What fragrance does your life exude?

Do you embody faith? Do you embody trust in God in all things?

Does your faith draw people closer to God or repel them from God?

Do you “smell” of peace and joy and hope and love? Or do you “smell” of bitterness, resentment, judgment, and discontent?

God always makes His grace visible in Christ, who includes us as partners of His endless triumph. Through our yielded lives He spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere we go. We have become the unmistakable aroma of the victory of the Anointed One to God – a perfume of life to those being saved and the odor of death to those who are perishing. The unbelievers smell a deadly stench that leads to death, but believers smell the life-giving aroma that leads to abundant life. And who of us can rise to this challenge? For unlike so many, we are not peddlers of God’s Word who water down the message. We are those sent from God with pure motives, who speak in the sight of God from our union with Christ. 2 Corinthians 2: 14 – 17 TPT

I recently heard a sermon that has caused me to pause and think and ruminate on who Jesus brought His message to. I do not remember exactly what the preacher said but what I heard was that Jesus did not come telling the Pharisees and Sadducees to live differently. He did not condemn their way of thinking or even get mad that they were the way they were. He accepted them as they were.

Jesus called His disciples to live differently. He called those who were choosing to walk with Him to be loving, kind, understanding, and accepting. He called His disciples to do their internal work and live transformed lives because they had experienced His transforming love. He called His disciples to live differently because they had had an encounter with Him.

When we live in His love, and it is reflected in our thoughts, words, and actions we give off a “pleasing aroma” and attract others to God. Our love for God and our love for one another draws people to Christ.

Love changes people!

Be imitators of God in everything you do, for them you will represent your Father as His beloved sons and daughters. And continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ, for He surrendered His life as a sacrifice for us. His great love for us was pleasing to God, like an aroma of adoration – a sweet healing fragrance. Ephesians 5: 1 – 2 TPT

Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercy? To surrender yourselves to God to be His sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights His heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes. Romans 12: 1 – 2 TPT

I’ve been reading Colossians 3: 12 – 17TPT a lot lately.

“You are always and dearly loved by God! So robe yourself with virtues of God, since you have been divinely chosen to be holy. Be merciful as you endeavor to understand others, and be compassionate, showing kindness toward all. Be gentle and humble, unoffendable in your patience with others. Tolerate the weaknesses of those in the family of faith, forgiving one another in the same way you have been graciously forgiven by Jesus Christ. If you find fault with someone, release this same gift of forgiveness to them. For love is supreme and must flow through each of these virtues. Love becomes the mark of true maturity. Let your heart be always guided by the peace of the Anointed One, who called you to peace as part of his one body. And always be thankful. Let the word of Christ live in you richly, flooding you with all wisdom. Apply the Scriptures as you teach and instruct one another with the Psalms, and with festive praises, and with prophetic songs given to you spontaneously by the Spirit, so sing to God with all your hearts! Let every activity of your lives and every word that comes from your lips be drenched with the beauty of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. And bring your constant praise to God the Father because of what Christ has done for you!”

As I read and pray these scriptures, it is easy to want other people to be understanding and compassionate towards me. Other people should be gentle and humble and accept me as I am. They should be forgiving, and live lives marked by love.

It is easy for me to look at other people’s lives and think, “They call themselves Christians, but they are judgmental, and unkind, and expectant.” When I do this, I am being exactly the things I am pointing out in other people: judgmental, unkind, and expectant.

What I need to be asking myself as I read and pray Colossians 3: 12 – 17 is…

Do I live knowing I am always and dearly loved by God? Am I gentle and humble in my dealings with others? Do I tolerate the weaknesses of those in the family and faith, forgiving others in the same way I have been graciously forgiven by Jesus Christ? Is my life marked by love? Is my heart guided by peace? Am I always thankful?

God continues to gently, kindly, firmly remind me that He has called me to do my own inner work, to seek after Him, to live my life following His way, and not worry about what anyone else is doing.

Jesus did not call me to be someone else’s keeper, or to try to be the Holy Spirit in someone else’s life. Jesus continues to remind me that I am only responsible for me and when I stand before Him He will want to know how I lived my life. I will not give an account for anyone else.

We do our own internal work along with the help of the Holy Spirit to mature in love. When we live from love, we know our worth and value in Jesus Christ. When we live from love, we take responsibility for our own lives. When we live from love, we are honest, vulnerable, aware, compassionate, generous, resilient, caring, and joy filled.

We choose to believe and practice believing. When we live from love, we acknowledge our doubts and pray like the man in Mark 9:24, “Lord, I do believe! Help me overcome my unbelief.”

We believe that God enables us, equips us, and empowers us to live a life of love as we know His love for us. We choose to lean into and practice living in God’s love for us. Believing we are His child, believing that we are enough just as we are, believing are worth and value are in Him NO MATTER WHAT!

If we know and live from this place of love our lives should look and “smell” different than the rest of the world. Our lives should be changed because of our trust in and love for God.

Being a Christian and saying we believe in God, should not just be a list of things we say we believe and know about God, it should be a transformation because of our experience with Him making us more loving, more kind, more respectful, more understanding, unoffendable, secure, and joy filled as we live in this world.

As we trust God, He expands our capacity to feel what we feel and move through this world well. He expands our capacity to hold joy and sadness side by side. He expands our capacity to accept and meet people right where they are without trying to change them into something we think they should be. He expands our capacity to love ourselves and love others. He expands our capacity to be self-compassionate and compassionate to others. We come to accept our own humanness and the humanness of others.

What do the people we interact with witness? Love, joy, peace?

How do we “smell” to our spouse? Our children? Our co-workers? Our neighbors? The stranger at the grocery store? The bank teller? Etc.

For when you demonstrate the same love I have for you by loving one another, everyone will know that you’re my true followers. John 13:35 TPT

Let’s practice living rooted, grounded, centered in God’s love for us! Knowing we are loved and showing up in love for others!

Let’s practice being a pleasing aroma to God and for others!

Keep seeking and discovering and practicing and becoming!