Internal Thermometers

Acts 27:35 (ESV) "And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat."

"Newspapers recently told of a woman in China who has lived with a thermometer inside her lung for 44 years. Apparently, she accidentally swallowed it during a routine checkup when she was twelve years old, but her family couldn't afford the surgery to remove it. Now doctors are planning to remove it before it breaks and leaks mercury into her body."

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV) "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

"We all have an internal thermometer that measures our emotional health and that thermometer is gratitude. You can tell how happy [and content] someone is by noticing whether they grumble or give thanks whatever the circumstances."

"[There was] a news story once of a woman who was getting ready to jump off a 44 story building in New York City. Witnesses said that she did not look like the type of person who would do such a thing. She was very distinguished and well dressed. All the attempts made by the police to get the woman off the ledge had failed. One of the officers asked if he could call his pastor in to see if he could help. When the pastor arrived, he asked permission to go to the ledge and talk to the woman. As the pastor neared the edge the woman screamed, 'Don't come any closer or I'll jump!' The pastor took a step back and then said, 'I am sorry that you believe no one loves you.' This got the woman's attention and it got the attention of the police. That was something that you don't usually say to a person who is threatening suicide. The woman took a step towards the pastor and said, 'My grandchildren love me and so does my children. My whole family loves me! I have 8 wonderful grandchildren and they love me.' The pastor took a step towards the woman and said, 'Well then, you must be very poor, maybe that is why you want to take your own life.' The woman who was a little overweight said, 'Do I look like I go without any meals? We live in a very nice apartment. I'm not poor.' The pastor took another step closer to her and was now 3 feet from her when he asked, 'Then why do you want to kill yourself? I don't understand.' The woman thought for a moment and then said, 'You know, I don't really remember.' The story ends with the pastor and the woman walking towards the elevator as she shows him pictures of her grandchildren. Eventually this woman becomes a volunteer on the city's suicide hotline, helping others choose life. What did the pastor do to help this woman? He helped her get her eyes off herself and onto the many ways that God had blessed her. She learned a valuable lesson that day. She learned that thankful people are happy people." 1

Colossians 3:17 (ESV) "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

"There was a teenager who didn’t want to be seen in public with her mother, because her mother’s arms were terribly disfigured. One day when her mother took her shopping and reached out her hand, a clerk looked horrified. Later, crying, the girl told her how embarrassed she was. Understandably hurt, the mother waited an hour before going to her daughter’s room to tell her, for the first time, what happened. 'When you were a baby, I woke up to a burning house. Your room was an inferno. Flames were everywhere. I could have gotten out the front door, but I decided I’d rather die with you than leave you to die alone. I ran through the fire and wrapped my arms around you. Then I went back through the flames, my arms on fire. When I got outside on the lawn, the pain was agonizing but when I looked at you, all I could do was rejoice that the flames hadn’t touched you.' Stunned, the girl looked at her mother through new eyes. Weeping in shame and gratitude, she kissed her mother’s marred hands and arms." 2

Gratitude, and a spirit of thankfulness can give us a totally different perspective from the rest of the world. While others are missing out on what God wants to give them because they are not yet thankful for what they have already been given, a person who has learned the benefits of gratitude will already be reaping the rewards of being thankful in all things. Gratitude, even about undesirable circumstances, will help us see the situations and people around us through Jesus' eyes, prepares us to be joyful regardless of whether life seems to be going our way.

Acts 27:33-38 (ESV) "33 As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, 'Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. 34 Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.' 35 And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. 36 Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. 37 (We were in all 276 persons in the ship.) 38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea."

"In Acts 27, the apostle Paul was drenched to the skin, reeling from a vicious storm, and trapped on a sinking ship. But he found something for which to thank the Lord, and he led his 276 fellow passengers in thanksgiving. The ability to be thankful in any given set of circumstances is an indication of the health of our souls." Sometimes it's only in the midst of pain and trying times that we finally realize what we've had to be thankful about all along.

A wonderful verse that illustrates that we can trust God no matter what, and therefore, be grateful, is Romans 8:28: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

"Even when a storm is raging around us and all things seem to be against us, we shall find that we have much for which to be thankful." - James. H. Snowden


JPK

*the quoted passages are either from the ESV translation of God's Word, a devotional entitled "Internal Thermometers" in Dr. David Jeremiah's July 2012 edition of Turning Points, or sermoncentral.com.

Contagion

"Smiles are the most contagious emotional signal of all, having an almost irresistible power to make others smile in return." - Daniel Goleman

"Leadership expert Erik Calonius tells of a study of 12,000 interconnected people in Massachusetts that found that happiness passes from one person to another like the flu. The closer you are to a happy person, the happier you'll be. Statistically, each happy friend a person has increases that person's probability of being happy by about nine percent. Every unhappy friend decreases it by seven percent. Experts call this 'contagion.'

"Readers of Exodus shouldn't be surprised at this revelation, for negative attitudes swept through the Israelites in epidemic waves. For example, in chapter 15 [of Exodus], the Israelites burst into hymns over the parting of the Red Sea; but by the end of the chapter, they were grumbling again."

Exodus 15:20-24 (ESV) "20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them: 'Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.' 22 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?'"

Very soon after God had miraculously delivered them from the Egyptians, there was a huge attitude change toward Moses and God seemingly all of the sudden. Moses was no longer viewed as their hero; and God had somehow lost their trust, even though He had just showed that there was nothing He couldn't do. It was likely only a few people at first with these negative attitudes. But that number grew and grew as discontentment and complaining spread like wildfire from person to person. Even those who had a strong faith in God would have started having some doubts after constantly hearing all the grumbling and after being around so many people who chose to be unhappy. It just goes to show that your attitudes do make a huge difference.

"The attitude you're carrying right now will spread to somebody else today. It's not only harmful to you, but to others also if you harbor an unhappy attitude. If you're joyful, you'll lift the spirits of those around you. If you're angry, [bitter, or pessimistic,] you'll infect them with negative feelings. The Bible tells us to exhort one another, to hold fast the faith, and to spread abroad the love of God with overflowing hearts." Granted, it's not the natural thing to do, but it is so much more rewarding for ourselves and others to spread love and joy than spreading around diseases like unhappiness and discontentment.

Numbers 11:1 (ESV) "Now the people complained about their troubles in the hearing of the Lord. When the Lord heard it, His anger burned."

Obviously, God doesn't approve when our negative attitudes are being spread to others. It saddens Him to see us hurting ourselves and hurting others when we fail to keep our eyes on the joy of the Lord. A negative mood can not only affect others around us temporarily, but also potentially affect your own (and possibly someone else's) whole day, week, or even year.

Every day, you have a choice to either rely on God to give you what you need to make it through the day (which will immensely help you to keep on having joy, despite whatever happens), or to rely on yourself (which will automatically leave you with feelings of unhappiness and of being under a huge burden). It's obvious which is the better choice, but so often we unknowingly chose the latter, and then wonder why we are having so much trouble approaching anything with happiness.

As you go into a new year, you can do one of two things. You can look back at all the failures, all the things you shouldn't have done, all the things you wish you had tried. But that will only leave you feeling defeated, and like you're wasting away your life. Yes, some prayerful reflection can be a very good thing so that you hopefully won't repeat the same mistakes, but to dwell too much on the past will hurt far more than it will help. Starting a new year off with such a negative outlook would be liable to adversely affect your entire year, and would certainly give you little hope for what the year could hold. Worst of all, you could easily miss out on the things God has in store for your future all because you spent too much time concentrating on those sins God has already forgiven and those failed attempts you can't do over again right.

The better choice would be to look at what God has done for you in the past year; how He's been there for you through it all, how He's brought new people and circumstances into your life to change you for the better, how He's led you along, whether you were aware of it at the time or not. And then thank Him for His love and His never-failing help that kept you going, realizing that He has never failed you in the past and He isn't going to start failing you now. What a difference that could make to your entire year if you focused more on what God has done for you and through you, than where you went wrong in the past year. Instead of revisiting the past, look forward to what God has in store.

Lamentations 3:22-24 (ESV) "22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him.'"

JPK


*the quoted passages are either from the ESV translation of God's Word, or from a devotional entitled "Contagion" in Dr. David Jeremiah's July 2012 edition of Turning Points.