From His Heart Devotional | 18 October 2021 | By Pastor Jeff Schreve| Monday Message
TOPIC: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Christian
Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let those who love Your salvation say continually, ‘Let the LORD be magnified!’
Psalms 40:16
When I was in high school, I had an older friend who was a Christian. He was someone I respected. But this guy had a personality quirk that was hard to deal with. He was moody—very moody! One day he could be all smiles, friendly, gregarious, and seemingly excited about the Lord. But the next day, he could be sullen and sour, hating life and ready to bite your head off for the slightest of reasons. I was never quite sure who I would be encountering from day to day. Moodiness is like that. It creates a guessing game. Do you know some moody people? Are you one yourself?
I believe one of the key qualities of a growing Christian is consistency. A growing Christian is not sweet and kind one day, and then rude, cold, and aloof the next. A person like that is not being controlled by the Spirit but controlled by the flesh. To be sure, it is hard to be a good witness and glorify Christ with such up and down behavior.
YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR MOOD
What do you do if you have a tendency to be moody? What do you do if you wake up on edge and frustrated with the world? You refuse to let your mood dictate your day. You take your sour mood by the scruff of the neck and let it know how the day is going to happen. You do what the Psalmist did in Psalm 42:11 and have a sobering heart to heart talk with your despairing soul,
“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.”
One day in seminary class, my professor mentioned the moodiness of his teenage son. He came downstairs to breakfast in a sour huff, barely speaking and exhibiting rude behavior toward his mother. My prof, never one to shy away from confrontation, bluntly told his son to get his hind parts back upstairs to restart the day with a different attitude. He was more than welcome at the table if he could come with a smile and a happy disposition. Grumpiness was not going to be tolerated or rewarded with a hot meal.
His son left the table, went upstairs, and soon returned with a brand new outlook on life. He took his wise father’s words to heart and chose to rejoice. What he did, you and I can do, too.
SWINDOLL ON ATTITUDE
One of my all-time favorite quotes on attitude comes from Charles Swindoll. He said,
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past … we cannot change the fact that people will 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 … I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you … we are in charge of our attitudes.”
Choose today to have a good attitude, regardless of the circumstances. Choose to seek the Lord and rejoice in Him. Your life may be in total turmoil, but Jesus is the One who can bring peace to your troubled heart and swirling storm.
Love,
Pastor Jeff Schreve,
From His Heart Ministries
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Dr. Jeff Schreve believes that no matter how badly you may have messed up in life, God still loves you and has a wonderful plan just for you. From His Heart provides real truth, love and hope on over 700 radio stations each day, in 182 countries each week on TV, and is always available online. Pastor Jeff takes no income from this ministry. All donations go to furthering the broadcast outreach. As a listener/viewer supported ministry, we thank you for joining with us to help speak the truth in love to a lost and hurting world. Go to www.fromhisheart.org for more information.