Fragrance...

When I came into my room tonight at the hotel, I put my stuff down and then went back by my bathroom. There I found a note the housekeeping lady had left for me. It was a piece of paper that stated her name and that she had cleaned my room today. On the top she had hand-written,"Your room smells good" with a smiley face, then at the bottom she had written, "you have a great day" with a smiley face and then a simple, "Thank you". This little gesture brought a smile to my face. Yesterday there was a similar piece of paper but it only had the housekeepers name (which was a different person today). Today, this lady left a personal greeting for me which made it very special and was really a nice touch. As I walked away pondering on this little note, with a smile on my face, I just heard these words, "It's the fragrance of the Lord". This then caused me to search to see if there was a verse that stated something similar since I felt this was the Lord speaking to me. I went on BibleGateway since my concordance didn't have anything on "fragrance" and no matter which version I selected, this verse continued to stand out to me:

2 Corinthians 2:14:

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.

Diffuses means: "to become widely dispersed, spread out" so this verse would say that through us He spreads out His knowledge in every place we go. 

At first, when I read the whole context of this verse I felt a little condemnation try to get me because I'm not a great witness for God. I mean, I don't publicly speak out like some or stop to witness to a waitress or anything like that. When I tried to explain this to the Lord and to question if I was really hearing His thinking on this matter (because maybe it's just my lotion & hair products after all!) He brought to my mind a few examples...

This morning while I was waiting to head off to work, I spent some time reading my Bible because I woke up with a lot of things on my mind. Right before I left for the day I prayed a prayer for some of those issues. The prayer I prayed diffused His fragrance into the room and was dispersed not only here but it went up to the Father's ears and then also in the direction I was praying. Then, another example He showed me was when I was talking on IM with someone about a HUGE account we were transferring out, she commented on how her last manager told her she was pretty much useless. I was shocked! I proceeded to tell her that wasn't true and that she was always the most helpful and knowledgeable person I knew when dealing with this particular thing. I also told her that when anyone had a question on this type of thing we always send them to her because she would have the answers! She appreciated the words of encouragement and thanked me for them... the fragrance of God was dispersed into her life. A third example the Lord showed me was yesterday when my manager called me and was in tears and felt like an idiot... by the time our conversation ended we had each other laughing. The fragrance of God was dispersed....

So I guess all of this is to say... the fragrance of His knowledge, through praying the word over a situation, or speaking truth instead of lies to someone who is doubting their worth, or bringing laughter into a broken heart... is dispersed into every place through our lives. In going back over this verse I also am reminded that He ALWAYS leads us in triumph in Christ. ALWAYS, wherever He leads us, He leads us in triumph.... 

So thank you Lord for always leading me in triumph and that Your fragrance, Your truth, Your life are dispersed and spread out into every place I go. Please bless this little housekeeping lady in a big way... in as much as she has blessed my life today. May I be a representation of Your fragrance each day and to each person I come in contact with everywhere I go... Amen.

Bonnelle