Our testimony, when shared with transparency and an attitude of gratitude, can be a sweet fragrance to God and can impact those around us. This week we will continue to learn how developing our testimony is dependent upon three relationships: our relationship with God, our relationship with ourselves, and our relationship with others.
Our Relationship with Ourselves
The most difficult relationship for most women is the one with themselves. Life and society have a way of conditioning women to believe that they are to simply be caretakers to the needs of those closest to them. This results in an unconscious belief that who we are is somehow enmeshed in what we do. All this “doing” can take us away from being with the Father and losing sight of our identity in Him. So, we must re-examine our priorities and adjust our lives to make sure we are seeking Him first and “doing” what is needed to nurture our own spirits.
Life’s events also have a negative effect on our relationship with ourselves. With every offense, hurt, or trauma, an emotional wound is carved into our soul. With every new trauma, a new defense is created, and eventually we begin reacting as opposed to responding, and we fail to trust anyone, including God and ourselves. But as we cultivate our relationship with God, we also cultivate our relationship with ourselves. Reading God’s Word and engraving it into our spirit promotes emotional healing. As God heals, liberty and freedom replace the bondage from the emotional hurts. God’s promise to love unconditionally and completely becomes enough – enough to rebuild the bridge between our physical body and our emotional soul, giving ourselves permission “to feel” once again. God’s love is enough to teach us that self-love is healthy. It translates into caring for our temple, which He inhabits.
Our Relationship with Others
When desiring to help the people around us, a relationship with others would naturally be where we would focus first. However, prioritizing our relationship with God teaches us the depth and width of His love for us, which affects how we view ourselves. At this point, reaching out to help others is not about ourselves; it is about others! Using our personal testimonies to empathize with others’ needs becomes the “aroma of Christ” spoken of in Second Corinthians 2:14-15. As women of God, we can now share with others God’s promises of unconditional love, forgiveness, healing, and change – because those promises are now a revelation in our lives. Our outstretched hand to the women in the world reflects the “fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” representing Christ’s love for us in Ephesians 5:2.
When we are empowered with the knowledge that helping others is not what we want to do but instead what we are called to do, then our work becomes “on purpose” – a true fulfillment of God’s destiny for our lives. So let’s become the fragrance of Christ, and the world around us will begin to smell the sweet aroma.
“They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Revelation 12:11 NIV).
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