I believe it was the presence of the Holy Spirit that carried me through the four-year period of caring for my wonderful dad. The tasks of caring for him while his ability to speak and walk dwindled, the emotional tax of watching his decline, and the responsibilities of taking care of his affairs combined to make that time the most difficult of my life thus far. During that time I was sometimes able to watch videos with my dad in which saints were joining together in praising God through singing. I felt God’s presence very strongly, and my spirit was lifted above the circumstances. I seldom could watch more than a couple of minutes without tears welling up. They were not tears of sadness. They were tears of a beautiful emotion that can’t be explained. Only those who have been overcome by the presence of the Holy Spirit can identify with what I’m talking about. It’s not that I was victorious at every moment of those four years, but it was a growing process of learning to lean on God each day.

If you have experienced God’s love, you know it is a deep, strong love that surpasses any human relationship. It’s a love that seems to fill up every inch of your being.  It’s a love that can carry us through the hardest times of our lives. Those who haven’t found a personal relationship with God have to go through the hard times without His help. God’s children have hard times, too, but we do have the great privilege of having God’s help. Sometimes God allows His children to have those hard times to help us grow spiritually and experience God’s glory, as Paul explained in Romans 5:1-5. Sometimes God allows those hard times in order to correct His children. Any good, loving earthly father will desire to see his child grow up with good character. Our loving Heavenly Father wants His children to be able to share in His holiness, as is beautifully expressed in Hebrews 12:7-11. (You may hear people say that “we”—meaning  every person on earth—are  all God’s children. But that isn’t really true. We are all God’s creations, but we are not all His children.

• According to John 1:12 and Romans 8:14&16, we are only His children if we have believed in and received Jesus and have submitted ourselves to being led by the Spirit of God.)
• In Ephesians 1:13-14 Paul told us that once we have received Christ, we are promised the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
• In John 7:38, Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to streams of living water.
• He said in John 15:10-11 that if we obey His commands, we will remain in His love and our joy will be made complete.
• Paul told us in Romans 8:6 that a mind that is controlled by the Holy Spirit will have life and peace.

When we first receive Christ, our enthusiasm for communicating our experience with God’s love to other people comes naturally. Later we can begin to take God’s love for granted. We need to remember what life would be like without having been reconciled to God through Christ and look for ways to spread His love to those in our own spheres of influence who have never experienced the joy of knowing God personally.