Fragrant Aroma

Do you ever have one of those days where all you see is yourself? I recently found my heart in a place where my focus was off. My eyes were zoomed in on my feelings of disappointment and I was miserable. Like so many other times in my life, the Holy Spirit gently prompted my heart with truth. It may sound counter-intuitive but I realized the remedy of self-focus is love. Playing a dead-end game of self-focus was not the answer. I needed to draw my eyes upward, off myself, my emotions and ultimately away from my prideful heart. I just love it when God steps in and shows us a better way; His way.

Living in an apartment complex makes it difficult to meet neighbors. Lately, I have sensed God prompting me to initiate contact with those the Bible tells us to know; our neighbors. In the most literal way, I’ve knocked on a few doors around my complex, but on this particular day, I was in no mood to reach out. Like only a sovereign God can work, I read the exact verse I needed to hear. That afternoon, Ephesians 5:1-2 pierced my heart. It commends us to, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice of God.” As I sat there contemplating these verses, I knew I had a choice to make. I could either sit in my apartment and stink it up with thoughts of myself, or go out and be a fragrant offering of love to someone else for the sake of Christ.

What these verses are commending is a large call! To imitate the very God that created me and this entire planet sends my thoughts straight to defeat. But to imitate God is to love others, which is an act of the Holy Spirit through us anyway! I want my life to be a clear picture of verse two. I want my life to be a fragrant offering. Not a mere scent, but a fragrance that can be smelled from a distance. This image reminds me of being in France and smelling the rich lavender fields. Even after they were out of reach, the glorious aroma of lavender stayed with me. I could smell it a country away.

God is calling us to leave a mark on the lives we encounter on a daily basis by smelling like Jesus. How is your fragrance today? Is your life lived out as a scent others smell even after you’re gone or so barely recognizable no one knows you’ve been with Jesus? I urge us to be a fragrance in the lives of others, which leaves their nostrils, but more importantly their hearts, wanting more of Christ.

Thankfully, that afternoon, Ephesians five gripped my heart. I went and knocked on the door of someone new in my complex. Believe me, this is not usually my “thing,” but God has been stretching my heart in new ways and all I want to do is obey. I shared with my neighbor about my church and invited her to check out my Bible study group. It wasn’t anything big, but it was love. I pray my aroma remained, that Jesus was the scent I wore, and that His Name will be glorified through a small, insignificant act of obedience.

What started as a day focused inward, turned out to be an afternoon praising my God. As I lifted my eyes to the hills, I found the help I was in desperate need of (Psalm 121:1-2). If you are dealing with a difficult circumstance, like I was, I urge you to lift your eyes. Your situation may be difficult, burdensome or even scary, but God is bigger than ALL of our circumstances. He wants to show us a better way; living for Him by loving others.

We have a very real, daily choice to make. It’s a choice to live lives focused on ourselves, or lives lived out for Him. The choice is ours, but if we’re after a joy-filled life, eyes up and out is the only way to truly live.

I’ll leave you with a passage that has ministered to me as I’ve committed it to memory. Soak it in, chew on it awhile and allow the Holy Spirit to engrave it on your heart.

“If you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear. You will surely forget your trouble recalling it only as waters gone by. You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety.” Job 11: 13-16, 18