A Positive Attitude Promotes
A Powerful Faith!
4/9/06
A positive attitude coupled
with the Word of God produces a powerful faith!
It is a contradiction to say
you are standing on the promises of God and yet live your life as a negative
person!
Nothing
will convince and convict those around us like the positive way you and I
respond to our twentieth century hurts and distress--Joni Eareckson Tada.
Positive people make you feel
refreshed, energized, confident and determined!
Negative people have a way of
draining all your energy.
Someone
has well said....
Accentuate the positive,
Eliminate the negative,
Latch on to the affirmative,
Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between.
No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of
God in a human spirit, it is an inner unconquerableness. If you have the whine
in you, kick it out ruthlessly. It is a
crime to be weak in God’s strength.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
A positive attitude has health benefits.
Pr. 17:22
A cheerful heart is good medicine....
A positive person promotes friendship.
Pr. 18:24 (KJV) A man that hath friends must
show himself friendly....
A positive person doesn’t talk about what God can’t do
but what He is able to do.
Caleb was a man of faith with
a positive attitude!
Nu. 13:26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite
community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to
the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to
which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28But
the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very
large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites
and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and
along the Jordan.”
30Then Caleb silenced the people before
Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can
certainly do it.”
31But the men who had gone up with him said,
“We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land
they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it.
All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the
descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). 33We seemed like
grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
Caleb’s attitude did not go
unnoticed!
Nu. 14:20 The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the
glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 22not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous
signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me
ten times—23not one of them will ever see the land I promised on
oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever
see it. 24But because my servant
Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him
into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.
Forty five years later he is
still the same!
Josh. 14:6 Now the men of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb
son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to
Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. 7I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD
sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report
according to my convictions, 8but my brothers who went up with me
made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the LORD my
God wholeheartedly. 9So on that day
Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your
inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the
LORD my God wholeheartedly.’
10“Now then, just as the LORD promised, he
has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses,
while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years
old! 11I am still as strong today as the day
Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12Now
give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself
heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and
fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”
13Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh
and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. 14So Hebron has
belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he
followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. 15(Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba after Arba, who was the greatest
man among the Anakites.)
Jacob’s son Joseph was a man with a positive attitude
having faith in God.
Gen. 40:1 Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of
Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. 2Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief
cupbearer and the chief baker, 3and
put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same
prison where Joseph was confined. 4The captain of the guard assigned
them to Joseph, and he attended them.
After they had
been in custody for some time, 5each of the two men—the cupbearer and the
baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison—had a dream the same
night, and each dream had a meaning of its own.
6When Joseph came to them the next morning,
he saw that they were dejected. 7So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were
in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why are your faces so sad today?”
8“We both had dreams,” they answered, “but
there is no one to interpret them.”
Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God?
Tell me your dreams.”
1. Joseph was making the best of the situation. His attitude was right, his faith had not
wavered, and God was with him.
2. You can see his positive attitude in the way he shows concern for
the men who looked downcast.
3. In his remark “Do
not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams” he revealed that he had
not lost confidence in his relationship with God--that God was surely with him.
The apostle Paul also had a remarkable faith seen in
his positive attitude.
7But we have this treasure in jars of clay
to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but
not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck
down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the
death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for
Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
13It is written: “I believed; therefore I
have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore
speak, 14because we know that the one who raised
the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with
you in his presence. 15All this is for your benefit, so that the
grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow
to the glory of God.
16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though
outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an
eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our
eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal.
Cain destroyed his life
because of his bad attitude.
Gen. 4:2 Now Abel
kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3In the course of time Cain brought some of
the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his
flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain
was very angry, and his face was downcast.
6Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you
angry? Why is your face downcast? 7If you do what is right, will you not be
accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it
desires to have you, but you must master it.”
8Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s
go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his
brother Abel and killed him.
9Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your
brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10The LORD said, “What have you done?
Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened
its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for
you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
13Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is
more than I can bear. 14Today you are driving me from the land,
and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the
earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
Jonah was a prophet of God
yet he had a bad attitude!
Jon. 4:1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2He prayed to the LORD, “O LORD, is this not what I said
when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I
knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding
in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3Now, O LORD, take
away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4But the LORD replied, “Have you any right
to be angry?”
5Jonah went out and sat down at a place
east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited
to see what would happen to the city. 6Then the LORD God provided a vine and made
it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and
Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7But at dawn the next day God
provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun
blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It
would be better for me to die than to live.”
9But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a
right to be angry about the vine?”
“I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.”
10But the LORD said, “You have been
concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It
sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11But Nineveh
has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right
hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about
that great city?”
A positive attitude looks for
the Hand of God in any and every situation you find yourself in.
Do you really believe Rom.
8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for
the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Acts 16:16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met
by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned
a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting,
“These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be
saved.” 18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so
troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus
Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
19When the owners of the slave girl realized
that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and
dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are
Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21by advocating
customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
22The crowd joined in the attack against
Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into
prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and
fastened their feet in the stocks.
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Paul saw the hand of God in
his situation while being in prison.
Phil 1:14 Because of my
chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word
of God more courageously and fearlessly.