Giving Grief to the Holy Spirit

It's easy for me to make my wife, The Lovely Joanne, upset.  All I have to do
is say something unkind about the way the house looks, or about her cooking or driving.  Truth to tell, we can each make the other upset, about all kinds of subjects.  But it's not just the comment.  The root of it, when we say or do the wrong things, is that we aren't paying attention to the desires and needs of the other.  Nurturing our love, trying to love each other more deeply, means being sensitive to what the other one is thinking or might want at any certain point.  It means for me to expend some effort to figure out what my wife would actually like me to do, and then to do that.  And I appreciate it a great deal when she does the same for me.

Marriage is a very close relationship and takes ongoing attentiveness to work right.  But guess what -- it's the same with our most intimate relationship, that is, with the Holy Spirit.  Rather than leave us alone (John 14:18) to figure out how to understand and follow Jesus, the Father sends the Holy Spirit to live in us and continue to teach us about Jesus and the Father (verse 17). That indwelling of the Spirit is the very heart of our ability to relate to God.  His mind in us is real and can be felt. 

We need to decide how we will live within that relationship.  We can pay careful, constant attention to the Spirit's presence and will, as he leads us to live according to his mind; or we can be lax about his presence.  Guess which gets better results?  Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:30:  "And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own."  I puzzled over that instruction for many years before realizing that the Spirit, who is the mind of God, genuinely lives in me and is troubled when I go against his will for me. 

In Rom. 8:6 we read:  "Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace."  That sounds like the relationship between my wife and me.  Putting attention to the reality of the Spirit's presence, and letting him have his way instead of stubbornly doing my own will, leads to a much more peaceful existence.  If you're having stress and anxiety, maybe it's time to let go and let the Holy Spirit direct more.  Why not give it a try?