Today’s New Covenant Nugget is from Ephesians 4:23 (AMP)
‘Be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude].’
Your attitude is your ‘stance’, your ‘poise’, and how you position yourself. Negative attitudes include, ‘a prideful stance, a skeptical stance, negativity, depression, arrogance, heaviness, a ‘know it all’ attitude, or a sarcastic attitude.’ Scriptural, Spirit-controlled attitudes that born again believers should embrace include ‘a positive, faith-filled stance, an up-beat lighthearted, joyful stance, a humble attitude, an attitude of gratitude, an attitude that believes the best, and a loving, embracing grace-filled attitude.
A New Covenant, Spirit-controlled, grace empowered attitude is a positive, faith-filled attitude that is embraced ‘on purpose’, and by faith… in other words, you do not just allow circumstance provoked attitudes to automatically kick in based upon what life throws at you, and then to dominate your relationships, your stance and the atmosphere around you… instead, you CHOOSE your attitude by faith in line with the Word, and then you ‘wear it’ by grace, through faith!
A New Covenant, Spirit-controlled attitude KNOWS that temporary setbacks and temporary persecution is just that, TEMPORARY! A New Covenant, Spirit-controlled attitude operates under the anointing of LOVE! In fact one of the best descriptions of a New Covenant attitude can be found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (TPT) ‘Love (or an attitude that operates under the anointing of love) is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love (an attitude that operates under the anointing of love) is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.’
A 30-year study of 447 people at the Mayo Clinic found that optimists had around a 50 percent lower risk of early death than pessimists. The study’s conclusion? “Mind and body are linked and attitude has an impact on the final outcome — death. Now, I am talking about much more than ‘an optimistic attitude’ that processes things optimistically through a determination to be positive, I am talking about “a Spirit empowered, grace generated, renewed attitude”.
As a NEW creature in Christ, you have to equip yourself with a renewed mind, a renewed attitude, renewed emotions and a renewed will… these are all elements of your soul. (The implanted Word has the POWER to PROSPER and to save your soul - James 1:12)
A Spirit-controlled, grace generated attitude of FAITH that is fueled, fed and continually re-generated by the implanted Word. A Spirit-controlled, grace generated attitude of FAITH creates an anointed atmosphere for miracles around you that turns setbacks into steppingstones to promotion, tests into testimonies, and trails into triumphs!
In His amazing love, Nick
