A couple weeks ago, I walk into a house that felt HOT! I walked into a wall of heat like I walked into the desert. My internal thermometer was reading “this is miserable.” So I go to the thermostat and change the temperature. A couple hours later (yes my a/c unit is weak), the temperature was normalized and it was good.
I could have just complained about the temperature and made other people miserable. Or I can go set a new temperature on the thermostat.
Proverbs 13:9 The life of the godly is full of light and joy,
but the light of the wicked will be snuffed out.
Almost anyone can tell whether a room is hot or cold. Almost anyone can identify a problem in this life. You can identify it in your job, your spouse, you parent, your kid, your church, and every once in a while yourself. Anyone can identity a problem. If you can identify a problem, this does not make you special. It just makes you human.
When you can change a situation without making the room too hot or cold, you are a thermostat. Jesus wanted his followers to be thermostats. He wanted them to change the temperature of wherever they went.
Paul and Silas were once in prison because they preached the gospel. At midnight, they starting singing worship songs out of a heart of joy. Their circumstances could have made them a thermometer and they could have been angry or discouraged. Like the Psalm, their life was full of light and joy. The jail is shaken and the doors open. The warden comes to find the doors open and Paul and Silas still in their cell. They lead this man to Jesus and his whole family gets saved. Why? They were a thermostat.
How to be a Thermostat?
- Don’t let your circumstances shape your internal temperature. It is easy to let our temporary problems shape our internal temperature. God has put His Spirit in you so you can choose light and joy.
- Don’t let your emotions cause you to set the wrong temperature. Remember who you are and whose you are! God has called you to change the world you are in not be changed by it!
- Invite God to give you light and joy. He is your source and wants to teach you how to be a thermostat, not just a thermometer.
You are a thermometer. You can feel the temperature. A thermostat needs a thermometer to know how to adjust. So choose to be more than a thermometer and change the world around you. Set the temperature at home, at work, at church, in your heart. Don’t let other people taint your ability to set the right temperature. Gossip kills. Negativity destroys. Fear corrupts. Joy brings hope. Light dispels darkness. Love covers.
So go be a thermometer!
Recklessly, obsessively following Jesus
Brandon Sereg
