Change Your Attitude, Change Your Life

May 16, 2022

… throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. Ephesians 4:22-24 NLT

The slogan “change your attitude, change your life” hangs in many locker rooms, classrooms, and offices around the world. It’s true, but easier said than done. A frequent statement in the counseling (helping with change culture) is “Change is painful. It is so painful, in fact, that you will never change until the pain of change is less than the pain of remaining the way you are.”

Whew. Can you identify with that? I can. I just shared that statement with a couple married almost 40 years, now on the brink of divorce. I had never met them until this morning, so I asked specific questions to hear their story and their perspectives. They poured out their anger, pain, and issues, and then asked me if I saw any hope. I told them there was plenty of hope, but hope doesn’t matter without willingness to change. The blaming would have to stop, and several other changes for starters. They quit talking almost immediately. That’s when I told them that change is painful, and they would have to decide what pain they preferred.

You and I are in the same position. Our relationships are scarred and less than God intended when our sinful nature controls our attitudes. Paul minces no words and says that our lives get “corrupted.” That’s not a word we nice people typically use to describe ourselves, even on our worst day. He makes it even worse—we are corrupted by lust and deception. How is that possible? We are neither immoral nor liars, right? In the instant classic definitions that would be true. But the most dangerous lust is the insatiable desire to have our own way. The worst deception is when we lie to ourselves and don’t own our own flaws and sins, while bemoaning the sins of others.

Paul says the solution to this devastating tendency impacting our relationships is to surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to convict and empower us in our thoughts and attitudes. He will renew us—make our thoughts and attitudes new and fitting for our new lives in Christ. Our part will be to vigorously put on those new natures. Paul stuns us with the truth: We aren’t created to simply be forgiven and bumble along in relationships. We are created to be like God—truly and consistently righteous and holy.

• Holy Spirit, I need Your work in my life in my relationships. If I lived out my new nature, truly righteous and holy, on a consistent basis, my areas of struggle would be powerfully impacted. Help me take responsibility to take off the old and give You space to load me with new attitudes and thoughts that are like my Savior, Jesus, the One I am called and empowered to emulate. Amen.