Today I am going to share a thought on my heart. I have been thinking about offense and how it can affect our walk with Christ.
In today's society, it seems that people get offended by just about everything and anything. I believe as true followers of Jesus, we need to guard our hearts against this trend. In my own personal life I have struggled on many occasions with this very thing. For years I was not able to forgive a person in my life, even though I often prayed about it and had no relief to my feelings for them due to some things they had done to someone I loved dearly. Thanks to God's intervention after years of praying God replaced the anger I felt for her with a love for her instead. I am so thankful to have the Lords help in all areas of our lives. This brings to mind a Bible verse. He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
1 John 2:9
We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. This does not mean that if the person is hurting us in any way that we have to spend time with them, but forgiveness is important as it is what God wants for us to do. When we forgive someone, even if they are still being hurtful, it brings our hearts into the will of God and we receive the peace that only the Lord can provide.
There is also the kind of offense that can come about in our everyday lives from people we do not even know. It seems many people are living in the darkness of the world with out God's light to bring them peace. I believe that we need to pray for them, and show them kindness no matter how they are treating us. We should never let someone's hateful words or actions cause us to become like them. I often have told my children that we need to be like an airplane and fly above someone's storm, rather than fly right threw it.
This was just a little thought on my heart that I wanted to share, in case it may be helpful to someone. If there is a person in your life that you need to forgive, keep praying about it until true forgiveness in your heart, takes place. I thank you for coming to my blog. Have a cozy day. May God keep you in His loving care. Hugs to you. ~Juli
Thank you for this post
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard for me to not take things personally. Really hard but your post is so true
ReplyDeleteTrue! One thing that helped me was hearing a pastor say that forgiving doesn’t mean we approve of what the person did that hurt us. Or that they’re getting away with it. It just means, like you said, we’re letting the Lord handle it and being obedient. We might not feel any forgiveness, but the pressure is of us and the Lord will take care of it (and us).
ReplyDeleteInteresting you quoted I John, that’s where I’ve been reading. We seem to be on the same wavelength 😀
I like your quote about flying above their storm, not thru it - wise Mama.
Love, love, love your cozy room picture.
Have a wonderful week💖
Mary in very windy OK