Positive Mental Attitude

The world tells us that we are to have a positive mental attitude; however, what the world is talking about is "faith". However, faith must always have an object. The humanistic view is to have faith in your self. The providential view is to have faith in circumstances (lady luck). The brotherhood view is to have faith in your fellowman. The problem is that all of these will sooner or later fail. However, there is a type of faith that never fails because it it based upon Someone who never fails.

"Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary: and they shall walk, and not faint"
(Isaiah 40:30-31).

We should begin by seeing what faith is not. (1) It it not just a wish or desire. I could wish that I was someone else, but that would never happen. (2) Faith is not "knowledge" in the natural. If we intellectually know something, it is knowledge, but not faith. Faith is seeing beyond the natural. (3) Faith is not hope. Hope is truth not yet realized. I have a sure hope in going to Heaven when I die, but I have yet to realize the experience. (4) Faith is not an unfounded "belief". As a child, I was taught to believe in Santa Claus. However, Santa Claus does not exist. (5) Faith is not a repetition of thoughts or words such as, "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can." Even Christians sometimes do this in "claiming the promises" of God. (6) Faith is not a leap across a wide, deep chasm of the unknown. We just don't walk up to the Grand Canyon of life and leap across it having an faith experience. However, some of us, at times, look forward to such experience expecting, standing at the edge of the canyon, expecting God to magically come and take us across, somehow. (7) Faith is not a random picking of the promises of God. Sometimes we play the open the Bible to the promise game expecting God to hop when we point to a promise.

The only true positive mental attitude comes from God.

What Faith is:

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith

2. It is based upon the Word of God. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked

5. Faith comes out of a relationship and daily fellowship with God. "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23).

6. It is substance (spiritual concrete). It is something solid (spiritually) that we can stand upon. It is evidence or proof as a court case. It is like a deed to property. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

7. It is extremely powerful. "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Matthew 17:20).

8. It is often based upon past experience with God. (see Hebrews 11:1ff) We can grow in faith. Our faith may be tested. We can stretch and increase our faith. "And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith" (Luke 17:5).

9.It is a confident expectancy that God will perform His Word. "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in the faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform" (Romans 4:20-21).

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works

11. It is a belief in that which is impossible for man, but not for God. "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all thing are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23).

12. It brings security and prosperity. "And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper" (2 Chronicles 20:20).

13. It enables us to work the works of God. "Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:28-29).

14. It is the only way to please God. "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6)

15. Faith works through love. "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6).

16. Faith is required for prayer. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed" (James 1:5-6).

Faith is a walk:

(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

2. When we walk in faith, we are walking in the Spirit. "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:4).

3. When we walk in faith, we are walking in resurrection power. "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).

4. When we are walk in faith, we are free from sin. "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23).

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called

6. When we walk in faith, we are walking in light. "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (I John 1:6-7).

7. When we walk in faith, we are walking after Jesus. "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" (I John 2:6).

8. When we walk in faith, we are walking in love. "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour" (Ephesians 5:2).

9. When we walk in faith, we are walking in truth. "I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father" (II John 1:4).

10. When we walk in faith, we are walking in divine knowledge "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen" (II Peter 3:18).

11. When we walk in faith, we are walking in Jesus. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:" (Colossians 2:6).

12. When we walk in faith, we are walking in the fear of the Lord. (The fear of the Lord is knowing that God will discipline his children when they do wrong.) "Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied" (Acts 9:31).

13. When we walk in faith, we are walking in humility. "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8).

And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised

15. When we walk in faith, we are walking in obedience. "But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith" (Romans 16:26).

A true positive mental attitude (faith) proceeds from God and causes God to intervene in our lives in a supernatural way as we receive it and act upon it.