When I was young we lived just behind a Cow Dairy. When we first moved to the neighborhood the stench of the bovine feces was unbearable. For the first few months there would be days when the wind blew just right, there was nothing to take away the smell. But something happened…after a while the smell began to go away. One day I realized it no longer smelled like cow $#!t. The dairy was still there, the cows still pooped, but I didn’t notice it anymore. So what happened? I became use to the stink!

Now allow me to parallel this story with our lives.

I’m a Christian. If you are reading this then most likely you are a Christian. You have smelled the sweet fragrance of grace. It smells good. But perhaps, after a time, you have fallen back into some old habits and hang-ups. At first you know it’s wrong, it smells bad. You try to get away and flee from the things that you KNOW no longer have a hold of you because of new life with Christ. But the sins of this world are powerful. So you continue to dabble. It still stinks. But after a while, just as the stench of the dairy farm became accustomed to my nose, the sin also becomes easier to deal with. You become accustom to it. It no longer stinks.

Perhaps as you read this blog you don’t realize that what seems to smell good around you is actually not! How do we know? What do we do? Allow me to share from experience.

The only way I know to explain it is this: when you no longer have that deep, passionate desire to serve God, then you have probably become use to the stink again. I was there. I loved God, but the passion was gone. So I started praying and asking God to bring back the fire. Instead, he did something I didn’t expect. He let me smell some “roses” for a while, so that my nose would again recognize the stench of sin. It worked.

Before God brings back the fire, passion, and desire to serve Him with all that you have, He needs to clear your sinus cavity.

Now that He has brought some healing into my life, He is beginning to bring the fire back. It takes a while. It takes commitment and determination. You have to wake up EVERY day and ask God to remind you what stink smells like so you can enjoy the sweet roses around you. I heard a preacher once say you can’t know the righteousness of God until you know the sinfulness of sin. What he meant was that you don’t know how good a rose smells until you have smelled the ugly smell of sin.

I encourage you today to ask God to clear you sinus out. You will be reminded of what you knew that day you asked Christ into your life. You may also be shocked at what has taken a hold of you. You can begin to pray it away. Read your bible…get into God’s word. It’s the only thing that smells good in this world.

“I die every day–I mean that, brothers–just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The Apostle Paul