It's a Matter of Attitude

[HKHaugan]

It’s a Matter of Attitude

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you’re doing (1Th.5:11).”

Why do we think the things we do, do the things we do, feel the feelings we do and see other people the way we do?  It’s a past something, an impress being relived in the present.  It’s our heart’s conditioning after we have had some experience that was pleasant or one that hurt us or one that made us feel guilt or one that made us change from what we were.  That conditioning comes from a set of experiences remembered and not remembered.  When we come into any situation we respond in a way that reflects the effects of those moments whether or not we are conscious of their origin.  That reflection is what we call a stronghold.  It has a strong hold on how we think and act.

The Lord was really on to something when He talked about the heart (Mark 7:21-23).  He identified the real problem of sin and its specifics.  It’s why we need Him to be our Savior and Lord.  What He identified are the nature of strongholds, the unseen things lying within the heart that motivate us to act the way we do.  They are spiritual realities that form attitudes to meet the momentary situations we find ourselves in.  This is why Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts be enlightened (Eph.1:18).    If we let the “Light” in we can see the issues of sin and let the Spirit work us through them.

So, what we see with the heart is this: strongholds are attitudes, forged consciously and unconsciously, having found a hiding place in our heart.  Attitude, as used in Scripture (Gk.- phroneima), has several meanings but essentially describes the disposition of the heart to be prideful. The heart’s tendency says, “Me first.” Therefore, attitudes are self-defensive in nature, the product of the spirit of fear.  That’s because fear attacks the central reality in all of us, aloneness.  All of us as individuals live in different bodies and experience the self as an alone being.  Thus, we have described the nature of sin and its purpose.  Sin isolates, separates and agitates to keep us self-conscious, self-controlled and self-concerned.   So, sin is the mother of the stronghold.  

Strongholds have a double face.  The first is internal, the ‘I-could-kick-myself’ kind, others like ‘No-matter-what-I-do-I-can’t-win’ kind, ‘No-one-ever-takes-me-serious’ ‘I feel rejection wherever I go.’  Self-isolation within.

The second is the external “Those people’ ‘Trailer trash’ ‘Our kind of people’ plus all the ethnic and divisive judgmental descriptions used to separate people from one another.  ‘That’s a woman for you’ ‘All men are that way’ exemplify this condition of ‘stronghold-ism.’ 

Then there is pessimism, optimism, perfectionism and their aligned fears.  These produce frustration, anger, despair, depression and a feeling of hopelessness.  Strongholds are our personal ‘land of make-believe.’  They’re wishful thinking acted out.  They tell the world “I’m in control.”

Paul identifies them very clearly.  They are “…arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (2Cor.10:5).”  Therefore, we need to keep four things in mind when we talk about strongholds.

First, they are attitudes. They are discomforts the heart feels and the mind, apart from God, finds reasons to explain them. 

Second, they are heart centered. Jeremiah nails it when he says, “The heart is deceptive above all things (Jer.17:9).”  The root of deception is fear of exposure, rejection and loss of self-worth.  Bottom line?  Pride!  The heart feels alone all the time and the spirit of pride fills the gap.

Third, they are sin inspired.  Sin is the devil’s ego inspiring fear and pride to serve its self-centering goal.  Sin is his weapon to separate us from God. 

Fourth, they are man’s wisdom as opposed to God’s (Gen.3).  We find ways to hide, shift blame, cover ourselves and manipulate.

Like death and taxes, building strongholds, attitudes, to handle life’s demands, is inevitable.  So, what stronghold will you decide is best for you?  Will it be a series you construct or one that is secure in every situation? 

When we read the Gospels, we see the reactions to Jesus’ presence.  Those reactions were strongholds that were exposed as such.  They were real then and they are real now.  To counter strongholds the Lord has provided Himself as a replacement for all the self-conceived devices we use to protect ourselves from painful intrusions that stab our minds, hearts and spirits.  What He does is to become the single stronghold in our life (Ps.18:2).  Having a relationship with Him exposes the strongholds we have devised in our lives before we accepted Him.

Instead of having to devise a stronghold to meet any perceived invasion of the heart, mind and spirit, which could cause us to create many, the Lord brings Himself as the Mind, Heart and Spirit of God to be our One Stronghold enabling us to face every and all circumstance in every next moment (Ps.27:1). What we discover is that what we have believed, trusted and had faith to act upon before Him was scattered, disconnected, illogical and fear-driven.  We were acting only for ourselves in a moment of need.  Now in Jesus, the One replaces the many.  Every moment is living for Him with Him.

