13)Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Colossians 3:13(NLT)
Offence: to cause (a person or group) to feel hurt, angry, or upset by something said or done.
I was thinking about “giving offence and taking offence” this last week. This is probably the easiest tool that Satan has for dividing the Body of Christ. It can effectively eliminate harmony and peace between people who have been told they must “Love one another” – if we let it.
We can all give offence. Let’s face it, an unguarded word or look can speak volumes to a sensitive person. Sometimes we can offend without even knowing we are doing it. Sometimes even a Christian can deliberately do or say something to hurt another Christian. Sadly, I have seen many “offended” people leave a church because their feelings were hurt by another Christian. We can more easily forgive a non-believer than a brother or sister in the Lord.
So what do we do when someone has accidentally or deliberately offended us? We don’t have to accept it. By that I mean we have the right to refuse to accept a hurt. What would we do if someone tried to hand us a smelly, rotten fish? We would say “No thank you!” Right? Well, when someone says or does something unkind to us we can say to ourselves” I am not going to take offence and I am not going to keep a record of that wrong. The Lord keeps no record of my wrongs”.
While I was at prayer I felt the Lord urge me to empty out the folders of the people who had offended me in the past. As I opened up and dumped out the contents of each person’s folder, I could see some had as little as one sheet of paper in it and a couple had files about four inches thick. One had a very large black round rock in it. I emptied them all out. Now I want to keep those files empty.
After we empty out those files-
We can pray for that person or persons and ask the Lord to fill our heart with love for them.
If we have offended someone (hurt their feelings) let’s be quick to sincerely apologize.
When the Lord returns I want Him to find us all at peace with each other, loving each other from our hearts.
Let’s not give or take offence.
Jesus is Lord!
