Attitudes...

I've been reading a book for my Kairos group this semester called "The Prodigal God" by Timothy Keller. If you want to be completely wrecked and convicted by God, I suggest you read this book, because that is the exact place I found myself in a couple nights ago.

The book talks a lot about the different brothers in the parable Jesus told (most commonly known as The Prodigal Son", though not really an accurate description). In the parable, the elder brother represents the religious people, the people who think they are of a higher moral and spiritual class than the younger brothers. God has just been convicting me of how much I can act like the elder brother. How often I look down at someone because I don't think that they are making the right choices in their lives! It's so stupid. I look at people and think their not living their lives in the right way, but I'm still living with so much pride and deceit in my own life! Really, as Timothy Keller illustrates in his book, the elder son is so much worse off than the younger son because the elder son is denying the fact that there is anything wrong with his relationship with God.

One of the other points that Keller brings up is that many younger brothers have been driver away from the church because of the elder brothers' attitudes of moral superiority. I got to thinking, how many people have I pushed away from the church and from God because of my attitude? How many people might be living for Christ today, if I had only shown them love instead of hate, annoyance, disgust and judgement?

After reading all of this and repenting before God for my attitude in the past over all this, I have started a new prayer: That my actions wouldn't be about me or for my own glory, that they would not come from a place of annoyance, hatred, or feelings of superiority, but out of love, love for God and love for others.

What about you? Are your actions showing love or are you acting as a judge? How many people might be on their way to heaven today if our attitude was different in the past and how many can we take with us now if we change our attitudes?