Bible Text: 2 Corinthians 2:14 | Speaker: Darlene Sala | Series: Encouraging Words | “A saint is someone who makes it easy to believe in Jesus,” said an anonymous writer. Actually all believers who have put their faith in Christ are called “saints” by the Bible. But not all of us attract others to the Lord. That makes me ask myself, “Does my life tell the truth about God? When people look at me, knowing that I am a child of God, do they see any family resemblance? It’s a penetrating thought, isn’t it!

Like it or not, everyone is watching us. Our friends and neighbors know if they can count on us for help. Family members know if they have to handle us with care or we’ll blow up. Our co-workers are well aware if we carry our fair share of the load—or better yet, go beyond what is expected. Daily they’re examining every facet of our lives.  Are our lives telling the truth about God?

Ruth Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham, recalled a morning when the children were quite young. Billy was out of town, and she had been up with one of the kids about five times in the night. Tired and sleepy, she picked up the baby out of bed and didn’t bother to change him–just plunked him down in the high chair. She said she grabbed the closest bathrobe, her hair and face both a mess. At the breakfast table, every time Gigi, her eldest, started to say something, Bunny, the youngest daughter, would interrupt. Finally Gigi banged down her fork, pushed back her chair, and said, “Mother, between looking at you and listening to Bunny and smelling the baby, I’m just not hungry!” And then Ruth asked a searching question: “Are you taking away someone’s appetite for Christ?”[i]

The apostle Paul says, “But thanks be to God, who…through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of [Christ]” (2 Corinthians 2:14). Let’s live in such a way that our lives tell the truth about God.

 

[i] Ruth Bell Graham, “Husbands, Children and God,” Decision Magazine, June 1967, 8.