Pleasing Aroma to the Lord

Lev. 2:13

"You shall season all your grain offerings with salt, You shall not let the salt of the covenant with Your God be missing from your grain offering with all your offerings you shall offer salt."

As I read about the offerings in Lev.1-4, I see that God is specific about what is offered to Him, about what is a pleasing aroma to Him. First I think of Rev. 5:8, "the four living creatures and the elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." My prayers are to be that pleasing aroma to the Lord. Prayer must be a vital part of what of my living sacrifice, my spiritual worship.

Then I notice that no offering can be made with leaven since leaven symbolizes corruption. "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump...Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Obviously, nothing that I offer to God must be tainted with sin. This leaven (sin) is part of my old nature and must be cleansed out (I Jn. 1:9). It must be transformed by the renewing of my mind so that I can approve what is the good and acceptable will of God. God is specific about my living sacrifice as well. Thank God I have grace-scrubber to cleanse out all the leaven.

Then there must be salt in the offering because the salt demonstrates the permanence of the relationship. In my relationship with God Matt. 5:13 says, "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under foot." His grace in my life is the demonstration of the lasting covenant that He has with me. It is this salt that I show to the world and to fellow believers. "Let your speech be always gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person."  Salt is my preservative as well. When I offer my life as a living sacrifice, it needs to be leaven-less and seasoned with salt. Is my living sacrifice salty? Is if free of leaven? Am I remembering these two elements as I live my daily life? Am I just offering what I have whether lacking in salt or leaven-stained? Have I taken myself out of the offering and allowed His salt to consume me? Does grace allow me to be careless about my living sacrifice, about leaven and salt?

Father,

Convict me of old pockets of leaven tucked deep inside my heart. Grant me true repentance so that my offering is a pleasing aroma to You. Show me how to live 'salty' in deed and in word.

In Jesus name,

Amen