So, as we are aware of the moment by moment life we live, whatever crops up from our past multi-attitude conditioning, we place before our One Stronghold, the Lord Jesus, and let Him replace it with His attitude.  “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…who humbled Himself…(Php.2:8).”  His stronghold was His Father.  As He prayed to His Father, “Not my will but your will be done (Lk.22:42),” so this is our prayer as well.  Whenever some past attitude pops into our mind that is part of our old self-protective response, we take that thought captive and make it obedient to the Lord (2Cor.10:5).  This is how we take up our cross.

Strongholds can be what we call hang-ups, habits, emotional safety nets, intellectual strategies, physical pursuits, careers, economic goals, social groups, religion instead of relationship.  They are the expression of our attitudes.  These are the very things Jesus dealt with in His parables, in His teaching principles, in His miracles, in the places He went and with people He met along the way.  If you want a quick fix on where your strongholds are, check your reactions to the things that upset you when you look at TV, are in a meeting, having a discussion with someone you don’t know, your spouse or your children say something irritating to you, you’re treated harshly by a superior, the constant blur of traffic annoyances, you pass someone dressed in bizarre clothes, your team loses, your team wins and on and on.  You’re in pain and you want the world to know it.  These are the strategies that give you an identity. They reveal the attitudes that are our heart’s strongholds.  I need you to see me, to accept me, to know I’m worth something.  The problem is, in the spiritual realm there are evil spirits willing to assist your search for meaning and identity, to keep you from accepting the One Stronghold, Jesus, Savior and Lord.

Take religion for example.  Religion as a stronghold is the very thing Jesus confronted in the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Sanhedrin, the governing body of Israel.  It’s an identity thing, isn’t it?  Religion assumes you can have a safe substitute for a personal relationship with the Lord God by being a member of a religious group.  You can work hard at it and put it in your ego bank and pull out your resume when you die and stand before your Creator.  Religion as a system of thought and behavior is never a personal insurance policy guaranteeing eternal life.  Religion is ego centered and self-justifying.  Rome was a religion to its citizens. It was the cover for all the belief systems of its day.  You could believe in anything as long as you honored Caesar first.   All kinds of religions accompanied the emperor of Rome.  Imagine the effect that kind of thinking has.  You are never free to become what you were made for.  You are always subject to the attitudes and opinions of others and they are constantly changing depending on who has the power when you are in their company.

Jesus took upon Himself a radically opposite approach, a personal relationship with His Father extended relationally wherever He went.  “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work (1Jn.3:8).”  Strongholds are the subtle work the devil instigates.  Jesus lived and died to give us an eternal relationship with His Father and Him through faith.  His only stronghold was His relationship with His Father and obeying His Father’s will.  He allowed strongholds; the religious, political, social and economic attitudes of the world, to kill Him.  But they couldn’t kill His relationship with His Father.  That’s the reason for His Resurrection and His gift of the Holy Spirit sealing a personal relationship with God when we receive Him.  Until we have a conscious spiritual relationship with God, our personal strategies will keep us in aloneness with its victimizing fear and pride building attitudinal strongholds on shifting sands that blow away into an eternity of aloneness.  “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal.5:1).”  True relationships begin only when God the Son becomes the stronghold in all our relationships.  He is our eternity.

When Jesus gave us the mission of making disciples for Him, it was to be done while we’re on the way. The Greek word poreuthentes (going), carries a meaning of passage and travel thus, while you are on the way.  This stronghold business is what keeps us from making disciples while we are on the way.  But it is precisely while we’re on the way that strongholds pop up and prevent us from being witnesses.  If it is while we’re on the way then, whenever a stronghold pops up, whatever it is, we deal with it and move on.  All your hang-ups don’t have to be solved before you start your worship, mission and ministry.  Paul didn’t stop his mission until he solved his thorn issue (2Cor.12).  He found God’s grace was sufficient while he was on his way through.  ‘Thorns’ may just be part of our testimony we share with others whose thorns get in their way.  We have a ‘looking forward’ mission and ministry.

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you’re doing (1Th.5:11).”