Lent 24 The Holy Spirit

do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption  Eph 4:30

grieve¹

ɡriːv/

verb

1. feel intense sorrow.

   "she grieved for her father"

   synonyms:

   mourn, lament, be mournful, be sorrowful, sorrow, be sad, be miserable;

   • feel intense sorrow about.

     "he is still grieving his mother's death"
   • cause great distress to (someone).

     "it grieves me to think of you in that house alone"

     synonyms:

     hurt, wound, pain, harrow, sting, gall;

   The Holy Spirit is a person of the Godhead.  And He is holy.   Which means that He gets upset when we drag Him into our unholiness, or when we deny He exists or attribute what He is doing to the devil.    It is possible to ' cause great distress' to the Spirit - we can wound Him and make Him retreat from us.   Church leaders can send Him packing from their congregations by disparaging His work or just ignoring Him completely.   And as the Holy Spirit is the one who leads us into all the truth and who reveals the person of Jesus to us then without Him we are pretty quickly going to stray off into deception and be food for the prowling lion.

I love the Spirit of God.  I love the gentle way He points me to the Father and the Son.  I love His endless creativity and His wonderful sense of humour.   I love His huge compassion for the lost and the hurting and the fact that He will use anyone - even me - to reach out to them.  I love the fact that He is dangerous and exciting and constantly pushes me to go further and deeper with God.   I love the music He makes and the miracles He does.   I love how He makes sense of the word of God and brings scripture to life.   The Holy Spirit is amazing and I. for one dont ever want to do anything to cause Him great distress.

Lord thank you so much for sending us the Holy Spirit and for promising us that we can be constantly filled by and with Him so that we can know you from the inside.   If there is anything in my life right now which is causing Him to grieve then I ask that you would show me and help me to get rid of it.  I welcome Your Spirit into every area of my life and offer myself to be used by Him .  Help me not to resist His promptings,  reject His counsel or disbelieve His activity.  It is an amazing privilege to be know and loved by You.  Thank You .