Thermometer or Thermostat

I got to go to church on Wednesday. It was a pretty quiet service. But something the pastor said has stuck in my brain and I just keep kicking it around. He made a comment about a thermometer and then said something about a thermostat. For some reason those two words stuck in my brain. Maybe because in my line of work, a thermometer becomes your best friend. Either way here's what I've been thinking on. Don't know if it will speak to you but it did to me.

I'm going through some sitations at work and at home. Hearing those two words hit me and made me ask myself "Which one am I?" Am I a thermometer? A necessary tool that tells you when things are cooked properly. Tells you if something is wrong. It basically just states the facts.

Or am I a thermostat. Something that registers the facts but then does something to change them. Hey this room is to hot, I need to cool it down some. Or brrr this thing is to cold, let's heat it up a bit. Am I set to a certain setting by the Holy Spirit within me and then adjusting the environment around me in whatever way I can to meet those settings. Or am I just stating how the environment around me doesn't meet my settings.

I hate to say it but I am prone to be a thermometer. Woe is me. Look what I'm going through. What I am putting up with. But not really trying to change it. At least in my work area I'm this way. In my marriage, I'd say i'm a little of both. I don't want to be someone who just states the facts and doesn't try to make things for the better. I want to be a thermostat. I want to be so intuned with the Holy Spirit setting within that I register what's happening and then adjust what I can to make my environment match up with the Holy Spirit's setting within.

Maybe that doesn't speak to you like it does me. But I'm telling you this has kept me up most of the night the past two nights. I want to be plugged in and sensitive to the Lord's guiding of my life. Whichever way it goes. Marriage or divorce. Job or no job. Whatever Satan throws at me. It doesn't matter. God has always been there and brought me through. Sometimes I am a little worse for ware but I make it through. Patch up the cuts and bruises. Dust myself off and continue moving forward. It's all in his hands.