I want you to consider two common instruments and their implications concerning our spiritual lives. The first is a thermometer which measures temperature. The second is a thermostat which controls temperature. A thermometer is used to report temperature while a thermostat is used to regulate it.
So, which are you? Do you respond to the spiritual climate of your surroundings like a thermometer, or do you set it like a thermostat? I will tell you right now, it’s much easier to be like a thermometer. As such, your spiritual setting rises or falls with the immediate atmosphere. In church or at some other spiritual event it runs pretty high. It’s very easy to be a Christian at church. But when you find yourself in a purely secular setting or with people whose lives are devoid of faith it runs very low.
Jesus calls us to be spiritual thermostats. In the Sermon on the Mount He put it in terms of salt and light. Jesus commanded believers to be the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.” Salt and light are agents of influence. They’re not affected; they are effective. They change their environment rather than being changed by it. That is because they are stronger than that which they are to influence.
Remember that the next time you come face-to-face with spiritual darkness. As a believer inhabited by the Spirit of God you can set the tone. You can establish the spiritual climate. You can be a game-changer! Regardless of the atmosphere, as a man or woman of God you can affect the temperature in a positive way. This is absolutely true because, “Greater is He that is in you, than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
Here’s to being a thermostat-Christian!
Pastor Todd Weston
So, which are you? Do you respond to the spiritual climate of your surroundings like a thermometer, or do you set it like a thermostat? I will tell you right now, it’s much easier to be like a thermometer. As such, your spiritual setting rises or falls with the immediate atmosphere. In church or at some other spiritual event it runs pretty high. It’s very easy to be a Christian at church. But when you find yourself in a purely secular setting or with people whose lives are devoid of faith it runs very low.
Jesus calls us to be spiritual thermostats. In the Sermon on the Mount He put it in terms of salt and light. Jesus commanded believers to be the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.” Salt and light are agents of influence. They’re not affected; they are effective. They change their environment rather than being changed by it. That is because they are stronger than that which they are to influence.
Remember that the next time you come face-to-face with spiritual darkness. As a believer inhabited by the Spirit of God you can set the tone. You can establish the spiritual climate. You can be a game-changer! Regardless of the atmosphere, as a man or woman of God you can affect the temperature in a positive way. This is absolutely true because, “Greater is He that is in you, than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
Here’s to being a thermostat-Christian!
Pastor Todd Weston
