Ephesians 4:30
"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
We've seen already that it is the Spirit who seals our salvation. The Holy Spirit is God's earnest towards us, the guarantee of the salvation completed in Christ and being worked out in us lives until our redemption is complete. Here, Paul gives warning that believers are not to be the source of grief of towards this same Spirit.
Over the years, I've heard various explanations as to what it means for a believer to grieve the Spirit. Some say grieving comes when we resisting the Spirit's call on our lives, or when we live in disobedience to the Word, or when we crowd out the Spirit's influence by not seeking daily after God.
While we can't know for sure what it means to grieve the Spirit, a clue comes from the word itself. When we cause grief in someone, regardless from what manner, we cause hurt in some way. To grieve the Spirit means we've caused hurt to our relationship with God. Not that we break this relationship, for it is sealed by the Spirit as a covenant, but that we strain it in some way. Grief causes pain.
Trouble is, we often grieve the Spirit and don't even know it. This happens when we're already living so far apart from the Spirit's touch that we don't even miss the absence of God's power when we've pushed away the Spirit. Unlike in an earthly relationship, we don't see the impact of our actions on God's heart unless we're closely looking for it.
In a marriage relationship, we learn what causes hurt in each other so that we can avoid those actions. Sometimes this is through the school of hard knocks, and other times we learn by intently observing our spouse. I think if we'll look back to times past, we can learn how we've grieved the Spirit. And if we'll intently observe our Lord through the Word, we'll understand the dangers of where we may grieve the Spirit in the future.
And maybe it is time for believers to ask God to tell us the ways we grieve the Spirit so that we can avoid those things as well.
LORD JESUS
Lord, I invite you to impress upon my heart the times I've grieved my relationship with your Spirit. I want to do everything necessary in my life to restore the sweetness of our relationship. Amen.
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