Skip to main content

Honor God With Your Attitude


We're learning life lessons from Numbers Chapter 9.  The rest of chapter 9 tells us about the cloud of God.  The cloud covered the Tent of the Testimony from evening till morning, providing firelight in the sky.  What an awesome sight that must have been!  This cloud was given to Israel as a visible sign of God’s presence.  God told the people to make the tabernacle.  He gave them the design and moved to hover over it.  This was His meeting place with Moses.  The Israelites could see the cloud as a cloud during the day, then at night, when you usually cannot see a cloud very well, it appeared to be on fire.  Like the burning bush Moses saw in the wilderness when he was called back to Egypt (Exodus 3), the cloud was never consumed.  We are told in Deuteronomy 4:24, that our God is “a consuming fire, a jealous God.”  James tells us that the Spirit He causes to live in us envies intensely (James 4:5).  We are to honor God with our lives.  The Israelites were able to simply look up and they would see a symbol of God.  They had seen how God dealt with Egypt.  They had seen how God dealt with grumbling and complaining.  Honoring God must be part of their daily lives.   

The same holds true for today’s believers.  We may not have a cloud of God’s presence suspended above our homes or places of worship, but we have the very word of God which tells us that He “never leaves us or forsakes us.” (Deuteronomy 31:6) Honoring God needs to be a part of our daily lives as well.  How are you doing on this?  Think of a few things that you are thankful for.  If you really think about it, you could probably fill quite a list!  You are reading this electronic Bible message.  That means you can see, you have a device connected to the Internet, and you have great cognitive abilities.  There are three things for your list already!

Being thankful to God for who He is and what His presence means in our lives is honoring to Him.  If your mental list only noted things or loved ones, try listing below some thanksgiving to God for your salvation, His work in your life, and who He is.  If your list above already had some of that, I am sure you can think of more. ;) 

 Believe me, when it comes to attitude, I still have a ways to go.  I can get an attitude and be sassy at times.  When I look closely at what causes my bad attitude, it most always has to do with my will.  If a situation does not go the way I think it should or someone does not do what I think they should have done, I can get an attitude that is not godly.  I pray for help in this area and have memorized Scriptures that speak to this problem, then the Spirit can help me to focus on the Word when I am tempted to display a bad attitude.  I have to stop and catch myself before I vent an unkind attitude that reflects my selfish thoughts.  It is a great feeling when I experience victory in this area.  I will never be perfect this side of heaven, but as long as I see improvement, I can be encouraged.  If I have an unkind thought toward another person, I make sure that I think something good about them instead, combating a downward spiral of negativity.

A discussion about attitude can never be complete without talking about the attitude of Christ found in Philippians Chapter 2. Jesus came to earth and humbled himself to become a man for our sakes. He humbled himself to take the punishment for our sins. He lay down his life for us. He only wanted the will of the father. That’s the kind of humility that we need! The will of God should supersede our own will constantly. This is a challenge for the Christian life.

A grateful heart is a great antidote for complaining.  Grumbling and complaining is not only dishonoring to God, it reflects a lack of trust in Him and shows that we don’t believe His Word.  In His Word, God constantly says how He loves and cares for us.  If we grumble and complain, we are not believing that word.  Because of the Fall of man in Genesis 3 and the original sin in the Garden of Eden, this is a broken world.  Sin is the reason for the pain and suffering, crime and injustice in this world.  As believers, we can look up in difficult circumstances and rest in the Blessed Hope of the return of Jesus Christ.  We will meet Jesus in the air and it can be any day now.  If Jesus is returning tomorrow, what should you be doing today?  Don’t wait!  Do it! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Numbers Don't Lie

The Second Census   The United States conducts a census every 10 years. I use this data to teach my upper elementary kids how to create formulas in Excel. Today we are going to look at a census of Israel conducted toward the end of the wilderness journey.  After the plague of chapter 25, the Lord called Moses to take a second census.     I like numbers, so I have always enjoyed comparing the two censuses in Numbers.  A comparison leads us to  investigating  why some tribes had much lower counts than others.   Laying chapter 26 alongside chapter 1 gives us some information.   The first thing I notice is that in chapter 1 ,  leaders were chosen to conduct the census. Numbers 26 does not mention having leaders take the census, but they probably  did  or it would have taken much longer to count.  Also, both censuses counted men age 20 or older, but chapter 26 adds that these men were able to  serve in the arm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Zealous for God

Zeal is defined as “great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective.” (dictionary.com) We followers of Christ are to have zeal for the Lord. In Lancaster County, PA it is easy to say you are a Christian. The statement must be backed up with action, however. Anyone can have a bad day, but do I believe that a consistently unkind person is really a Christian? Is it hard to imagine that a person who doesn’t really care for children is a kingdom  dweller.   If a man  who claims to be a Christian  is driven to succeed and have more and more money to the detriment of his family, we might think he is not listening to the Lord  at the very least .    Not only are we to follow God, we are to be zealous for Him, protecting His name and bringing Him glory. Moses gave much detail of the prophet Balaam in  Numbers C hapters  22-24 .  He seemed  pretty harmless  and even spoke for the God of the Universe.  However...
Post a Comment
Read more

God Speaks

Last week we met King Balak and a false prophet named Balaam. Balaam was summoned by King Balak to curse the nation of Israel so they wouldn’t destroy Balak’s country of Moab. Balaam  actually heard  from the one, true God and was told not to go to Moab to curse Israel because they were under God’s  protection. Balaam persisted in his desire to go to Moab to be consulted by the King and God let him go.   God was very angry with Balaam who was on his way to Moab ( Numbers 22:22 ). The angel of the Lord stood in the road, opposing Balaam according to the second half of the same verse .  Wait a minute; didn’t God tell Balaam to go?  Why was He mad?  Why did He oppose Balaam?  God told Balaam to go with them but only do what God tells him. ( Numbers 22:20 )   The reason that God was angry with Balaam and opposed his trip to Moab was because God knew Balaam’s heart and knew that he was not planning to do only what God told him.  Ima...
Post a Comment
Read more