Save us from ...

I have been loving reading through an old prayer book by William Barclay. Many of his prayers are inspirational and insightful, despite the language being a little dated. Here is another prayer, which I feel may be helpful for many of us:

"Save us from,
The unteachable spirit which will not learn;
The ungrateful spirit which never says thanks;
The unhappy spirit which is filled with complaints and discontent.

Save us from,
The disobliging spirit which grudges any help it has to give;
The discourteous spirit which never thinks of the feelings of anyone else;
The disobedient spirit which will take nothing but its own way..."

I suppose we could add a few others to this list too. What would you add if you were writing this prayer?

Save us from .........

Ephesians 4:23 - Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Playing on the one string - attitude!

"We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude." -  Charles Swindoll

What do you make of this quote? Do you agree or disagree? I do agree that our attitude is important in how we respond to certain people and events in our lives, but where does 'Faith' come into play? Can our faith impact our attitude? 

Ephesians 4:23 - "...to be made new in the attitude of your minds."

Let me know what you think.

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Why bother?

"History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.  Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new.  We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now." - Ecclesiastes 1:9-11

I feel there is a lot of truth in what these verses point out today, but there is also a very real danger for us. 

The truth is that History does often repeat itself. There are many lessons we could learn from those who have gone on before us, but we seldom do. This becomes our burden to bear and our personal choice to heed the warnings of history or not.

The danger in these verses lurks in the writers sentiment that 'no one will remember what we are doing now.' This is true on the one hand, but can also leave us feeling a little fatalistic on the other hand. If we develop a 'why bother' attitude then this could affect our relationships, work, friendships, dreams and life in general. 

As Christians we do have a purpose in Life and that is to glorify Jesus and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves.

Living in Grace

D3LM3

"A" is for Attitude

"Everything can be taken from a person, except ONE thing: To choose ones attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose ones way.” - Viktor Frankl, concentration camp survivor. 

Although circumstances can conspire around us we can still choose how we will respond to these circumstances. Attitude is such a key character trait in people and the best example of someone with a great attitude is Jesus. Take a look at these words from Paul - he reveals the humble ATTITUDE of Jesus.

Philippians 2: 5-8 - ^"In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!"

May the example of Jesus inspire you to choose the best Attitude you can.

 
Living in Grace
D3LM3

Attitude

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens." - John Homer Miller

Romans 15:5 - "May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had..."

Ephesians 4:23 - "...to be made new in the attitude of your minds."

May God bless you today.

Living in Grace,
D3LM3