Offenses
This is Satan’s ultimate plan for destruction of love, purpose, and your happiness.
People get offended about all kinds of things:
- We get offended when our husband don’t recognize our need for a break.
- We get offended when someone at church doesn’t talk to us.
- We get offended when someone else is chosen to lead a ministry.
- We get offended when we aren’t invited to a ladies group.
- We get offended when our children don’t do what we ask them.
- Some of us even get offended at God.
Yes, I did say that. How many of us complain when we don’t get what WE want out of life? How many are angry at their situation? How many get mad because they are “stuck” with a no good husband? How about angry that your van isn’t as nice as your best friends? How about if you even get a little upset at God because He didn’t answer your prayers the way you wanted?
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to being completely free in life is to not take offense.
Ohhh, those are touchy topics and sounds like a lot of negativity!!! It is hard to go through things and think it just isn’t fair that you have to do them. I haven’t gone through as much as some people have in life, but I have gone through trials. There were many times, I was angered at God and other people for my “lot” in life. But you know, none of that mattered. None of it hurt anyone but ME. I was the one that suffered with anger and built up frustration. It only led to me taking offense the next time I ran into someone and they said something that “rubbed me the wrong way.” I just kept building little offenses over and over until they built into a big one and then some unfortunate person would get the brunt of it. Most of the time it was my husband and children. Then I would pray and ask God to help me rid myself of my anger, but it would keep coming back. What was I doing wrong??
The bible says in Matthew 5:24 that we are to leave our gifts at the altar and then go and be reconciled to our brothers FIRST and then come back and offer our gifts. Do you think God wants us to FIRST get rid of our offense so that we can worship Him freely ? Yes He does. Then, He can accept our worship and listen to our prayers and answer them.
But what if you say that you don’t actually “hate” someone you are just offended by them? You may be right. Offenses by themselves are generally not anger, hurt feelings, or resentment. But what happens is those annoyances and irritations have the unfortunate ability to build into grudges. These usually lead to sins that a person has allowed themselves to be led into. The sad part is that it is usually done by the persons own mind. After some time your heart has become hardened and anger takes root. You may not think of it as anger but that is what it is called.
And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Matthew 24:10
This is a sign of the end times. It says that MANY WILL BE OFFENDED. They will distrust and desert those they should obey. They will stumble and fall away.
There is a greater attack from the enemy than any other time in history.
If Satan can keep us angry, verse 12 of Matthew says that the LOVE OF PEOPLE WILL GROW COLD.
This is what we need to be on the watch for. Offenses are strings that add up over and over again. When we see someone whom we have offense at, we may not think that it doesn’t matter, but what it is doing is causing our love to grow cold. It causes our hearts to shut out the goodness and blessing that God has for us. If we truly want to be free and live the life to the fullest then we need to stop taking offense.
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