Esther 5:13
“Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
Have you ever been around someone whose disposition is up and down? I like to say that a person like this has schizophrenic dispositions. A person like this can be very frustrating to be around because you don’t know which person is going to show up that day. This type of person can make a home a very unpleasant place to live. This type of person will cause tension in the workplace. This type of person will hurt the morale of a church or an organization.
Haman seemed to be a person who had schizophrenic dispositions. You find him in one passage of Scripture on top of the world, and then a few verses later he is on the bottom. In the verse above, you see that he was at the bottom, but in the previous two verses he was excited about all that befell him. In one moment he was on top of the world because he was invited to a banquet by the queen, and just a few moments later he was discouraged because Mordecai wouldn’t bow down to him. One moment he was feeling good because he was asked to come back to the queen’s banquet, and in the next moment he was down in the dumps because he passed by Mordecai. Haman’s disposition was very unstable, and the instability of his disposition had a direct impact on his life.
You must be very careful about having schizophrenic dispositions. Life is too short to be up and down all the time. You will destroy relationships and force yourself into loneliness if you are a person given to schizophrenic dispositions. Your family may put up with your schizophrenic disposition, but that is only because they are obligated to do so; however, there are many people who won’t put up with it, which can have an adverse effect on your future when it comes to employment and relationships.
If you are going to avoid schizophrenic dispositions, then you must learn not to let outside circumstances dictate your attitude. Haman’s attitude was directly impacted by outside elements over which he had no control. You can’t control what everyone else is doing, but you can control what you allow to affect your disposition. Outside circumstances are very fluid, and if you let them dictate your disposition, then you will have an unstable disposition.
Avoiding schizophrenic dispositions all comes down to one thing, let what you have on the inside dictate what your disposition is on the outside. If you have the love of God and the joy of the LORD in your heart, then you can easily avoid schizophrenic dispositions. If you receive joy from God’s love, then your joy will never cease for God’s love never changes. You can be on top side all of the time if you only let what’s on the inside dictate what you portray on the outside.
Friend, if you will receive your joy from the inside, then you can change your surroundings on the outside. A person who has the true joy of the LORD in their heart will change the attitude of their surroundings. Schizophrenic dispositions can be a thing of the past if you will let your joy come from the LORD. Make it a daily goal not to let outside circumstances dictate your disposition. Ask God to influence your disposition so that you can show the world that God gives true joy through all circumstances.