In the New Testament, Ephesians 4:20-23 mentions our attitude: “You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds.” [NIV]
The word for attitude in Ephesians 4:23 is the Greek word, “pneuma” and it means “breath.” We get our word pneumonia from it. It is sometimes translated as “spirit.” Our attitude is the breath of our mind. As vital as breath is to the body, attitude is to the mind of the believer. It shapes every part of our lives as Christians. In fact, attitude shapes our daily life more than anything else including our circumstances. It is the single most important determination in how we live our lives.
Viktor Frankl was a renowned psychiatrist and Holocaust Survivor. He survived several years in concentration camps, including Auschwitz. His parents and his wife did not. He wrote a best seller titled, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” which sold more than nine million copies. Frankl believed that we could only truly be happy when we have found meaning in life.
One of Frankl’s most powerful ideas is that we can choose our attitude, even in the most difficult of situations. He wrote: “We, who lived in concentration camps, can remember the men who walked through the huts of others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
“ . . . everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances . . ..”
The breath of our minds is as basic as the breath of our bodies. If we are to have life and that more abundantly, we must have a new attitude, an attitude that mirrors God’s own attitude, an attitude that is full of compassion, resounds with joy, and has a single focus on things above. It is as basic to eternal life and that more abundantly as the breath of our bodies is to natural life.
Consider your circumstances, then consider your attitude. You alone determine your attitude in any given set of circumstance. You alone control the way you think, how you react to your emotions, and how you will handle even the most adverse circumstance. May God bless you and help you to be “made new in the attitude (spirit, breath) of your minds.”
