Our Bible study this week was on the Holy Spirit and His function in our lives. Remember, the Holy Spirit is a person, not a thing. He leads and guides us in our everyday living, reminding us what Jesus said, and teaching us how to be followers of Jesus.

That means that sometimes, He will lead us to do things we really don't want to do. Things our human nature rebels against doing. Things like walking away from an argument you badly want to win. Things like apologizing, when you know you were right. Apologizing even when the other person won't. Things like forgiving, even when you are the one who was hurt. He will tell you to swallow your pride and humble yourself.

The Holy Spirit will make us examine our own heart, and check our words and our attitude. We cannot hide our true motives from Him. All too often, even when we think we're right, our true purpose is to prove the other person is wrong; to prove that we are somehow better, more Christ-like, or superior in some way. This life isn't a competition. It's not about being better than someone else, it's about being transformed and becoming more like Jesus.

He will tell us to stop trying to please people, our purpose is to be pleasing to God. Sometimes we will just have to distance ourselves from someone. The Spirit tells us to obey God, even when the people we care about misunderstand us, attack us, and reject us. People rejected Jesus himself, so it's not surprising then that His followers may also suffer rejection.

The Holy Spirit will tell us we must love our neighbors. Yes, all our neighbors: the ones who think differently, live differently, believe differently. Yes, even the ones shunned by society: the drunks and addicts, the mentally unstable, the forgotten and rejected by most others. We often don't want to do this. It makes us uncomfortable, taking us into territory we either have no experience of at all, or ones we've fought hard to get away from.

Yes, the Holy Spirit within us leads us to do a lot of things our flesh doesn't want to do. His job is not to teach us to be right or to win. He is teaching us to walk humbly and be obedient. His job is teaching us to submit to the Lord, rather than our flesh. He is deeply grieved when we choose to deliberately ignore His instruction and refuse to humble ourselves.

In submitting to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and walking humbly in faith and obedience, we avoid unnecessary conflicts, unnecessary stress and strife, and can live alife of peace and contentment.