Pleasing to the Lord! – Shilpa Dhinakaran

“ I will accept you as fragrant incense”  (Ezekiel 20:41).
God is pleased with you today! You might feel just the opposite within yourself but that is not the truth. The truth is God is pleased with you. You are a fragrant incense before God. Do you like the smell of coffee early morning or the smell of your favourite food stirs within you a strong desire within you and also makes you happy? Have you enjoyed the scent of rain which brings a cool, relaxing feeling within you? Different scents remind us of different things and make us feel in a particular way. That is how each of us have a scent before God. God knows us by our scent. He says we are a fragrance to Him. He is reminded of us when we pray to him and worship him.

Our prayers have an aroma. God is pleased with that aroma. In the Old Testament, God commanded the priests of Israel to continually burn aromatic incense made from a blend of five exotic spices on the golden altar inside the Holy of Holies. God had a recipe for the kind of aroma that should be raised up before Him. These incenses are no longer needed as Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross and prayed for us so that the incense that pleases God has been raised on our behalf once and for all. Today, our prayers and not the incense we offer are what pleases God. Our prayers are so pleasant and precious to God that he lovingly collects them in “golden bowls” in heaven (Revelation 5:8). 

God asked people to offer sacrifices for their sins and when the offerings were burnt, their incense pleased God. I communicated to God that His people were repenting. Every time a person sinned, he brought a sacrifice indicating that he repents his sins. This aroma of repentance pleases God. Today, that sacrifice is the blood and body of Jesus that was roasted on the cross for us. The aroma of repentance when we come to the cross repenting for our sins pleases God today. All that God expects from us is a repentant heart. He has forgiven our sins on the cross 2000 years back. All we need to do is seek that forgiveness and embrace it. God doesn’t want “vain” confessions, mere remorse, but genuine repentance that comes from truly humble and contrite hearts (Psalm 51:17). Repentance is at the very heart of worship, which is why God sees repentance as especially fragrant. So even today, when you repent and when you offer your prayers, know that you are acceptable in God’s sight and He desires to be reminded by your sweet presence. No matter what sin you are dealing with, there is forgiveness for you through Christ’s sacrifice. God says to you, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12). 

Prayer:
Loving Lord!

How wonderful Your love is toward me. Thank You for sacrificing yourself to be roasted as the lamb on the cross in my place. Thank You for Your blood and body that you have offered to make me a fragrant incense before God. Please forgive all my sins. Thank You for letting me know I am pleasing in Your sight.

In the sweet name of my Lord Jesus I pray, O Father, Amen.