Thermometer or Thermostat

A thermometer is an instrument that is used to measure temperature. A thermostat is a device that functions to change, establish, and maintain a desired temperature. You’re like, where is this going? I have realized that in the world today, most people are like a thermometer. We can tell you what is going wrong in the world. We can talk about the issues, and the problems. We’ll say how hopeless things look. We’ll speak of how dire our current situations are. Basically, we can tell you how jacked up of a place the world is. But, is that our proper function??? I believe that God has called us to be more like a thermostat in that we are not supposed to reflect the climate around us, but rather we are to change it. A couple of months ago, my home became extremely hot. I went down stairs, looked at the thermostat and the temperature reading showed a temperature of 98 degrees, but the dial was set to 75. What was happening, the thermostat was simply reflecting the temperature and was not effectively changing it, which means something’s WRONG, something’s BROKE. When we can look at the world around us, and at no point are we causing any change, something’s WRONG, something’s BROKE. Too often we look at our surroundings and we allow that to hold us back from truly believing God to totally shake our world and drastically change the climate of the times. Change our schools, our neighborhoods, our nation, our world. We have to be a partner that the spirit of God works through to impact the lives of those around us and not simply be an object that simply reaffirms what our natural senses have already grasped. No one needs a thermometer to tell them the temperature outside on a summer’s day to know that it is hot. We have a purpose in this earth. We have a valued function. We are to change, establish, and maintain a desired climate for a genuine move of God.

 I don’t want to be a thermometer in the world; I want to be a thermostat. –Jimmy Banks, Victory Christian Fellowship Youth Pastor 8/25/11