Monday, February 7, 2011

Grief and the Holy Spirit


And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.


—Ephesians 4:30

Because He is loving and kind and friendly, the Holy Spirit may be grieved.... He can be grieved because He is loving, and there must be love present before there can be grief.

Comfort in Grief, c.1852



Suppose you had a seventeen-year-old son who began to go bad. He rejected your counsel and wanted to take things into his own hands. Suppose that he joined up with a young stranger from another part of the city and they got into trouble.

You were called down to the police station. Your boy—and another boy whom you had never seen—sat there in handcuffs.

You know how you would feel about it. You would be sorry for the other boy—but you don't love him because you don't know him. With your own son, your grief would penetrate to your heart like a sword. Only love can grieve. If those two boys were sent off to prison, you might pity the boy you didn't know, but you would grieve over the boy you knew and loved. A mother can grieve because she loves. If you don't love, you can't grieve.

— Tozer



4 comments:

  1. Powerful words and very true!
    "Only love can grieve".
    Gives me much to meditate on. Thank you Emily.
    God bless you..Trish

    ReplyDelete
  2. I derive so much inspiration and encouragement from the writings of Tozer! Thank you so much for sharing this. Have a blessed week, Mrs. Q! :)

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  3. This is so true. My heart goes out and aches for others when I hear of their hard times or something bad happens to them. However, I hold onto my own children and pray that they never do that or go through that, etc.. It makes me hold onto God more and my children more too!
    Love, Cass (glad you are at A Godly Homemaker)

    ReplyDelete

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