INTRODUCTION:

If ten people who see you on a fairly regular basis were to evaluate you on the basis of your attitude, how would you come out?  On a scale of one to ten, if “1” were “mad at the world” and “10” were “in love with life,” put their ten scores together and what would your average be?  I suppose you could say, “What does it matter what other people think of my attitude,” but then of course you would already have earned yourself a low number even without their evaluations just from your response to the whole idea. 

Sometimes people judge attitudes based on whether they see you as being optimistic or pessimistic, that whole “either the glass is half full or half empty” thing.  As you meditate on the message from the Lord in today’s second lesson, take a look at your own attitude.  These nine verses rate pretty high as far as “Bible passages that many believers in Jesus regard as their favorites.”  They also go an awfully long way in shaping attitude.  So with what the Holy Spirit has to say here…

How About Some Optimism!

Not that there won’t be some dark days and some tough times, because their surely will, not that there’s never anything to frown about or be sad about, because there is, but how about some optimism running straight through it all based on the fact that the love God has for you cannot possibly fluctuate. There’s a constant in your life, and it’s God’s love for you, and that’s reason enough for not just a good attitude but a great attitude.

An underlying truth that helps us understand why we can be continually and uninterruptedly optimistic is the simple fact that God is on our side.  We don’t arrive at that truth by analyzing the various events of our lives.  We conclude that God is on our side by analyzing the main event in Jesus’ life.  God’s Son was born to serve as a substitute and sacrifice for everyone.  That’s the main reason he came.  When the time for that offering came, the fate of the world was in the hand of God, and what would he do?

On one hand, there is Jesus, eternally begotten of his Father before all worlds.  There has never been a time that he was not the dear Son of his Father.  The love between God the Father and God the Son is perfect and incomprehensible.  On the other hand, there is the population of this planet, all of us overqualified for all of God’s hatred and righteous anger.  The time comes when the holy, innocent Jesus is to be slaughtered for the sake of and in place of the unholy, guilty people of planet earth.  His fate’s in his Father’s hand–thumbs up to spare his life, thumbs down to let him die.

Here’s what God wants you to ask yourself.  When you see God, look first at his beloved Son and second at the sea of sinful humanity and then you watch him decide his Son’s fate with a thumbs down, can there really be any question as to whether or not God is for you?  No, there can’t be.  Yes, he is.  Since he is, and since he didn’t hold back Jesus but handed him over to death, he’s not going to hold back anything else that you need.  He’s going to do for you everything you need done and give to you everything you need to have.  There’s no way that he won’t!  He sacrificed his Son for you - he’s on your side.

That has a lot to say about attitude, because sometimes we act as if he’s not, as if he’s still angry at us because of our sins, as if he’s still going to send us to hell for them.  Why do we feel that way?  Because there are voices that still want to make us feel that way.  There’s the voice of the law (the commandments) screaming in our face, “Hey!!  You haven’t kept me!” (You’ve heard that voice, haven’t you! It’s dead on!)  There’s the voice of our conscience that loves to dredge up all the things we’ve ever done, especially the really shameful things, and nag and nag and nag and rob us of peace.  And there’s the voice of the evil one, Satan, the accuser, who arrogantly waltzes into the presence of God, accusing us before God and demanding that we pay the price.

Suffice it to say that we are at times less than optimistic because, sadly, we know that the case these voices are making against us is nothing less than a slam-dunk.  Till God kicks them to the curb and says, “Haven’t you heard?  The verdict is in – my verdict.  Not guilty.  No mistrial.  No appeals.  Not guilty.” 

Anyone want to tangle with God on that one?  Try to get his ruling overturned?  Good luck!  Christ died and paid for every sin.  God’s ruling stands.  Christ rose and silenced every accusing voice.  God’s ruling stands.  Christ is on his throne, exercising all his power for his people.  God’s ruling stands.  Christ has God’s ear in heaven, interceding for us non-stop.  God’s ruling stands.  With an oath on the blood of his Son, God tells you today that there’s nothing that can be held against you.  So how about some optimism!  God’s verdict cannot be turned over. 

Christ’s love cannot be turned off, not by anything.  There are seventeen examples of things that cannot separate us from Christ’s love for us – which ones would you like to hear about?   The list of seven is a list of crosses – things that Christians suffer because they’re Christians.  The list of ten opens it up to virtually anything not only under the sun but throughout the universe.  Have these things ever gotten the best of us, have they dragged us down, have they made us doubt God’s love or led us to disregard God’s promises?  Yes.  But have they ever stopped Christ from loving us?  Never.  They haven’t because they can’t.  In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Not with cocky self-confidence or arrogance but with a humble reliance on Jesus and a firm confidence in what he says, there’s an optimistic approach for every imaginable circumstance of life, good, bad or otherwise: Bring it on!  Life or death, height or depth, incredible prosperity or nuclear warfare - nothing can break me away from Christ’s love for me.  It can’t. Christ’s love is stronger.

How about some optimism??  How about some unbridled joy!!  What’s this glass half full or glass half empty stuff?  What ever happened to, “My cup runneth over”?   At the end of any given day, doesn’t Luke 2 still tell of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, and Mark 1 of a wilderness setting where Jesus had all wins and Satan had all losses?  Doesn’t Matthew 27 still tell of a cross stained with holy blood, and Luke 24 of a tomb with neatly folded grave clothes?  God is for you and Christ’s love cannot fail you.  Trust the good Lord to adjust your attitude accordingly.

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