You Smell

Perfumes have a way of making a statement without a person even needing to say a word. Have you ever been in a store and someone wearing a strong perfume walks by?  You might even stop what you're doing just to look up and see who is carrying such an aroma.  

God loves through us like that. As we help others. As we live with integrity and character. As we live our lives to please Him. As we tell the Good News. All these things create an aroma of Him to others. They may look up. They may notice. They may wonder and say "what peculiar people ". They can 'smell' His aroma. His Presence in us gives off a fragrance of Life for those that are hungry for it, but also a fragrance of death for those that push His Goodness away. Never underestimate the fragrance of His Presence in your life.

But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. 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. 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. And who is adequate for such a task as this? 

You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us.

2 Corinthians 2:14-17 NLT