This past week, I noticed how green the lawns and the fields have looked. It seems like it has happened overnight.

I believe I know the reason, and that is because of the abundance of rain for a couple of days. It’s been a while since we had so much of what I call “soft, continuous rain,” unlike the hard precipitation that comes all at once and doesn’t have time to soak in but rather runs off.

This reminded me of how others ought to see Christians and the change in our lives. They ought to be able to see the beauty in a life that used to be ugly. They ought to notice the change in speech as well as behavior.

Second Corinthians 2 refers to this when it says, “Wherever we go he (Christ) uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the gospel like a sweet perfume. As far as God is concerned there is a sweet, wholesome fragrance in our lives. It is the fragrance of Christ within us.” As some have said, “We are the only Bible some people read,” and the problem is that what they are reading is not what the Lord is trying to say.

Just like the effect rain has on nature, so our lives are affected by the spirit of God. The problem is that we try to live a changed life by our own power. The apostle Paul testified that it wasn’t he who was living this life, but Christ who was living through him.

The key to victory in this area is to learn to be submissive to the spirit of God in our lives.