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Prayer power
by Mervyn Morelock, Lt. Colonel –
Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God (Ephesians 5:2).
I recently received a book, Loving God with all Five Senses, from the author, Tammy Melton of Legacy Ministries for Christ, Inc. of Fayetteville, Ga. It’s a series of devotional studies on loving God with all the senses: taste, touch, sight, hearing, and smell. The chapter on smell, entitled “We are an Aroma,” intrigued me.
Melton writes, “I recently heard a story about two men who partnered together selling produce at a busy farmer’s market. One man sold herbs; the other man sold vegetables. The one who sold herbs would kick the basil basket to release the aroma, and people would come from a block away to find out where the delicious smell originated. Not only would the sales of his herbs increase when he kicked the basil, but his friend also benefited by selling more vegetables. The people all around them had a newfound awareness of the produce.”
The author prayed that her life “would emit an aroma that would cause an awareness of God in the people around me.”
Have you ever considered the effect that your prayer life has on other people? Sometimes one can sense that another is a praying person. Their words, their caring and concern, their gentleness, seem different. They possess a genuine thoughtfulness for others that has an aroma that attracts. People, both adults and children, want to be with that person.
Mother Teresa was like that, so was Samuel Logan Brengle, so are Billy Graham and others.
Perfume manufacturers spend millions of dollars to influence consumers to buy their products. You can’t go through the cosmetics department in many stores without being asked to try a new fragrance, an aroma.
Just prior to a Home League rally, my wife escorted the speaker through the hotel gift shop to the ballroom. The speaker stopped at every counter, sampling several fragrances on her arm. Her aroma was powerful! During her speech, she confessed what she had done and invited every woman, and even the men present, to come up after the meeting for a sniff. She had an “aroma,” but not quite what the Scriptures intended!
The Bible says that God wants 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” (2 Cor. 2:14-16a).
When my wife and I were territorial evangelists, each week we invited the congregation to place their prayers in a golden bowl, as described in Revelations 5:8b and 8:3. At the end of the service, we would gather the slips of paper, inscribed with the prayers and confessions of the people. After a prayer, we set the slips on fire, and the smoke became a symbol of our prayers ascending to God, as a sweet smelling aroma.
When we truly love Christ, that love will be the reason we put controls on our fleshly desires and do what we know pleases God through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is then that we follow Christ’s example and walk in love.