Striving With The Spirit

TO READ: Genesis 6:1-22

The LORD said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.”

Genesis 6:3

God gets upset with us. He wrestles with us, showing us how to live, move, be, and worship him. He does this as he does anything big —by his Spirit.

In Genesis days, “the Spirit of God was hovering over” the surface of the earth (Genesis 1:2). The angel who announced the Incarnation told Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you” (Luke 1:35). The adult Jesus, “full of the Holy Spirit . . . was led by the Spirit” into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for forty days (Luke 4:1). In his temptation, Jesus resisted Satan in the power of the Spirit. Jesus, “by the power of the eternal Spirit . . . offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins” (Hebrews 9:14). He was raised from the dead by the Spirit (Romans 8:11). He works with the Spirit in regeneration, bringing eternal life to men and women.

But men and women do not always allow God’s Spirit to have his way in their lives. Whenever God does anything big, he does it by his Spirit. One of the biggest things he does is change self-seeking people into servants! In fact, that is just what the Bible says: “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

It is the Holy Spirit’s work to strive with us to bring about that creative regeneration in our lives.