by Nancy Taylor Tate
“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place” 2 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV.
We were extremely blessed and encouraged by the testimony of a young man with a beautiful family, who we recently visited. He said the Lord touched his life through teachings he heard when he was in eighth grade. What he heard changed his life and gave him a hunger for more. Today his life is different because of the relationship he has come into with the Lord.
Others have noticed this difference and ask him why he is different. He is able to tell them it is because his life is in God’s hands; his faith and trust is in the Lord. They wonder why he has peace even during uncertain times. He tells them he knows God loves him and has a plan for his life. He trusts the Lord and His faithfulness. Then he shares that they too can know the Lord, and put their trust in Him.
We are living in uncertain and stressful times. How can we help? One way is by living upright lives regardless of what challenges we may face, that there might be godly examples for others to see and find encouragement in.
Paul speaks of our lives as being an “epistle … known and read of all men” (2 Corinthians 3:2). Our being this “witness” is an important aspect of the high calling of God resting upon our lives. We must consider how our “sermon” is being preached.
As I consecrate my life to the Lord, making Him my first priority, the fragrance of His presence will mark my life. God’s desire is that we abide in Christ, so His life can be seen through us.
Allowing who Christ is, to find expression in our life experiences, will absolutely transform us. It will also touch others.
Regardless of occupation or location, there are those who are reading our lives. As we live credible lives people will be more willing to listen to our words. As we become carriers of His presence, His presence within us will flow out and touch others, beyond what words alone ever could.
Jesus came as the very expression of God’s love. His mission was not to be served, but to serve and give His life for others (Matthew 20:28). He sought no reward or recognition from man. His sole desire was simply to please His heavenly Father.
Because of that, it did not matter to Him if He was speaking to one Samaritan woman at a well (John 4:7) or to five thousand people, as when He multiplied the loaves and the fishes (Matthew 14:21). Jesus was able to be led and be used wherever He was needed.
As we live in communion with the Lord and out of a desire to please Him, a purity of motive is formed within us. We do what we do, simply out of a conviction that it is what the Lord would have us to do, and a desire to please Him.
When we are doing what God has called us to do, then no one thing is more glorious than another. It does not matter if we are seen or appreciated. The Lord sees and cares, and His satisfaction is all that matters. We live to please Him.
The Lord is raising up a people, Living Epistles, who will touch every sphere of life. May we be found faithful to His leading, wherever that might take us, and whatever we might find ourselves doing. May our single desire be to please the Lord.
Paul speaks of our lives as being “living epistles,” not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God.
“Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart” 2 Corinthians 3:3.
As we submit our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ and allow His inner working, we become a sample of Christ. Regardless of what our hands might be doing, may the peace and love of Christ within us be sensed by and minister to others, as Jesus is seen in and through our lives.
“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world” 1 John 4:17.
True joy is simply in pleasing God’s heart as we do His will and are found faithful.
“His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant … enter thou into the joy of thy lord” Matthew 25:21, 23.
May the pages of our lives be pleasing unto the Lord, as they are seen and read by others. May the love of Jesus and the fragrance of His presence be made known through our lives. May we be found faithful!
This is the high calling of God that rests on each of our lives.