Have you ever used essential oils in your home?
These remedies manufactured from distilled botanicals have become a giant industry in American society. Touted as the elixir of health, essential oils are urged upon us so we can be healthier, cleaner, and even smarter.
Am I a fan? Yes, to a point. I’ve tried out a few, and they’re helpful. They seem to have aided my immune system, repelled mosquitoes, soothed achy joints, and they make my house smell good, all without sending extra, man-made chemicals into the air or into my body.
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Here’s a list of a few of their good effects.
- Potency. One drop of eucalyptus oil into the palm of my hand, rub it against my other hand, then place both hands in front of my face and inhale. Wooh! Sinuses cleared!
- Healing properties. Gently rub a drop of lavender oil onto a first or second-degree burn. In a few hours, the redness disappears, the blister flattens to almost nothing, and the pain is gone.
- Health maintenance. There must be thousands of oils sold to keep you healthy! One example: a drop of cinnamon oil is supposed to be helpful for Type 2 diabetics.
- Air-freshener. My favorite is a combination of lime and spearmint oils. I put three drops of each in my diffuser. Oh, that smells good!
- Mood elevation. Not in the same sense as an antidepressant or marijuana! Rather, the secondary effects of the air freshening also lift the spirit.
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The Bible often uses oil as a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
Just for fun, I decided to match the above list of properties with the work of the Holy Spirit. The mental exercise amazed me! With one drop of the Holy Spirit, we receive the same effects offered by essential oils, only God’s effectiveness is eternal.
- Potency. One sweet touch from God and watch the results! My fear of the unknown? Gone. My desire to improve in an area of my life? The Spirit empowers me.
- Healing properties. One drop from the Holy Spirit accomplishes far and beyond what any doctor, shrink, or priest can do. I can pray for Him to heal me in body, mind, or soul. When He chooses to anoint me with the oil of His Spirit, I return to health.
- Spiritual health maintenance. One drop of His presence during my devotion time, or any time, and I’m good for the day! And if something traumatic happens, He’s right there offering a drop of His essential oil in my hour of need.
- Spiritual air-freshener. One drop of His sweetness, and I discover all kinds of wonders surrounding me that I hadn’t noticed previously. The deep purple leaves that drop from my ash tree in the fall. The realization that I live in a house filled with His peace. When I allow the aroma of His Spirit to diffuse through my home, life can only be good.
- Mood elevation. One drop of His essential oil, and my entire day is easy to manage, no matter what happens. My heart is light, and if circumstances change, my joy remains.
Thomas Ὰ Kempis (1380 – 1471), author of The Imitation of Christ, wrote this prayer:
“O Lord, my God, do Thou grant unto Thy servant the blessings of Thy sweetness, that I may be enabled to approach worthily and devoutly to Thy glorious Sacrament.”
Fancy words! But consider. This is the King James English translation of a fourteenth century Dutchman’s words. I hope you can still sense the adoration in Kempis’s prayer written six hundred years ago, proving Christians basked in the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Middle Ages. Before that, they loved His presence in the time of the Roman Empire, as did every believer in the one true God all the way back to Adam in Genesis. And modern Christians feel the same yearning.
Of course, we don’t find ourselves overflowing with the Holy Spirit every day (I wish we did!), and those in the modern world are quick to deny His power exists. They have no desire to drink of His sweetness or to discover how much the Spirit cares for us. The world often scorns Christians who hold the sweet essential oil of the Spirit close to their hearts.
Don’t allow the world to grab His essential oil out of your hands and toss it away. You and I need His sweetness. Just one drop blesses us without measure. The joy of our salvation.
