Daily Devotional

EXTRACTION.
I’m sitting here with my coffee, listening to the rain. As I take in this Monday morning…I am tediously extracting the amazingly fragrant (and teeeeeny tiny) vanilla bean seeds out of these beautiful pods. I’ve been out for a while, and homemade vanilla sugar and extract are the absolute best!!

Now, I could just toss the whole pods into the jar for the extract. It would be so-so. I could just stick whole pods into a jar of cane sugar for a somewhat decent vanilla sugar flavor. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right? Sure! But it wouldn’t be as deep, as rich, as fragrant or flavorful as it could be. To get the deepest and richest flavor, you’ve got to do the work…you’ve got to get in there and extract the pure goodness of that pod.

You carefully cut into each pod, open it up, and gently scrape out the fantastical seeds. The aroma is AMAZING… but as I’m working on this, I was thinking how our walk with the Lord is so similar.

We accept Christ. If it’s genuine, we receive and are sealed by His Spirt…that same Spirit we just celebrated that raised Jesus from the dead. We believe. We have received that fantastical gift. We can carry on, having a decent walk with Him, some level of understanding and depth. But….wait…there’s so much more…

Infused by the Word and Spirit

If we are willing to dig into His Word, allowing it to cut into us…that process will work to extract a deeper, richer, and more fragrant experience with HIM! The more we allow His Word and time in prayer with him to cut into us and transform us…the more fragrant our thoughts, prayers, and choices are to Him.

I will mesh these tiny seeds into this cane sugar to infuse every sugary granule. That takes time and patience to be sure every granule is infused. When we dig into God’s Word to extract all of the glorious seeds of His goodness…rather than it just being on the surface—we will be infused with the intoxicatingly fragrant aroma of JESUS.

So… dig in, my sweet friend, and start EXTRACTING!
Your King is alive! He has conquered death, hell, and the grave.

Don’t look for the living among the dead.
Don’t come to simply attempt to do just barely enough to cover the stench of your sin with oils and perfumes…it won’t work!!!
Be so infused by the wonderfully fragrant aroma of His Word and time with him in prayer…that you look, act, speak, and smell like the rich aroma of the KINGDOM of God!!!!

Be so infused that anyone that isn’t of God, but is of the father of lies, will be so sickened and irritated by your presence that they flee (with no chance to harm you), or fall to their knees and repent as they receive Jesus as Lord over their lives as well.

Devotional Scriptures to Extract & be INFUSED by!!

• 2 Corinthians 2:15 (NIV) – “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”
• Hebrews 4:12 (ESV) – “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit…”
• Psalm 141:2 (NIV) – “May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”
• Colossians 3:16 (NLT) – “Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.”
• John 15:4 (ESV) – “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself… neither can you, unless you abide in me.”
• 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV) – “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory…”

Blessings to YOU,

Cassandra Lee

There’s JOY in the journey – nourishing body & soul…

I have written two published Devotionals. You can see them on our website. Alternatively, they can be ordered on Amazon.

Order on Amazon:

In These Jars of Clay 30-Day Devotional Journey: https://a.co/d/d1mM5HW

A Pig Trough, Slop, & A Broken Princess 21-day Devotional Journey: https://a.co/d/5HEjko1

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