And 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’ve rooted us… and by which you’re transforming us. Without the assurance of your love for us in the gospel, we can’t even muster the will to love, must less find the power to love… especially in seasons of conflict and hurt.
It took the whole Trinity to redeem us… and it takes the whole Trinity for us to live this life of love to which you’ve called us. There’s no other way we will even begin to live as “imitators of God.” So, hear our cry.
Father, we don’t want to live today just with a theoretical or theological awareness of being your dearly loved children. Let it be deeply experiential and existential—very real… very humbling… and very irrepressible. For it’s your kindness—your agape love for us in Jesus that moves us to repentance. There is no other power sufficient for such a task. The law will harden and cripple us. The gospel will melt and move us.
All day long, let me hear you serenading me in the gospel, that I might grieve the ways I having been grieving the Holy Spirit—with my thoughts, with my words, and with my actions. Don’t let me try to justify the ways I fail to love others the way Jesus loves me.
Lord Jesus, you are so kind, compassionate and forgiving of me. I want the fragrant aroma of the sacrifice you made for me 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 more out of my brokenness, and less out of my wounded-ness and self-righteousness.
God the Holy Spirit, you who raised Jesus from the dead, give me the power I need today to rid myself—not fertilize or ferment… my bitterness, anger, range, brawling, slander and malice, and all the other ways I grieve and quench you.
Indeed, most holy and gracious Triune God, the life of love you live for us, please live through us, in such a time as this. So very Amen, we pray, in Jesus’ peerless name.