EPILOGUE: CHANGE... BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE
I just sent Luke, my fifteen-year-old son, to basketball practice, and before I did I gave him the “attitude speech.” He’d been feeling pretty frustrated with his coach recently, thinking his efforts were not being rewarded as quickly or as fully as he would like. So I called him in and gave him the speech. He knows it so well he could give it word for word himself.
“Attitude is everything,” I said. “Work hard, encourage others, do your best! Basketball is not your life. Set your eyes upon the long-term goals, and in time you will be rewarded. You have so much to be thankful for; focus upon the positive. Attitude determines outcome, so make sure yours is good. God will honor that in His time and in His way.”
He nodded knowingly, set his jaw as one who is choosing his attitude, and rushed out the door into the cold winter air.
The world is a very cold place and will do all it can to push and pressure you into a miserable attitude. There will always be enough injustice and irritation to keep you in the wilderness if you choose to murmur and complain and criticize and covet and doubt and rebel. On the flip side, though, life also has plenty of people and situations to generate thankfulness and love and faith and submission and contentment—attitudes that cause life to flow with the “milk and honey” of God’s blessing and abiding presence. The choice is truly ours.
Of course, some of our choices are limited. At different times, we reach forks in the road of our lives where we really cannot control very much. I’ve heard people tell me:
“I can’t control where I work.”
“I can’t control where I live.”
“I can’t control who my authorities are or how they treat me.”
Sound familiar? The only thing we can always control is our attitude. As we said much earlier in this book, you can choose your attitude. Sometimes it is the only thing you can choose. We all face those times when we have little control. During those times, the only thing that will separate us for good or bad is our attitude. We can choose to respond with Promised Land attitudes.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Do you ever find yourself down and you don’t know why? Does that ever happen to you? It’s like, “Everything is going great! I love living here and I love being with these people and I love what I do!” All of a sudden, it’s like, “I don’t love any of that anymore.” Unexpectedly, you find yourself down in the dumps and discouraged and confused! “What happened!”
Has that ever happened to you? Is it the weather? Is it a relational thing? “What’s bothering me exactly?” Well, I used to wonder about that a lot. What’s bothering me? But I don’t wonder anymore. I know what it is. And I hope after reading this book you know it too! It’s an attitude that I’ve chosen.
As we draw this book to a close, may we never forget how God feels about bad attitudes and why He feels so strongly.
TRUTHS ABOUT OUR ATTITUDES
First of all, the attitude reveals the true person. “The things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart,” Jesus said (Matthew 15:18 NKJV). Your attitude reveals the person you truly are. You can get your external behavior in order, but inside you’re still a mess. God is not just interested in soldiers that look the part; God wants us to be the part! He looks on the heart because that is where the true person resides. The goal is not a makeover but real heart nsformation, and that requires us to work on our attitudes.
Second, God is fired up about attitudes because attitudes predict the future. “As [a person] thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV). Attitudes are patterns of thinking formed over a long period of time. You can’t think in critical, negative, faultfinding, complaining ways without becoming that person! People say, “You are what you eat.” Well, to some degree that’s true, but in a deeper, more spiritual and eternal way, you are what you think! God is very concerned about our attitudes, because you become what you think about; your attitudes predict the future.
Third, God is focused upon heart attitudes because they are primarily vertical. There’s a horizontalness to most sin; stealing and lying definitely affect personal relationships. Ultimately, those actions are against God as well, but attitudes are definitely vertical. In every passage we have studied, there is a phrase that links the attitude to God. “Why have you done this against God? Why have you rejected the Lord your God?” God considers our attitudes directed against Him. That’s why He takes them so seriously.
We can see this clearly in another murmuring recorded in Numbers 21. Forty years after the wilderness rebellion at Kadesh Barnea, the children of those who died in the wilderness finally were on the edge of the Promised Land. Most scholars agree that Numbers 21 records an event that took place after all of the original murmuring generation had died. The children, now adults, knew the whole story; they had an incredible opportunity to learn from their parents mistakes and inherit God’s favor instead of judgment. But they didn’t, and God had to deal with them accordingly.
The land of Edom was in their way and they wanted to cut through, but the Edomites, descendants of Esau, opposed the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who were the descendants of Jacob, Esau’s younger brother. And the descendants of Jacob (Israel) “became impatient because of the journey” (Numbers 21:4). And they complained.
“The people spoke against God and Moses. ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water. We loathe this miserable food!’” (verse 5). What’s going on here? Yes, more murmuring, this time in the form of complaints.
Notice how aggressively God dealt with the attitudes in wilderness generation number two: “The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died” (verse 6). The words “fiery serpents” literally mean snakes that produced burning. These snakes apparently had a venomous bite that produced a burning in the bodies of the people. Now serpent in the Bible is a picture of sin and, in the Garden of Eden, Satan and the serpent. And so it’s not surprising that God sent these fiery serpents as a consequence of the people’s sinfulness.
