Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Are You a Fragrant Flower?



"Just as a flower which seems beautiful and has color but no perfume, so are the fruitless words of the man who speaks them but does them not." ~ John Dewey

While walking at a park with my lovely girlfriend, we took the chance to take some photos using our phone cameras. It was just right after a downpour. These little red flowers caught our attention, and it was indeed beautiful!

But I felt something is missing. I never smelled its fragrance. It should have been a more delightful experience if it had a very pleasant aroma!

It is just as the same way as the words that we speak. We might be the best silver-tongued man, but if our actions do not back these words up, we are more like a man who after looking at himself on a mirror, immediately forgets what he looks like.

"For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like." - James 1:23-24

The Word of God, is like a mirror that makes us see our true nature - sinful, wicked, wretched, hopeless, all because of sin. It shows us that we need help. On our own, we tend to ruin ourselves.

That is the reason why Jesus Christ became a baby - a human like us but still God at the same time, grew up, was crucified on the Cross - to die for us as the punishment for our sins, buried - to show that our sins were also buried with His body, and was risen again - to demonstrate that every one who believes in Jesus Christ and surrenders everything to Him has a new life already!

My friend, if you have surrendered your life to Christ already, you are a new person now. Jesus Christ is living in you now. Therefore, let us ask God that by His grace He would help us walk what we talk about.

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves... But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." - James 1:22, 25

Be a fragrant flower today, my friend, and may others smell that fragrance and point them to Jesus Christ who is far more fragrant and delightful and pleasing - the One who made it possible for us to appreciate beauty in the first place!

© 2016 Erickson Ibana

 Image is my own capture.