Pleasing and Not Grieving the Holy Spirit

UV 808/10,000 Pleasing not Grieving the Spirit Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. It is significant that God has no grief other than what is caused by mankind. Jesus is known as the man of sorrow as He embraced every sorrow of mankind in order to redeem us. When we act and react towards each other with bitterness, rage and anger and engage in conflict, slander and malice of any kind, we are acting against the finished work of Christ on the cross. We are denying we are new creatures imbued with the hope of glory. This grieves or hurts the gentle Holy Spirit, the third person of the Divine Trinity. When individual men harden their hearts in disbelief of God, this too grieves the Spirit. When people in groups and nations wantonly follow ways of error and sin,it grieves the Lord. We are called to please and not displease or hurt the Holy Spirit by being kind and compassionate to one another and forgiving one another as Christ forgave us. We need to keep improving in every aspect of our character and the profession of our faith till the day of the Lord’s appearing or the day of our redemption. Just as we set goals and establish milestones for our work and projects, we need to set goals and establish milestones for the building of our character. Our spirit that communes with the Holy Spirit will communicate to us when the Lord is pleased with us and when He is grieved. We are all guilty at one time or other of so grieving the Spirit but at such times, we must repent, confess and resolve not to repeat such conduct or action or speech in the rest of our lives. Our diligence in following up on our repentance is what renders eventual victory in different areas of personal challenge in our lives. We need to evaluate whether by maintaining a particular attitude or by saying a particular word or by doing a particular act, we are pleasing or displeasing the Lord. Our goal as servants of God should be to please Him with every thought, word and deed. Just as a jeweller examines with great care every part of a jewel to see if it is well done, we should develop the habit of daily examining in this light what we think, speak and do. We need to be sensitive to the feelings of the Holy Spirit just as the Holy Spirit is sensitive and responsive to our feelings. The Holy Spirit is not a passive spectator of what is happening in our lives but an active participant in our edification. We can ask for His help in the areas of our failing or weakness. He is pleased to impart the wisdom and grace to overcome. Prateep V Philip