15 Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. 16 To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. ~ 2 Corinthians 2:15-16a
So many of us are desperate for the world’s approval over God’s approval. Why? Because we’re physically here on earth. We’re physically living among the world, not physically living in Heaven where God abides. Because most of us only look in the physical and not in the spiritual, we miss out on what’s right in front of us. Our body may live in the physical, but that’s not who we are. We are our souls. We are our spirit, and both our soul and spirit abide and are subject to the spiritual. Does that mean that the physical and the spiritual aren’t connected? By no means. What we do in the physical will affect the spiritual, sometimes instantly. But if we only live by the physical, we’re walking, living, and acting blind.
We have to start looking at our actions and others’ reactions differently. If the LORD God says that this is right, we do it, and the world gets upset at us, we have to ask ourselves, why? The reason the world hates what God calls good is that the world isn’t of God. We have been called out of the world; therefore, the world hates us because we are no longer like the world. Ted Dekker wrote a novel series called The Circle. Within The Circle, he explained the world of sin and the kingdom of Heaven in physically for us to imagine what it may look in the spiritual. For instance, those who were of the world had skin that was stink, cracking, and decaying, yet to them, it was a sweet aroma. Those who had been saved and washed clean through redemption had sweet, smooth, soft skin, yet to those of the world, their aroma was stink and foul. This is the best depiction I’ve seen in a novel of how sin and righteousness would manifest physically in our world.
So, don’t be discouraged. Don’t be dismayed. Don’t allow the taunts of the enemy to break you down, for if the world hates you, it’s because they hate Him who sent you. If you’re following the LORD and doing as He has called you to do, and the world rejects you and speaks all manner of evil against you, remember that they did the same to Christ, and He overcame. Therefore, we have this confidence that we will overcome as well, for Christ Himself lives in us and through us. Don’t lean on your own understanding or even your own physical eyes. Focus on the spiritual and what God has called you to do. If you do this, God will be with you in all things. And if God is for you, who can be against you?
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Claim Your Aroma.
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