Sweet and sour: savouring the sweet fragrance of Christ

By Lyn Wake  |  Wycliffe Today November 2020  |

How hungry are we for God’s Word? 

As I sit at my desk to share with you today, a loaf of bread is baking in the oven. The delicious, yeasty aroma wafts through my office. I am hungry and can hardly wait to savour the flavour, and be satisfied.

One of the symptoms of COVID-19 is a loss of smell and taste. Beth, my friend and Wycliffe colleague, explains her experience with the virus this way: Losing my senses affected my appetite and felt so unnatural. I could remember fragrances and flavours, but the memories were not satisfying. Eating felt sad. It is so enjoyable to again smell and taste the food I eat!

Physical pandemics bring many losses. But we face another pandemic—one that is much more insidious and widespread than COVID-19. Soul sickness dulls and steals our spiritual senses and none of us are immune. 

In the midst of this pandemic, many of us need an awakening of our spiritual senses!

So how do we reinvigorate our spiritual smell and taste? The answer is always found in Jesus. In Ephesians 5:2, Paul describes Jesus’ sacrifice with the word ‘euodia’ meaning a sweet, pleasing offering to God. 

When we breathe in God’s fragrant love in Christ, our soul hunger awakens. He fills us with his renewing Spirit and we become like Christ: the offering that is both pleasing to God and a sweet aroma to others (2 Corinthians 2:14–15.)

Friends, through this soul-searching season, let us not lose our senses! If we are not alert to the sweet Christ fragrance, tasting God’s goodness and satisfying our own aching hunger with Jesus, how can we possibly be the sweet offering everybody needs?

When was the last time you smelled the fragrance of Christ, savoured the taste of his Word and allowed him to satisfy your deepest hunger? 

Prayer:

Father, please heal our soul sickness. Awaken and deepen our spiritual senses so we can become a fragrant offering that whets the appetite of a dying world. We want to hunger afresh for your Word and offer a mouth-watering taste of you, the Bread of Life, to satisfy the hungry. Amen.

Be transformed by the Word as you engage with:

Psalm 119:97–112 & 2 Corinthians 2:14–17