Attitude—the way we perceive things—is important because it determines our outcomes. For instance, the performance of an airplane depends upon its attitude.

If you raise the nose of the airplane, you have changed its attitude and consequently, the performance of the airplane. If you lower the nose, you change the attitude and consequently, the performance.

It's the same in life. Your attitude dictates your performance. If you have a wrong attitude, you will perform poorly. Many Christians seem to have a negative attitude about everything.

You say, "Good morning!" to them, and they say, "Just wait—all hell will break loose before lunch." I've known Christians who got upset over the expression, "Have a good day." Have you ever seen people who got mad at you when you told them to have a good day?

There were Christians who got mad at Oral Roberts for saying, "Something good is going to happen to you." Some religious people got mad at him for saying, "God is a good God." And when he said God wants you to prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers (3 John 2), they were really angry. They wanted to stay negative. They wanted to stay broke and sick and continue to be failures.

Some Christians become angry if you try to take away their tribulations. "Bless God, we've been tribulating for forty years, and you're not going to stop us. Do you understand?"

"Jesus said in the world we shall have tribulations, and we're scriptural. We're the First Church of the Tribulation."

Yes, Jesus did say we would have tribulation in the world, but that's not where He stopped. He said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

Wrong Identification
You see, you can identify with the wrong thing. You can identify with the tribulation of the world, or you can identify with Jesus and His victory over the world.

The psalmist said, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous" (Ps. 34:19), and many people stop reading right there and identify with the afflictions. But that's not where the psalmist stopped. The complete verse says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." That's where our identification should be—with the deliverance, not with the afflictions.

Now, I'm not saying you won't experience afflictions, trials or tribulation in this life. You will. If you make a decision to live by faith, you will have trials. You will have tribulations. You will have adversity. But the point is that the Lord delivers us out of them all.

Most Christians need to raise the levels of their attitudes. We need to change the way we think. Your attitude, your perspective on things, can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

Let's raise our attitudes up to a positive level and stop identifying with the negative things in life.

No Use Looking At Ashes
Several years ago, I was asked to preach at Lester Sumrall's church. When I arrived by plane, one of his sons picked me up at the airport. About the first thing he said to me was, "Did you hear about our television station burning down?"

I said, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I did hear about it. What did Brother Sumrall say when it happened?"

And he said, "He wasn't here when the fire occurred, but as soon as he got home and we picked him up at the airport, I said, 'Daddy, the television station burned down. Do you want to go see it?'"

But Brother Sumrall just shook his head. "No," he said, "Why would I want to see the ashes? Build it back."

Now that's the proper perspective on adversity. That's a positive attitude. Brother Sumrall refused to go look at the ashes of his television station. He just looked at the opportunity to start over—and maybe build it better.

Source: One Word From God Can Change Your Destiny
by Kenneth and Gloria Copeland.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers