Ephesians 4:29-32The Message (MSG) 29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
30 Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.
31-32 Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.
The Bible refers to the tongue as a weapon in so many places, and today's reading gives direct, specific actions to take to make sure that what you say is uplifting and helpful to others. I've read this section a number of times and work hard to put it into practice, but there is one part that I really 'saw' for the first time today -- His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.
Wow. After spending some time looking closer at the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives and examining now, how to be a living testimony of our faith, this statement seems to be a lynch pin that explicitly ties the two together.
We have the Holy Spirit inside us, living and guiding, providing us with intimate connection to God all throughout our lives. How then, can we 'take such a gift for granted' and completely skip living our lives as worthy of our King? We do that whenever we use our mouths to speak ill instead of good. When we tear down instead of help. When we focus on the negative instead of the beautiful that God created. When we skip forgiveness and hold on to our victim status, keeping score of the wrongs committed against us. We grieve God, and break His heart. I think sometimes it is easy to imagine that God is hurting for us from afar, but if we have the Holy Spirit living and breathing inside of us, God is very much present in the moment and within the negativity and yuck we are feeling and sharing. He is feeling it as we are. And it breaks His heart for us. US - the person that is feeling and sharing the yuck. US.
Lord, please help me to be a worthy home and vessel for your Holy Spirit. I surrender all the yuck of my humanity so that it will not get in the way of the good work you want to do IN me and THROUGH me. Please forgive my never ending attempts to take control and do life without You in the lead. I don't want to live like that. Please let the fruits of my living be something other than negativity, hurt, and slander. Please let my words be more of you. Amen.
Lisa