Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 4:30-5:2
Merciful Father… mighty Holy Spirit… most compassionate Lord Jesus… I praise you today for the love with which you love us… in which you have rooted us… and by which you are transforming us. It’s an irrepressible love, because you won’t be denied. It’s an unconditional love, because every condition has already been met by Jesus. It’s a shocking love, because we’re the ones loved… and we’re the ones called to love like you love. O my!
It’s taking the whole Trinity to redeem us and it takes the whole Trinity for us to live this life of love to which you have called us. There’s no other way we’ll will even begin to be an “imitator of God.” So, hear my cry.
Father, I don’t want to live today just with a theoretical or theological awareness of being your dearly loved child. Let it be deeply experiential and existential—very real, very encouraging, and very humbling. Your great love for me is the greatest convicting power this side of the new heaven and new earth.
All day long, let me hear you serenading us in the gospel… that I might grieve the ways I grieve the Holy Spirit—with my thoughts, with my words, and with my actions. Otherwise, I might try to justify the ways I love so poorly.
Lord Jesus, you are so kind and compassionate, forbearing and forgiving of me. I want the fragrant aroma of the sacrifice you made for us on the cross to permeate all my relationships. You’re not calling me to change anybody. You’re calling me to live as a broken perfume bottle through which the aroma of grace will bring your disruptive and gentling presence. Let me live and love more out of brokenness than from my wounded-ness and self-righteousness.
God the Holy Spirit, you who raised Jesus from the dead, give me the power I will need today to rid myself—not to nurse, tolerate, or justify—of my bitterness, anger, range, brawling, slander and malice, and all the other ways I love poorly. Indeed, Triune God, the life of love you live for us, please live through me. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ peerless name.