Is it Hot in Here?

Hot flashes are part of my world these days. I have learned to dress in layers and to know the nearest escape to the outdoors. Only I can have a temperature of 96.1 (sounds like a radio station) and be in the middle of a power surge.  It’s not fun being so temperature sensitive; I only hope it is a temporary passage of life and not permanent.

This brings up the analogy of being either a thermometer or a thermostat kind of person. A thermometer-person registers the temperature of their surroundings and acts accordingly. If everyone around them is happy; they are happy. If everyone is having a bad day; they are doing the same. If everyone is in a complaining mood; they follow suit.

A thermostat-person sets the temperature of their surroundings. They are not easily affected by those around them and can maintain their calm in the midst of the chaos. They counter the negativity by adding positive behavior and can successfully set and even change the tone of their environment by their actions.

It’s much easier being a thermometer. But, I want so much to be a thermostat. How about you? What kind of environment do you go to each day?  Can you consciously decide to be a thermostat-person and make a positive impact on those around you?

With God’s help, we can!

Jeanne

How Big Is Your God?

Faith is the substance of things hoped for… Hebrews 11:1

In my reading Springs in the Valley, a devotional by Mrs. Charles Cowman, it prompted me to think about my small view of God. He is my hope, the substance of my faith, so, on any given day where do my hopes lie?

My shallow thinking needs to be transformed by the depths of God, the height of His love, and the expanse of His mercy and grace. My finite brain can’t see past the hurdle in front of me. My “hope” is in the weekend. I have lost sight of His vision, of His “I AM able” and find myself spiritually near-sighted.

Faith should stir me to action yet I wallow in fatigue. Faith should launch me out into the depths, but I hang around the shoreline. Faith should awaken possibilities and opportunities yet I often feel stuck.

Faith is bigger than my thoughts; it is born out of a hope in God—knowing that He is at work in every heart, in every situation to bring completeness to every soul. He works even in the smallest details; nothing is beyond His reach or knowledge. He works continually to accomplish His purpose for my life and yours.

This has whispered into the depth of my soul, my need to broaden my vision of Him, to take down the barriers I’ve placed around Him and my world. I can’t put God in a box—He is bigger, much bigger than that. He is the same God who parted the Red Sea. He is the same God who toppled Jericho’s walls. He is the same God who delivered Daniel from the Lion’s mouth and three youths from the fiery furnace.  I serve and love the God who spoke the universe into existence, created the stars, and yet knows me by name—because He wove me in my mother’s womb too.  And, He accomplishes both the monumental and the smallest things in my life…

My faith must be expanded by my hope—my vision of Him. I need to see beyond my field of vision, beyond my small spaces, to the vast vision of His glory.

So, Lord, expand my view. Open my understanding. Renew my mind to begin to understand your vastness. Help me to see, for my faith depends on it. Take my tiny mustard seed faith, for faith is the substance of things hoped for!  You, LORD are my hope; the anchor of my soul (Hebrews 6:19)

Transform my thinking and enlarge my vision of who You are and what you are doing around me because faith is the substance.

How Big is Your God?

Jeanne