After all this, there came an excellent response to the Lord’s chastening. “So the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned’” (verse 7). Now that’s repentance. With all five wilderness attitudes, we have emphasized the need for repentance. Every good step with God begins with the humility of saying, “Do you know what, God? I’m wrong; You’re right.” In this case, “My attitude is wrong, God. I have no excuse for it. All my rationalizations—I’m done with them! I shouldn’t be the critical person that I am. There is no reason for me to be covetous the way I am.”
THE POINT OF REPENTANCE
If you have read this whole book and not had an honest point of repentance with God and said, “God, that’s why I’ve be Garde troubled! That’s why I’ve been so discouraged! It’s my attitude, Lord! Right there!” If you haven’t done any specific business with God, then you have sort of wasted your time. But it’s not too late! If God has been faithful to speak to your heart—repentance from murmuring will bring access to God’s provision for victory.
The people of Israel couldn’t get the grace that they were about to get without that sentence, “‘We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.’ And Moses interceded for the people” (verse 7). The people were very specific with Moses, and no doubt Moses was the same with God; they wanted the serpents gone. God answered Moses’ prayer, but He didn’t remove the serpents. Sound like your life? Is God letting you feel the weight of all the garbage you create by not trusting Him? God seldom removes the hard thing in our lives that brought us to our knees. Instead He gives us the grace and the strength to endure in daily doses and keeps us at the place of dependence.
God’s not quick to take that off our shoulders because He knows “no serpents = no sense of need. No sense of need = no coming to God.”
So we go to God and we
’re like, “God, get that out of here!” and God’s like, “No way! That’s the thing that brought this moment about! That’s the last thing that I’m going to take out of your life at this point! That’s the thing that brought you to see how much you need Me!” God seldom removes the serpents, but in His grace He provides relief and healing from their effect. That’s what He did for repentant Israel. Look again at Numbers 21.
The Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.” And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. (verses 8–9)
Moses had a craftsman make this bronze serpent, and he stuck it up on the top of the pole in the middle of the camp. So everyone was getting bitten by these snakes, and God’s deal was, “Do you know what? If you’ll just look you’ll be healed.” I doubt if they needed any training workshops; God always makes His provision simple and available. If a snake bites you, what do you do? Look and you will be healed. How simple is that? But the text clearly seems to imply that some people didn’t look, and some people weren’t healed.
IGNORING THE REMEDY
You say, “No way!” Way! There were people, I believe, right in that camp who understood the plan, needed healing, but they would not look.
You say, “Why would people not look?”
First, they may have been denying their need for help. They were like, “I can heal myself. I don’t need God’s remedy; I don’t like God. I don’t like His authority in my life. I’m going to handle this my way!”
Second, maybe they denied the goodness of God. “Well, maybe God won’t heal me. Maybe it’s a trick. Maybe it won’t be best for me. I’m going to keep control of things myself.”
And, third, maybe they denied the problem. They were like, “I’m not really sick.”
“But, dude! What are those teeth marks on your leg?”
“Oh, that? I scratched myself. That’s not a serpent bite. I don’t really have a problem.” Just like today with so many denying their true need.
CHANGE ...BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE
It would be wrong to assume that you will always be as open to the message of God’s Word as you are in this moment. The call to change is one you should act on now. If you are a Christian, heed the warnings of the Scriptures in Numbers 11–16, and begin, with God’s help, to change your attitude. If you do not know Christ, realize fundamental change can only take place through a relationship with Him.
In John 3:14 we are told that the bronze serpent is a picture of Christ. I’m not one of those people who likes to turn the Bible into an allegory, but when the New Testament says that something in the Old Testament is a picture—it is! In this context, Jesus Christ Himself was talking with Nicodemus, a man who was searching to find the truth.
He came to Christ and asked, “How does this work, exactly?”
Jesus answered, “You have to be born again.”
Nicodemus was like, “What? How can I enter into my mother a second time?”
Jesus was like, “No, no. Not born twice physically. You have to be born spiritually just like you were born physically.” (See John 3:2–7 for the actual dialogue.) Later Jesus looked to the events in Numbers 21 and told Nicodemus, “‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14–16). If we turn from our sin and look to Christ by faith as the only basis for our forgiveness, we can have eternal life. As someone has said: “Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once.”
Do you have assurance that your sins are forgiven? If you were to die in this moment, step into eternity, and stand before a holy and righteous God, what you would say? If God asked you, “Why should I let you into heaven?” what would you say? Can you look to a time in your life where you turned from your sin and embraced Jesus Christ by
faith as the only basis for your forgiveness? Have you simply heard about that, or have you made that choice yourself? This is something you want to be sure about. Maybe today it’s time for you to decide.
