A Right Attitude

It is God’s good purpose that we should make progress under difficulties, as well as in peaceful times, so that our sense of God may be strong, and able to endure.

It’s our attitude towards things that determines our progress. A person who complains and grumbles about his tasks, gets no benefit from them. But if he regards them as training for higher things, he’ll rejoice in them and profit thereby.

In order to harden steel, so that it will be strong, and retain its sharp edge longer, it is heat treated. It’s heated red hot and then plunged into cold water.

Perhaps the divine purpose back of some of our trials, that seem to swing between discord and harmony, is to sharpen our spiritual sensibilities.

Steel would receive no temper unless it was both heated and chilled. A student might retreat to some quiet place in order to gain a sense of God’s nearness, far removed from the upsetting contact with the world. But of what value would such a sense of good be? It wouldn’t wear well. It would be so fragile that the first human storm arising from contact with problems would shatter it.

How can we declare that none of these things move us, until we have proved it?

It is our attitude toward every experience that matters. If we whine, complain, or wonder why God is picking on us, when we get into hot or cold water, then we will get little spiritual growth.

Once a man was thrown into a pit. Instead of becoming angry, when people threw stones at him, he used the stones to build steps, and climbed to freedom.

When we have the right attitude toward persecution or affliction, we’ll never be ashamed of our problems, or personalize the rough experiences. Instead we’ll rejoice at whatever plunges us into a hot or cold experience, and come out victorious.