How to Remain in God’s Love and Avoid Grieving the Holy Spirit
- Lee Young
- Jul 15
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 31
John 15:10 (NIV)
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
The greatest goal of God is to have an intimate communion with us. A deep communion allows Him to give us all of Himself. We experience, more and more, the fullness of His love and goodness. What a great tragedy it would be to forfeit His love lavished on us so thoroughly. Our priority should match His. As much as He desires communion, so should we. To make this beautiful experience and life with God our priority, it is not only about how we interact with the Lord. It is also about how we interact with one another.
It is easy for us to forget in the moment that God’s presence is within us as believers. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a kind of energy or strength. The Holy Spirit is God within us. He is present for every thought, every word, every attitude, every behavior. And the Bible cautions us not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).
When someone is grieving, it is because something has died. Death has entered into the moment, whether it is the death of a dream, of joy, of peace, of a relationship, financial security, or the loss of a loved one. We grieve any time something works to steal us away from the spirit of life or physical life. To grieve the Holy Spirit is to allow a moment of death to creep in. When we allow thoughts or attitudes that do not align with Scripture, we grieve the Holy Spirit.
Our passage today reminds us that the commands of God work to form us into increasingly loving God with all our heart, loving our neighbors, ourselves, and even our enemies. Loving others is loving God. To mistreat someone that God loves enough to die for is offensive to God. When we fail to love others well with our words, attitude, or actions, we grieve the Holy Spirit. We pull away from Him. Rather than remaining in the love and communion of God, we have a moment of pulling away from Him. He pursues us. He is not offended by our actions to the point that he abandons us. He will never leave us, but when we don’t love others well, we pull away from Him. We do not remain in Him for that moment as long as it lasts. If we want to experience the fullness of God’s love and goodness, we must consistently love all people with our words, behaviors, and attitudes. Then, we will remain in His love.
Prayer: Lord, help me to love better, especially when I am feeling unloved.
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