By KRISTAN DOOLEY
,Weather in Ohio is weird. One minute it’s the beginning of summer, the windows are open and you know heat is just around the corner, and then the next it’s fifty-five degrees and your digging your sweats back out of your closet. Last week it was in the sixties; yesterday it was eighty-nine. The temperature is all over the place, and my body doesn’t adjust as quickly as it used to. Never knowing what to expect makes it extremely hard to be prepared.
The same is true for our internal temperature. To be one thing one moment and another thing the next is no way to live. It’s taken me a few years to figure out the internal temperature I like best. The posture I can set my heart where it doesn’t overreact to the circumstances around me wasn’t easily found. I fought to figure out what grace, hope, peace, love, and acceptance felt like on the inside. I paid close attention to the internal temperature I see throughout the New Testament in Jesus. To do all of this I had to slow my pace down and pay careful attention.
What kind of things rattled my insides? What was going on around me when I felt my internal temperature rise? When did I feel out of control? When did I feel at my best and adequately responding as Jesus would?
These are all questions I asked myself as I reestablished a consistently consistent temperature. My heart was not created to fluctuate like the weather in Ohio. When the people around me struggled to know the me they would get, they would also struggle to connect, trust and live in unity. That wasn’t what I wanted for my family, friends, or even my community. I wanted to be who I was and respond with a steady consistency, and during my search, I learned the only way to do that was to spend time with the one who set my thermostat. The more time I spend in the quiet with the Father, the more I reflect Him in the open.
FOR FURTHER THOUGHT The chaos around you doesn’t have to dictate the temperature within you, either. You can be consistent in your response to others regardless of your circumstances from others. Scripture says, “Jesus was full of grace and truth.” Regardless of where He was or what He was doing, His response was consistent. That’s because His internal temperature was also consistent. We respond from what’s happening within. The more our within links to the Father, the more our internal temperature gauges and reflects the Father.
What does your internal temperature look like? Where do you see too much fluctuation? Is there a desire for more consistency? What is your time like with Him? Do you have space or can you create space where you could sit with Him longer? Long enough to regulate your temperature? Consider making space for that within your day-to-day routine.
PRAYER Thank you, Jesus, for walking as an example of grace and truth for me. I so needed to see what consistency looked like. You rescued me from chaos and you set my feet upon a steady ground. I am so thankful that you regulate my temperature. Help me today to stay connected intimately to you and to walk according to you. I need you. Amen.
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