Thermometer or Thermostat

Are you a thermometer or thermostat Christian?  A thermometer simply records the temperature. It is controlled and changed by the surrounding conditions.  A thermostat readjusts the temperature. It changes and controls the surrounding conditions.  There are lots of thermometer Christians. Their lives are governed by their present situation and conditions surrounding them.  They simply reflect their current condition and do nothing to change it. How they feel, and what they say and think, is governed by the prevailing conditions. 

Paul was a thermostat believer. He refused to allow the surrounding circumstances to either change him or control him.  Put him in a prison. But it’s there he writes, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon, four of the finest Epistles in the New Testament.  Put him in a Philippian jail. It’s there he has a prayer and praise meeting, and wins the jailer and his family to Christ. Put him on a prison ship bound for Rome. It’s there, in the midst of a life-threatening storm, when everyone had given up all hope of survival, Paul fasted and prayed and saved everyone on board. (Acts 27)

Put Daniel in a den of hungry lions. And it’s there they became his furry pillows for the night.  Put the three Hebrew boys in a fiery furnace. And God turns on the air-con. Put Joseph into Egypt as a slave. It’s there he becomes the Prime Minister. Put John on the penal colony Isle of Patmos. It’s from there he gives us the Book of Revelation. 

A thermostat is constant, it’s set, it’s fixed.

1 Cor. 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.”

Acts 20:24 “But none of these things move me…”

Phil. 4:1 “…stand fast in the Lord.” 1 Peter 5:9 “Whom resist steadfast in the faith.”

A thermostat only allows the temperature to fall below a certain level.  Once that level is reached it permits it to drop no further. It has the power to adjust the temperature around itself. You have the power to change the spiritual climate around you. You have the power to influence for good those who surround you. You can have a positive effect. Paul did that on board that prison ship. He did it in that Philippian jail.  You can be that instrument of change. You can be that Godly thermostat.

- Pastor David Goudy