Just like the Israelites did with the bronze serpent on the pole, if we look to Christ, we can be healed of our sin problem and know that our sins have been forgiven. These are my final paragraphs in the “attitudes” study. There is an urgency to this message. I hope you will never think that this book is about trying harder to have a good attitude. Christ is the answer! If you’re not turning to Him and walking intimately and personally with Him, you will never escape the wilderness. Even if you are a Christian, but are trying to do it yourself, it won’t work. Resolutions like, “I’m going to try to be more thankful. I’m going to try to be more loving,” simply won’t work. If you don’t allow Christ to live His life through you, if you don’t allow the Lord to accomplish what He wants through your yielded heart, your efforts will surely fail. “Christ in you [is] the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27), the Scripture says. It also affirms, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
A personal, intimate, daily walk with Christ is the only thing that can fuel the fire of your spiritual victory. If you don’t have it, you won’t experience it. Period. Looking to Christ is the only way to come to God, and looking to Christ is the only way to walk with God. He alone can lead us out of the wilderness of our own murmuring attitudes and lead us into the joy and fullness of God’s abiding presence.
LOOK UP
Maybe as you were reading this epilogue, you were acutely aware that you’re in that first group: You’re not sure that you’ve ever made a commitment of your life to Christ. You can do that right now. This could be your day of decision. It’s simple, but not easy:
A ccept the fact that you’re a sinner and that you deserve the judgment of a holy God.
B elieve in your heart that Jesus died to pay the penalty for your sins.
C onfess Him as your Lord and Savior. We commit our lives to Christ by doing the above, and we can affirm these steps by praying to God, which is simply calling out to Him. Here is a prayer to receive Christ that I commend. Let’s look up now, and do that.
God, I believe that You love me and sent Jesus Christ, Your Son, into this world to die and to pay the penalty for my sin. I acknowledge that I’m a sinner and have failed You in many ways. I know that I stand in need of Your forgiveness. Right now, by faith, I repent of my sin. I turn from that pattern of living that says, “You don’t matter, God.” I confess all the wrong that I have done, and I embrace Jesus Christ by faith as the only basis for my forgiveness. I’m not trying to earn Your favor. I’m not trying to work my way into heaven anymore.
Lord, I thank You for the promise that as many as receive You, to those you give the authority to be called the children of God, to those who believe in Your name [see John 1:12]. I thank You, Lord, in this moment by faith for allowing me to make the choice to trust in Christ alone. Thank You that in Jesus’ name I can pray. Amen.
Finally, here’s a prayer for those who have received Jesus and want a change of attitude through Him.
Lord, I do not have the strength to follow You. Forgive me for thinking that while I needed You to save me, that I was going to change myself. I’m asking You to flow Your grace and strength into my life. Every week of failed attempts reinforces to me how desperately I need Your help.
I invite You to fill me with Your Spirit and give me the strength that I need for every difficult circumstance and person I encounter. I ask that Your grace would help me put off all sinful attitudes and put on righteous ones in their place. I declare with gratitude that I trust You will change my attitudes, and that it’s definitely not too late! In Your name, Jesus, I pray. Amen.
STUDY GUIDE
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LORD, CHANGE MY ATTITUDE
Before It’s Too Late!
INVITATION AND INTRODUCTION
Objective : As a result of this study, participants will grasp the central theme of the book and begin to identify the “wilderness experiences” in their lives.
Welcome to this study of the book Lord, Change My Attitude Before It’s Too Late. It may come as some surprise to you, but half this book is based on the Old Testament book of Numbers. As you will discover, this much neglected book deserves closer attention.
The book of Numbers records a startling and troubling occurrence among the population of Israel. Within a relatively short time span, an entire generation disappeared. During forty years, everyone over the age of twenty died. The book of Numbers tells us how and why this tragedy occurred. And it offers us a vivid picture that explains certain key lessons in our own lives. It literally helps us “do the math” in our relationship with God!
If you haven’t read the Invitation and Introduction of the Lord, Change My Attitude (pp. 13–29), take a few minutes to do that right now.
#1—Prelude and Judgment: Read Numbers 13–14
The concept of muring is defined and subdivided into five distinct attitudes in the book. Each of these negative attitudes has a positive, identifiable counter-attitude, and these five positive outlooks can be summarized in a single term “contrastable” with murmuring— Praising.
Suggested remedy:
If murmuring is a demonic dissonance of destructive negative attitudes (complaining, coveting, criticizing, doubting, and rebelling),
Then praising is a holy harmony of Promised-Land attitudes (gratitude, contentment, love, faith, submission).
When we murmur, we turn any circumstance and surrounding into a wilderness; when we praise, we allow God to transform our circumstances and surroundings into hints of paradise.
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