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What It Takes

             May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5-6)

 

            My main prayer request has inspired others… WDA… Wisdom, Direction, and Attitude. Some people are amused by it. Others ask me what’s wrong that my attitude isn’t what I want it to be. I don’t know. It might be biological, psychological, circumstantial, or spiritual – somehow, I’m just not the sweetness and light and “everything’s coming up roses” sort of gal. I think it’s that I’m human and that I’m not God.

         On the other hand, since Paul mentions our attitudes and our minds frequently in his writings, it makes sense to me that they should be a matter of prayer. Today’s passage is a prayer or a blessing (if there’s a difference) about our attitudes. With keen insight, he mentions it in connection with the two things our attitudes need: endurance and encouragement. God gives endurance and encouragement. He gives the right attitude – which might not be what we call the “right attitude.”

            In fact, if we are to have one mind and one voice as we glorify God, we need to come together, communicate, and work with one another to the point where we can be unified. Our difficulties with our attitude gives us reason and need to turn to one another. The idea that we should be self-sufficient and never need someone’s kind help is contrary to Scripture. This doesn’t mean that we should forever remain a needy emotional wreck because then we cannot provide kind help to others in need. If you can be strong and offer aid in an area where I need it, I am supposed to be strong and offer aid in an area where you need it. That way, we bless each other and can glorify God together.

            It also requires that we learn how to encourage others according to the needs of the other. This goes back to Love Languages: words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, giving gifts, and acts of service. We must listen to one another, but the message and blessing we most need from one another is acceptance. We all want to be encouraged that we are not failures, not hated, not “nothing but a problem.” We all want to hear that we are doing something right and are allowed to feel the way we feel. Those things might be communicated differently to each of us, but it comes down to this… we all need to know that God loves us, and that other people love us. And if that’s communicated in the right way, we come together and can glorify God.

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