God's Living Fragrance

Becoming the fragrance of Him is a process.  It isn’t something we cultivate naturally.  It takes time and effort.  God will develop His character in us as we practice what He teaches us and allow Him to train us to be like Him. 

There will be days when we give off the essence of self and we may not always be spreading His fragrance.   But there are things we can do to improve that fragrance so others can sense His presence in our lives. And that fragrance can always be more potent than it currently is.

We are made up of body, soul, and spirit.  The world teaches us how to make our bodies healthy and strong.  It also shows us how to improve our intellect, make successful choices, and control our emotions.  But the world cannot teach us how to train our spirit.  God is spirit, and the synergy between our spirits and His renews and transforms our inner disposition so we can become more like Him.  Developing a right spirit is one of the most important ways we can improve the fragrance we give off to others.

What is a right spirit?  It is not our soul, which is made up of our thoughts, feelings, and choices.  We can think, feel, and do the right thing with a wrong attitude and motivation.  The spirit behind what we think, feel, or do is the source of our moral fiber. From our inner character we get the strength and courage to be all we can be and do what we have to do.  It is possible to maintain a proper attitude, even when things go terribly wrong, if we have developed a right spirit.

David is a great example of a right spirit.  Even when Saul was trying to kill him, he kept a positive attitude toward Saul.  He never reacted in anger or resentment, even though it would have been easy to do so.  Later in his life, David asked the Lord to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit in him (Psalm 51) when he knew he had sinned with Bathsheba.  David lost his son because of his sin.  He could have been angry with God, but instead he humbled himself and asked God’s forgiveness.

David realized he could not manufacture a right spirit himself; he needed to ask God to do that for him.  There are certain things we can do for our spiritual growth, but there are some things that have to be a work of God in our lives. We may respect God, but only He can teach us to properly fear Him.  We can praise and thank God with our souls, but gratefulness is an attitude of the spirit.  As we spend time listening to Him and learning from Him, He will teach us how to have a right spirit.

What are the traits of a right spirit? How would you know if you saw it in someone’s life? The five letters in the word right give us a clue to the character traits that exemplify a right spirit.  Each of these traits interacts with the others for maximum effectiveness.