Bless those who curse you, pray for those who ill-treat you Luke 6: 28
It is an unfortunate fact that offence is just as rife in the church as anywhere else. I do not know if this is because we expect higher standards from Christians especially Christian leaders so we get very disappointed and offended when people do not come up to the standards we expect.
God spoke to me today that offence is like blowing up a balloon. The more we feel offended and think and talk about it the more air we put in the balloon and the more life we give to it. The balloon of offence is easily inflated but it is also easily deflated. They key is our old friend forgiveness. I wrote about this on 5th February under the title Forgive and be forgiven but just to briefly recap, forgiveness is not a feeling but a choice. We choose to forgive no matter how we feel. Forgiveness releases both ourselves and the one who has offended us. In particular it releases us from bitterness and resentment and is one of the major keys to walking the path of freedom that Jesus won for us on the cross.
Unfortunately offence binds us back up again and the more we inflate the balloon of offence by hanging onto the hurt and talking about it to others, the larger it all gets. Forgiveness though is like putting a pin into the balloon but to get the complete freedom and victory we not only have to forgive but also to bless those who have hurt us. This is really important as blessing is like pouring good things over the person who has offended or hurt us. Like forgiveness, we may not feel like it, but it is a choice to make and as we make that choice I can assure you it helps tremendously. It is hard to hang onto anger and hurt when we bless people who have hurt us.If someone has offended you, forgive them and bless them. Deflate the balloon of offence and urge others to do the same. The devil loves to keep offence going round and round the church. Let’s stop his schemes and love, forgive and bless one another.
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