Brrr, it's freezing in Florida today!

Isn’t it strange how we can be so sensitive to the temperature and humidity? God must have installed a thermometer right inside us to gage the temperature.

I have a friend who is obsessed with the weather changes, and his best friend seems to be the meteorologist. His mood is determined by the reports: sunny day? rainy day? All determines his disposition.

I wish I’d be like him. Not about monitoring the weather, but monitoring the sinful nature within me. The gage to know when I’m going down the cold front of sin, or delighting the soft breeze of doing what pleases God.

Here’s Paul’s way to explain the "sin thermometer" of our soul. He identifies it as the Spirit in us, the one who gages the coldness of sin and the heat of destruction.

And be warned Paul is pretty sharp. He lists what to avoid so we don’t end up in that eternal basement without air-conditioning.

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:16-19).

I’ve got my fluffy sweater for protection against the cold and God’s Word to gage the changes of my soul.

I pray you live in the sunshine of His Word, trusting in the whispers of the Spirit within you.

Janet

p.s. Coming soon--a sweet story of a grandpa.