Is our attitude, right?
In our Christian life, do we gauge Christian walk by what we do or by our attitudes? One of the things we have to ask ourselves as Christians is why do we do the things we do. What do I mean by that? We can go to church, can teach Sunday school, sing in the choir, give money to the church, be a Deacon and we might be doing them for the wrong reason. We can do many good ministry deeds and our hearts might not be right spiritually. These acts of service in themselves are good, but we do not want to do them with an attitude like we are checking them off a checklist instead of doing them with the power of the Holy Spirit. This can lead us down the slippery slope of legalism. We don’t want the Christian life to be a list of dos and don’ts. God doesn’t want that for us also.
Here is what God wants the Holy Spirit to work within us to affect our attitudes in order to produce good actions. This is called the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians.
Galatians 5:22, 23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
God wants us to have a Spirit-filled life that affects our attitudes, which in turn affects our actions.
God doesn’t want us just to do things on the outside without our hearts being right on the inside. Jesus talked about this with the Pharisees, on the outside they appeared righteous and holy, but on the inside they were extortionist and over indulged in their lifestyle.
Matthew 23: 25 – 26
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Let’s take care of the inside first with living a Spirit-filled life and be Spirit led in doing our Christian ministries.
