How To Overcome Offences.
When someone hurts or offends you, how do you handle it? Do you hold a grudge, or do you learn to overcome offence? Take this example from the classic tale, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. The main character Ebenezer Scrooge was an old miser who experienced a string of hurts in his life. The thing is, Scrooge’s chains to his past led to him becoming a bitter, lonely old man. Like Scrooge, we all have things we become offended by. However, in light of the hardships and hurts we may face, if we do not learn how to overlook and overcome hurt, we can end up haunted and chained up to the pains of our pasts.
Letting go of an offence doesn’t mean we let the offender off the hook. Rather, overcoming an offence means that you instead choose to surrender the offender to the Lord and worry more about the condition of your own heart. Proverbs 19:11 says “A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offence.” As a result, in David’s battle with Goliath, he was able to laser-focus on God’s ability to deliver him. See, David knew he had been called into God’s plans and purposes for his life, and he wasn’t going to let any offence stand in his way! You can do the same thing today.
DAY 9- I AM FREE FROM OFFENCE
Today we are challenging the thoughts that say, “I’m feeling offended.”
We all know what it’s like to be treated wrongly or unfairly and to be talked about or lied about. It’s easy to become offended and feel that we have the right to feel that way. But this is a destructive trap.
Skandalon (offence) is the trigger of a well-baited trap. When an animal touches the trigger of a snare, it snaps down on him and he is trapped. When you are offended, you are the one caught in the trap. By thinking and knowing this, it will empower you to stay out of the traps.
Often times we think, “How could they do that to me? I would never have done that!” But we have all sinned. Embrace humility with the sure knowledge that you have failed, too. And offence loses its grip on you.
1 Corinthians 13:5 (Amplified Bible) says, “Love (God’s love in us) is not touchy or fretful or resentful.” Why? “Because it pays no attention to a suffered wrong.” We get offended when we pay attention to the wrong we have suffered. Stop paying attention. It’s too expensive.
We let others control us when we pay attention to what they did to us. What God did FOR you is greater than what others have done TO you. Focus on what God has done for you.
How is that possible? Psalm 119:165 says, “Those who love the Word have great peace, and nothing offends them.” One of the meanings of the Greek word for “love” is “attachment.” Attach yourself to what God says, and you’ll detach from the power of what others have done or said to you. That’s what it means to love God’s Word.
