My Aunt Susie is an amazing cook.  She can take nothing and make a favorable, scrumptious “something” that all want to eat…every time she prepares a meal.  I do not often have the pleasure of sitting inside her kitchen, but when I am afforded the opportunity to sit at her table and watch Aunt Susie create a meal, then that is a sight to behold.
Aunt Susie has the large pantry where she stores all the ingredients for her meals, normal items, even some of the same ingredients that I have stored inside my pantry.  Maybe the same ingredients as you do too.
Once Aunt Susie has everything “cooking”……then she does something magical………She pulls open her spice drawer located to the left of her stove, the drawer between her refrigerator and stove.
From that drawer, Aunt Susie pulls spice after spice, mixing from an amazing supply of different spices she skillfully blends into the “regular” ingredients. Aunt Susie knows how to blend those spices together with her ingredients to make a delectable dish that no one ever refuses.

But, how does Aunt Susie know which spices to use? And how does Aunt Susie know which spices blend best with certain ingredients, causing the most pleasing aroma to fill the room?

She knows because she has practiced her blending of spices for years.  Aunt Susie did not learn how to blend spices overnight; no, she prepared meals daily.  I wonder today, if the same can be said about the way we seek to become a pleasing aroma in the world for God & if we truly seek to please Him with our daily actions? I wonder today, because I most wonder—
Do I strive to Please me?
Does she strive to Please her?
Does he strive to Please him?
Are we Struggling to Please them?
Do we constantly do all we can to Please everyone?

Are We The Pleasing Aroma In The World as we seek the favor of God?

Are we striving to accomplish all that we can—-Only to Please those inside our places we work, inside the places we play, inside the places we shop, inside the places where we worship?
Why are we really doing what we do?
Why do we really give to others?
Why are we really lending a hand OR spending our money OR sharing our time OR doing our anything….to others?
WHY?

Our reputation is important to us.  We desire that others will see us in a favorable light and that we will not let them down.  We like knowing that we can be counted on to do, counted on to help, counted on to ____ (each of us can fill in our own blank).

WE WILL CONTINUE TO DO WHAT WE DO OUT OF LOVE….TRUE….BUT LET US ASK OURSELVES, “WHO DO WE LOVE MOST “AS” WE ARE DOING WHAT WE DO FOR OTHERS?”

I met God when I was a child.  Then, when I became older, God’s Holy Spirit convicted my heart. It was then I asked Jesus to forgive my sins, to save my soul, to lead me, and to walk with me as I live this life God has given me to live.  Maybe you experienced a similar life-path.
Then, as I grew older, I lived, I grew up, and I grew in knowledge, I grew in skill, and I grew in age. Nevertheless, I often wonder if my reputation outgrew my walk with God. This truly is a tough question for me (maybe for you too)—-How do I wish for others to see me, to value sharing life with me?
Do we care more what others think and say about us…MORE than our relationship with God?  Immediately, our head screams,  “NO.”   Yet, it is true, our reputation is important to us, BUT our reputation to others should not hold us back from wanting, from desiring, or from seeking a closer relationship with our LORD.

• Who do we seek to please with our money?
• Who do we seek to please when we are all alone?
• Who do we seek to please with our time?
• Who do we seek to please when we go outside our homes?
• Who do we seek to please with our talents?
• Who do we seek to please inside our homes?
• WHO do we seek to please?

The man Saul was so well-known and lived a life of high reputation because he was a leader in his study of the law and because of the way he persecuted the early Christians. People knew Saul because this man had a “reputation” all over the region.
Then Saul met Jesus.  When Saul walked along the Damascus road that day, just walking through his normal life, he suddenly saw the light of God, and Saul knew his former life would never be the same. His CHANGED SELF gave him spiritual eyes rather than the physical eyes of mankind. God changed Saul from the inside out when he Accepted—-Believed—-and Confessed Jesus as his Savior.

Saul had used all his might (in the past) to show the world that he really was a “somebody;”  yet, the funny thing was—-God already knew that a man named Saul now became “somebody NEW.”  God knew.  The change happened inside and permeated Saul to the outside. It was then…..when Jesus created a pleasing aroma within him.
I cannot imagine how the people reacted to the changed Saul the persecutor to Paul the apostle of God.  Most assuredly everyone did not accept him, or trust him, or believe that Paul was a changed man. Before Saul was changed, he was never a people pleaser, I’m sure.  In fact, many people probably hid when Saul came to town.
The man saved by God—Paul was also not always well received.  In fact, many people hid when Paul came to town because they feared what they did not yet see. They only saw the same man if they did not smell the sweet aroma God placed within Paul.

It is a truth, God changes us from the inside out; God places within us His Holy Spirit, and God creates us (from the inside out) to become a pleasing aroma to others we encounter as we go through the remainder of our days.
Paul wrote to the early Christians living in Galatia—

Who are we living to please?
Who are we seeking today?
Have we even really discovered the fullness of who we are in Christ?
Do we know our true identity as God’s child?
Are we giving more and more of our heart to Jesus every day?
Do we fear the criticism of men and women, as we strive to please them?
OR
Do we fear the LORD more, as we live for God in this day, seeking Him more today than we did yesterday?

A Pleasing Aroma of God to the world.  That is what we are called to be.
Just as Aunt Susie’s meal permeated the kitchen with its “Pleasing Aroma,” &

Just as she prepared the food, &

Just as she added the flavorful spices to her dishes being prepared,….

That is how she combined spices and stirred together the ingredients——to create a “pleasing aroma” that wafted upward to the nostrils of all who sat within her kitchen.

We must allow God to change us, to create our flavor from the inside out, as we daily walk more closely with Him. As our relationship grows, God will permeate the nostrils of those we encounter with His appealing flavorful aroma.
Let us care more about our relationship with God than about our reputation with men.

May we today seek to please the Holy One, the Only One who ever really matters.
Let us seek God more today, to PLEASE GOD, & Let us become God’s appealing aroma.