In all their distress He too was distressed, and the angel of His presence saved them.

In His love and mercy He redeemed them;  He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Yet they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit.

So He turned and became their enemy and He himself fought against them.  Isaiah 63:9-10 NIV

We all like to think of God as He is spoken of in the first part of this scripture passage.  He is distressed when we are distressed, He sends His angels to save us.  Psalm 91 tells us that He will give His angels orders to protect us, to support us with their hands so that we will not strike our foot against a stone.  We like to think of Him as a loving and merciful God who redeems us and lifts us up and carries us.  The wonderful news is that God is just like that.  He is wonderful and loving and he’s always got our back.  The bad news is he is vengeful and prone to great wrath.  He is a God of justice.

Now I don’t know how it was for you growing up, but I grew up with a father who was patient, loving, and kind until I pushed it too far.  Then I saw a side of him that was not pleasant, scary even.  He would put up with a lot, but once I crossed the line it was time to pay.

The Bible tells us that our heavenly father is like this in that he loves us dearly and shows us great mercy.  We usually get some type of warning before we cross the line.  When we mess up, it is God’s desire that we repent and restore our relationship with Him.  But if we continue along our merry way living our sinful life after God has convicted us and called us to repent, it could be bad for us.

The last part of this scripture passage tells us that once they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit, that he became their enemy and fought against them.  Now, I don’t know about you but the one person that I do not want to become my enemy is God.  So how do we avoid making God our enemy, well here it says that they rebelled against Him.  Obviously that doesn’t make Him happy.  Ephesians 4:31 gives quite a few things that we should do and most of them relate to our mouths and what comes out of them.  It tells us to put away lying and only speak the truth.  It tells us to not let any foul language come out of our mouths.  It goes on to say that we should only say things that build others up and gives grace to those who hear.  We are then instructed to remove all bitterness, anger, wrath, shouting, slander, and malice and be kind and compassionate to one another.  We are told to forgive one another just as God forgave us.  It tells us that when we lie, use foul language, hold on to bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, wrath, shouting, slander and malice that it gives the devil an opportunity.  I always say that if you give the devil the tiniest little opening that he will come in and take over.  But worse than giving the devil the opportunity, it grieves the Holy Spirit when we exhibit these behaviors.  Now one thing I do not want to do is grieve the Holy Spirit.

As a child, I never wanted to intentionally make my Daddy angry, but I usually got into trouble when I started insisting on everything going my way.  My Daddy allowed me to have many things my way, but not all things.  As children of God, this is usually what gets us into trouble.  We want what we want, when we want it and we don’t like to be told no. We also like to hang on to things that we need to let go of.

There is nothing on this planet that is worth me messing up my relationship with my heavenly father.  There is nothing on this planet that is worth me grieving the Holy Spirit.  I certainly hope and pray that I never do anything that causes God to become my enemy and fight against me.  You see, God is my protector.  I can’t afford for Him to be my enemy.  He is the reason I don’t fear.  I have a reverential fear of Him and for this reason I don’t want to experience his wrath.

So as you go through this day be mindful of your thoughts, words, and actions. Guard your mouth and try to stop it from causing you to grieve the Holy Spirit.  Most of the things we do that grieve the Holy Spirit we do out of anger and spite.  We do these things because we can’t truly forgive others.  So today think of anyone that you hold any bitterness and resentment toward and ask for God’s help to just let it go.  Give it all to God.  It will lighten your load and remove the danger of your grieving the Holy Spirit and making God your enemy.

Have a great day!