Heart Attitudes...

This is my paraphrase of a story Pastor Raul told in church yesterday. I have heard it before and this may not be word for word what he said...but you'll get the meaning.

A little girl and her father were going somewhere in the car. She was standing up on the seat and he told her to sit down and put her seat belt on. She continued to stand as he started to drive away. He told her again to sit down and put her seat belt on...she continued to stand. He pulled the car over sat her down and fastened her seat belt. As he drove away, he looked in his rear view mirror, she looked at him and said, " In my heart, I am still standing!"

When our Heavenly Father asks us to do something it is for our own good. Sometimes we kick and scream in our hearts that we don't want to do that thing He's asked of us. We go ahead and obey and we do it..but like this little girl, in our hearts we are still standing. We went through the motions of being obedient and on the outside it looks as if we were...but the heart attitude was one of rebellion.

I have learned and am still learning that we just can't go through the motions of obedience. We aren't fooling any one but ourselves when we do. God knows the motives of our hearts..He knows if the action of obedience is sincere and the motives are right. Take this sentence, worded the same way..but with different attitudes.

I'll go Lord, only because You want me to go. The heart attitude is I will go Lord, I may not want to, but I will go because You know what's best and I want to be obedient to what you have asked.

I'll go Lord, only because you want me to. The heart attitude is I'm going but only because I have to go because You want me to go, not because I want to go.

The first response is a humble response, one of surrender..the other response is one with selfish attitude. A response with rebellion.

One of these attitudes is the heart is still standing in the back seat. Oh my goodness, how many times have we had this attitude?

The attitude of our hearts has so much to do with everything we do..well, it actually has All to do, with everything we do. It not only applies to how we respond to the Lord but applies in every situation in our life. What is my heart attitude? Is it surrendered or rebellious?

We live in trying times and can be surrounded by trying people. It has to be a daily, minute by minute decision to have an attitude that is pure and motivated only by our love and obedience to the Lord.

This is my attitude of the heart story....

Things were coming at me like ocean waves a couple years back. I felt like I was rolling with the punches pretty good. It was one medical test after another and a year of continual ear infections. I started to get a little overwhelmed. I wanted to have the right attitude so I would say,"Whatever, Lord." I'd be laying there having another ultra sound and again I would say, "Whatever, Lord." I thought I was being surrendered...NOPE. It was my way of handling the situation for the moment, but it was far from having a surrendered attitude to God in my circumstances. Need I say, I quit saying "whatever." Not my will, but Yours Father," is the desire I have for my heart attitude now. I try never to say, "Whatever" anymore because no matter how I use it...it's an attitude!

My challenge to all of us today is...

Let's not have our hearts still be standing when we have been told to sit down!

Amen?