ATTITUDE

Your attitude determines your altitude. It shapes the quality of your fulfilment, the measure of your impact, and ultimately the value you bring to every sphere of life. Of all the things a believer must cultivate, few are as defining and far-reaching as the attitude of the heart — that inner disposition toward God, toward life, and toward others which colours every word spoken and every action taken.

The Model of John the Baptist

Few figures in all of Scripture demonstrate a right attitude more beautifully than John the Baptist. Here was a man who had gathered an enormous following, who had captured the spiritual attention of a generation, and who stood at the very threshold of the greatest story ever told. And yet, when Jesus appeared on the scene and the crowds began to transfer their loyalty, John’s disciples came to him troubled. They expected their master to be threatened. Instead, they found a man settled, serene, and completely at rest in his God-given identity.

John 3:27–30  John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.

These words are not the words of a defeated man. They are the words of a man who understood his assignment and was secure enough in it that another’s success caused him no grief. John did not need Jesus to diminish so that he could shine. He was the friend of the bridegroom — and the friend rejoices at the bridegroom’s voice. That is a picture of the right attitude: finding your joy in the fulfilment of God’s purpose, not in the preservation of your own prominence.

Jesus Himself would later pay John the highest tribute ever given a human being:

Matthew 11:7–11  And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Think carefully about this commendation. Jesus was not praising John for his miracles, his eloquence, or even his doctrine. He was praising John for his character — for the quality of the man he was. John was no reed shaken by the wind. He was not a man who shifted with the opinions of others or who required the approval of the crowd to know who he was. He stood firm, not because he was proud, but because he was grounded. That groundedness is the fruit of a right attitude.

The Blessed Attitudes

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus opened His greatest teaching not with doctrinal propositions but with a description of the attitudes that characterise the citizens of the kingdom of heaven:

Matthew 5:1–4  And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

To be “poor in spirit” is not to be spiritually impoverished or emotionally defeated. It is to recognise one’s utter dependence on God — to have the interior disposition of a person who knows that without God they have nothing, and with God they have everything. This is the foundational attitude of the kingdom. It is humility not as a performance but as a lived conviction. Those who mourn are those who are genuinely moved by the things that move the heart of God — and the comfort promised to them is nothing less than the consolation of divine nearness.

The Danger of Pride: Haman as a Warning

Against the beauty of John’s attitude, we may set the story of Haman in the book of Esther as a sober warning. Haman was a man of great position and apparent success, and yet he could not enjoy a single blessing in his life because one man, Mordecai, refused to bow to him. Everything Haman had — his wealth, his family, his influence at the highest court in the known world — was poisoned by his pride. One slight was enough to undo the pleasure of all his advantages. Pride made him miserable. And ultimately, pride destroyed him.

The attitude of pride is corrosive because it makes your wellbeing contingent on the actions and acknowledgements of other people. When your sense of self depends on others bowing to you, on always being seen and honoured and promoted, then your peace is perpetually under threat. Anyone at any time can take it from you simply by withholding what you demand. That is no way to live.

Moses: The Attitude of Intercession

Moses presents us with one of the most astonishing displays of right attitude in the entire Old Testament. When Israel sinned gravely at Sinai, God made Moses an extraordinary offer:

Exodus 32:10–13  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

God was offering Moses a new beginning — a fresh nation built upon his own lineage. The proud man would have accepted the offer and congratulated himself on his promotion. Moses refused it. He stood in the gap for the very people who had frustrated and failed him. And then he went further still:

Exodus 32:31–32  And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin —; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

Moses was willing to forfeit his own eternal standing for the sake of the people under his care. This is not the attitude of a man who was looking for personal advancement. This is the attitude of a servant — a man who had so completely surrendered his own agenda that the welfare of others had become his consuming concern. It is the attitude that reproduces the very heart of God.

The Call to Humility

The posture of both John the Baptist and Moses is captured in one enduring principle that runs through the whole of Scripture: God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. The word “resists” in the Greek is a military term — it means to array oneself in battle formation against an enemy. When a person walks in pride, they do not merely lose God’s favour; they gain God’s active opposition. But when a person walks in humility, the inexhaustible grace of God flows toward them without measure.

James 4:6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

The apostle Peter gives us the practical application of this principle:

1 Peter 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

Notice that humility is not merely a trait — it is a deliberate act. “Humble yourselves.” It is a choice, made consciously, consistently, in the face of circumstances that might otherwise tempt us toward self-assertion and self-promotion. And the promise attached to this choice is extraordinary: exaltation in God’s own time, by God’s own hand. The man or woman who refuses to exalt themselves and instead places their confidence entirely in God will find that God becomes their greatest advocate.

Conclusion

Attitude is not a peripheral concern. It is the very architecture of a person’s life. Your altitude in the kingdom — the level of fruitfulness, influence, and blessing you attain — is determined not primarily by your gifting or your opportunities, but by your attitude. John the Baptist’s willingness to decrease so that Christ could increase is what earned him the highest commendation ever given to a human being. Moses’ willingness to stand in the place of others, even at cost to himself, is what established him as the meekest man on the face of the earth.

Cultivate the right attitude. Choose humility. Refuse the corrosion of pride. Cast your cares on God and trust in His exaltation. For the one who humbles himself under the mighty hand of God will find, in due time, that God’s hand is lifting them higher than they could ever have lifted themselves.