Every single morning you get up you get dressed. Most people spend a significant amount of time in front of the mirror every morning before going to school or work or to hang out with friends. You probably check yourself over before leaving your house every day to make sure you look good and there’s nothing wrong with what you’re wearing.

But do you consider what attitude you’re wearing when you leave your home every morning?

The Apostle Paul writes to the congregation of one of his churches, “You have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” He’s saying that we (as Christians) have taken off the old self, our old ways, our old attitudes that we had when we were walking in sin and unbelief. He writes that as Christians we need to have put on our new selves—made in the likeness of our Creator (God). Do you see? He’s not just saying that we need to be good. Paul’s not just saying that we should choose to wear righteousness and goodness. He’s not just saying that we should be like God. He’s saying that we were designed to be like the one who made us, the one in whose image we’ve been created. Let’s look more like we’re originally made to look.

However, often we do not act in a way that reflects our intended design or our Maker. We can be selfish. We can be greedy. We can often be judgmental. Whether kids, teenagers or adults, you’ve probably seen just how judgmental Christians can be.

“My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:1-4)

Do you realize that you’re being very judgmental when you exclude people, don’t talk to people or make them feel welcome at church? Are we aware that our cliques are sinful and that we’re showing favoritism which God deems as sinful?? God forgive me for being judgmental and showing favoritism.

You’ve probably heard before that pride is like the first, original sin. I think that part of the reason is that pride often shows itself as the root of many of our other sins. Wearing an attitude of pride appears in so many different forms.

“Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” (1 Peter 5:5-6)

So what Peter is saying here is take off your pride and instead put on humbleness. What is humility? It’s having a right view of yourself. I know that as human I tend to think of myself as more important than I ought to. Humility is the ability to not be thinking about how amazing you are, how everyone else would just be better if they were more like you or even emulated the characteristics you have. Humility is the ability to not to be putting yourself down and talking about how lame you are but rather to not even be thinking about yourself. Humility frees us from self-loathing, self-loving and self-worry. Because when you grasp a proper view of yourself, all that time you spent worrying about how you look, how others perceive you, hoping others like you, wanting others to be impressed with you, wanting others to feel sorry for you or wanting others to just notice you is freed up to be invested in other people and genuinely listening to them and caring for them.

Humility before God allows you to bend your knee, say you were wrong and that you are sorry. Pride doesn’t bend a knee, it doesn’t admit wrong. But a true humble person is someone who has no problem stepping aside, no problem asking for forgiveness. There is not a person on this planet who probably couldn’t use a little more humility in their lives, helping them view God as big, themselves as small in perspective to who God is and be freed up to concentrate on others rather than themselves.

These are just a few attitudes we need to take off and a few we should put on instead. So when you’re racing out the door tomorrow worrying about whether or not you remembered to comb your hair and weather your shirt matches your shoes or if anyone will notice the hole in your jeans, don’t forget to think about what sort of an attitude you’re wearing…

“But there must be a real giving up of the self. You must throw it away ‘blindly’ so to speak…The very first step is to try to forget about self altogether. Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look to Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”
C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.” Matt. 16:24

Every single day we must wake up and allow Christ to kill the old man. The flesh must die. The old man must be killed, the desires that raise up within you that desire things of the old man must die. Let Christ kill the old man every time he rears his ugly head. The old man will look strangely familiar—he will look more like you and be more dear to you then anyone else you know. But if Christ is to grow the New Man within you that looks more like Jesus, then the old man must go. There is no use in keeping him around, he will only drag you down to hell. The old flesh must die. When you’re angry at your parents and want to snap back at them for their guilt trips BAM, let Christ kill the old you. When you’re furious, running late and someone just cut you off in traffic, BAM, let Jesus kill the old you. When you’re offered to smoke some weed and you want to fit in, BAM, let Jesus stab in the chest with his knife, the old you. When you’re tempted to go farther than you should with your girlfriend or boyfriend, BAM, let Christ knock the old you on your back and kill you. For only once you give every fiber and ounce of yourself to Jesus can He raise to life a new you, one that you will not quite recognize but that will look with every passing day that you allow Him to control you to look more like Him.

