Just when I think I am a sweet smelling Fragrance to God…

So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,but don’t be crushed by it either. It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;
the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. (Hebrews 12:4) TM

As those of you know who read this blog, The last 2 years my struggle has been finances as my husband started his own business. In every struggle you think “if I can just get through this, if God could just bring me victory in this area I will be happy”… Then you get the victory, and for about a day you feel like a spiritual giant. Yep! You passed the test. You believed and trusted and because you did it right you have passed and God has blessed you for it. (yes you have forgotten about all the mornings in the shower crying for God to do something, anything, and all the doubtful moments you had every day!)

God allowed me to feel good on my spiritual high, caught a breather and then He decided to remove another layer of the onion. Just when I think I am a sweet smelling Fragrance God I am reminded how much I still stink, I am still an onion. 🙂 )

There are hard times in our lives that the enemy is attacking, and then there are times we go through that is simply because of our own sin nature.There is no way around it, an onion is an onion. But God in His mercy is peeling the onion layer by layer to get to the part that is usable. He is training me, and teaching me, showing me yet another layer that I can deal with that will ultimately pay off with a disciplined life.

But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. (Hebrews 12:11)

There are days when I feel like I stink so bad that I do not even want to be around my own self. I need some type of fragrance to help get the stink that dial won’t wash away. And then God lovingly reminds me that it is not up to me to deal with the stench, I simply have to let him wash over me. As I lovingly bathe my children who can not do it for themselves, so He does with his children….

In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. 2 Cor. 2:13

If you feel like you stink today, here is my advice… Go take a bubble bath! Soak in it, and let whatever it is you feel makes you stink
wash away down the drain.