Here we are on the brink of a new season. We are getting ready to transition from summer into fall. For many of you, fall is your favorite season.

It typically brings with it the promise of the leaves on the trees turning into beautiful orange, red and yellow colors. The promise of a well-deserved and hard sought after harvest for our local farmers.

It brings with it one of my wife’s favorite decoration opportunities with mums, bales of straw, scarecrows, pumpkins and so forth. This new season also usually brings with it the promise of cooler temperatures.

I personally love to wake up and go out in the morning to the cool fresh air, to need to wear hoodies and jackets instead of shorts and tee shirts. There is without a doubt a lot to love about fall.

The part with fall that I personally struggle with is not all its beauty, its harvest, or even its cooler temperatures, it’s the fact that it will soon usher in another season of cold brisk air, ice and snow storms, and all kinds of frigid temperatures. When these types of temperatures show up I often find myself watching a thermometer to see how cold it is outside.

The simple truth is that a thermometer only has the ability to gauge the temperature and does nothing to change the temperature. For many of us with hard surface flooring as our bare feet hit those cold floors in the morning we have a built-in thermometer that says it’s cold in here. We will go directly to the thermostat to turn up the heat because we realize that not only does a thermostat have the ability to gauge the temperature in the room but because of its connection to the furnace it also has the ability to change the temperature of the room.

And the truth is we all like our environment to be comfortable.

Changing environments

This brings me to the point of my writing today. We all find ourselves in situations and environments at times that need change. Most people have the ability to realize there’s a need for change but feel inadequate and unable to do anything to change it. This is what I call being a thermometer, because one has the ability to gauge the temperature but feels they lack the ability to change it.

On the other hand some people can both gauge and change environments and atmosphere. This is what I call being a thermostat, because rather than settling for the way things are and feel, they realize that I am here to help bring a positive change to the environment and atmosphere that I’m in. As Christians we should be thermostats and not thermometers because we have a connection to the creator of the heavens and earth, because we have a greater one inside of us.

1 John 4:4 declares, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (KJV)

Because of this connection we have to God through His son Jesus Christ, just our mere presence should bring the opportunity to change environments and atmospheres. We should never just settle for what we see and feel but we should be difference makers.

What would you say?

So if I were to ask you today which category do you fit into, what would you say?

Would you say Pastor Daniel, “I’m a really good thermostat. I can tell there is a need and something should be done but I feel so inadequate and paralyzed by the situation that I just don’t feel I can do anything to change it?”

Or can you say, “I realize that God has created me with a purpose and a plan (Jeremiah 29:11) and part of that purpose is to help change environments and atmospheres for the glory of God?”

The truth is this, the enemy wants each of us to think we are just thermometers but the reality is that when we tap into our God given and God created potential, when we tap into our purpose, when we tap into the spirit and anointing of God for our lives we have ALL been created to be difference makers, to be thermostats.

I leave you with this final thought and truth today. God has never created anything without value and purpose. You my friend are not junk, you have a great value and purpose, so use it to be a positive difference maker for your family, friends, church and community.

Be a thermostat and stop listening to the lies of the enemy. To do this you might have to let go of some hurt and resentment. You might have to be a leader instead of a follower. You might have to realize that I’m more than what people say I am. I’m more than what my past says I am. I’m more than what I even think I am.

After all I am fearfully and wonderfully made by God…(Psalm 139:14).