that God gives good and useful gifts to his sons and daughters, and fear is a gift that God does not give. 

God has given an attitude or spirit of power, love, and self-control. The word for power is where we get our modern-day term for dynamite. As Christians, we are connected and even guarded by God’s power. The apostle Peter would explain it this way: 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. - 1 Peter 1:3-5

In addition to being guarded by God’s power, we have been given God’s kind of love that is modeled after Jesus and is both selfless and sacrificial. The third gift that determines our attitudes is “sound judgment” (see 2 Timothy 1:7). This speaks to our ability to make wise or level-headed decisions under the teachings of Scripture. 

The attitude that Paul is describing involves all three of these gifts (power, love, sound judgment) working in tandem. When our hearts and minds are focused on the power of God, the love of God, and the wisdom of God, then we are actively embracing this gift that is a Christ-centered attitude. 

What now?  

• Reflect on your attitude. Is your attitude being determined by fear or by love, power, and sound judgment?  
• Ask a trusted friend to describe the attitude you are projecting. Does their answer reflect the type of attitude Paul describes in 2 Timothy 1:7?