The Bible compares a pleasant aroma to a friend’s wise counsel. A friend who invests in
your spiritual well-being is someone you desire to be around or strive to be like. These
people encourage you, give you sound advice, or set you straight when you are walking
away from godly truth. To have friends invest in you is a sweet aroma.
If we are not careful, we can allow our schedules, tasks, and demands to overshadow
the joy and beauty of friendship time. Don’t wait for an invitation, start the process.
True friendships know everything about you – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and
love you anyway. You enjoy life together, share countless stories, and encourage each
other to look more like Jesus
I have never been without a friend. The Lord has always brought me friends even
through the different journeys in life: moving away, disconnection, even death.
The Lord always provided a new friend to come into my life.
My son wants me to cut his hair. This is surprising. He likes his hair long. It’s not just long, but ponytail long. He could play a convincing role as Jesus. He does have beautiful hair. It is thick and shiny and wavy.
This verse is so comforting to us. We know that our God is good, and He works all things for our good. BUT . . . we also must remember that our good may include struggles and pain. Our good may be walking through that tough thing.
When we have a fresh encounter with God and He reveals His presence to us, we are likely to be overwhelmed with awe and a sense of our unworthiness. This should cause us to be humbled, and we should desire to repent and return to obedience and fellowship with our Lord.
Imagine the life-changing decisions made by those who actually saw Christ's healing love touches? Sweet Jesus even said, "Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed." (John 20:29 HCSB)
The prophet Habakkuk recorded a third prayer to God. This prayer was in the form of a song written for the choir director to be song with stringed instruments. Habakkuk responded to what God foretold of the judgment of Israel by the invading Babylonians. Even though God declared that He would defend His people with His mighty arm, Habakkuk "trembled within" as he waited quietly for the Lord’s deliverance.
This is when Paul says…
Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone (Romans 12:18 NLT).
Then, in verses 19-21, he proceeds to say don’t pay the person back with evil or revenge. Instead, Paul wisely says to calm the person down who is persecuting you by sharing food and drink with them. Paul explains that the best way to conquer evil is by doing good.
While I wait, I am to live a pure and blameless lifestyle based on the correct teaching of God’s wisdom in the letters Paul wrote (verse 15).
What will ignorant and unstable people do? At the end, they are going to distort or twist the teaching in God’s word to mean something very different than what God intended (verse 16).
This hope the Lord gives is encouraging! The truth is His covenant of peace will not be shaken and His love will not be removed, no matter how much turmoil is happening around me.
I have an old self, a former way of life, that is corrupted by deceitful desires that seem to cling to me like that old shriveled up leaf clinging to the tree. It takes super-natural help from the Holy Spirit to push off the old self… to make it let go.
The Lord is merciful and gives me my basic needs when I ask.
But how often do I ask for the salvation for another or the gift of the Holy Spirit?
I don’t ask enough.
I found that convicting.
Ah, providence—God’s providence is everywhere in the story of Joseph: “God both possesses and exercises absolute power over the works of his hands.”* As Kelly Minter writes: “Is it possible that what appears to be nothing but a tangle of other people’s agendas will somehow be the very ball of yarn God will use to weave one of the most redemptive masterpieces in human history?”**
Yes, when the time is right God is always faithful to His promises. Joseph’s perspective, and ours, is limited to what we can see. God has the big picture. Only in hindsight do we see as He sees.
I call such moments “aha” moments—when biblical truths begin to connect with one another revealing the overarching plan of God from creation to His return. Such moments arrive as a gentle wave of delight as I embrace such glorious truths.