“The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:25

He is absurd, always proving what we think we know to be wrong. His Kingdom seems upside down because we like things with a certain side up. His way of living is backwards to the ways the world lives.

To the unlovable, He is love. To the fatherless, He is their Father.

He is the Father to those who hate their fathers. He is a dictator to those who refuse to be ruled or surrender. He is a lover to those who have been burned by love. To those who do not believe in the unseen, He is unseen. To those who are blind, He is visible. To those who are wise, He is foolishness. Yet to those who are foolish, He presents Himself as wisdom and understanding. To those who would pray to false gods, He reveals their fabrication. To those who say that He is not there, He is present. For those who spread falsehood and lies, He is truth and honesty. To those who are judgmental, He is merciful and full of grace. To those who shake their fists demanding God give an answer, He is silent and does not respond.

To those who are thirsty, He is living water. To those who are starving, he is a feast.

To those who think they have everything, He is unobtainable and out of reach. To those who are at the end of their rope, He is their hero. To those who would have nothing to do with Him, He will not leave them alone. To those who are lonely, He is their friend. To those who are helpless, He is their helper. To those who are in great sorrow, He is their comfort. To those who believe God to be harsh, He is gentle. To the person who is selfish and obsessed with lust, He is selfless and loving. To the person who is filled with anger and hatred, He is full of peace and love. To the person searching for answers, He is both the question and answer. To the person who is at their beginning, He is also the period, the end. To the person who is at the end, He brings a new beginning. To the person who is dying, He brings life.

To those who would seek to harm others, He plans their ultimate ruin. To those who feel lost, His truth is a compass to guide them. To those who feel hurt, His breath is healing to their souls. To those who refuse to believe in Him, He is the wonder that confounds their understanding. To those who would come to Him, He is the door greeter to let them in. To those who seek revenge, He is the one to hide and conceal. To those who always need answers, He brings more questions. To those who seek to use Him for their own means, He evades them.

To those who demand Him to speak, He is silent. To the one who looks for reasons to doubt Him, He reveals reasons to believe. To those who would kill Him, He comes back to life. To those who evade the law, He brings judgment and justice. To those curse His people, He changes their words to blessing. To those who are greedy, He blocks their path and robs them in the night. To those who are generous with what little they have, He blesses them and makes their resources over flow with abundance. To those who sin against Him, He provides a way of redemption. To those who rest in their evil, He steals their peace in the night. To those who suffer punishment, He offers the promise of new beginnings.

To those who cannot speak up for themselves, He provides words to speak against kings and rulers. To those who wonder from Him for years in the desert, He raises a new generation of promise. To those who ask for double the power to do His work, He provides it. To the one who is betrayed, He provides a plan through it all. To the one who has nothing left, He multiplies even that little bit. To the one who is depressed and hungry, He provides ravens with food and angels to comfort them. To the one who thinks they are the last to serve Him, He provides hundreds who still stand strong. To the one is old and grey, He provides the promised child. To the one who relies on numbers, He diminishes those they count on. To the one who wrestles Him in dreams, He grants a new name.

To those who are ashamed, He provides a covering. To those who deny Him, He provides forgiveness and a new beginning. To those who left family and houses to follow Him, He provides family and homes for them wherever they go. To those who are trapped in by waters, He parts the way. To those who grumble and complain, He makes what they do have rot in their mouth. To those who run from Him, He sends even the storm and creature to chastise them.

He is where you would not think to look. He says things you would never imagine Him to say. His thoughts are above our own. To every man, woman and child, He is what you would not expect, He is often the opposite of what you would give, many times the opposite of what you want, but always exactly what you need.