Offense is the great stumbling block; it’s intention is to trip you up in order to slow your progress towards your destiny.
Offense is not something that someone else does to you; offense is what you do to yourself in response to what someone else did to you. Only offense does not harm its object; it harms its subject.
Offense is the result of feeling that you have been robbed of something that you deserve. You’re offended because someone didn’t give you the attention, affection, respect, recognition, compensation, consideration . . . that you deserve. This leads you to think that you are missing something, that something vital to your wellbeing is missing from your life.
Living beyond offense means learning to live in the fullness of Christ that has been given to you through faith. Living beyond offense is characterized by the daily recognition of the fact that you lack nothing, that no man or woman can add or detract from the fullness of life that you have been given in Christ!
Offense is a sign of internal emptiness. When you feel empty, you feel like the world owes you something, and you frequently tend to feel that something is being taken away.
The remedy is Psalm 23:1. The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. If this were the only Scripture in the Bible, and you focused your life on living this verse to the fullest, it would be enough to procure for you the spiritual depth of the greatest spiritual giants in history.
When I am offended it is because I wanted something that I didn’t get. But if the Lord is my Shepherd, I don’t want! I don’t come up short, find myself to be lacking, or feel that I’m missing anything!
It’s time to stop being offended! It’s time to learn how to live out of the fullness that is already yours in Christ! Your offense is not hurting anyone but yourself! It’s a stumbling block that is preventing you from pursuing your destiny!
Now it’s time to get up and run. You’ve wasted enough time feeling offended, haven’t you?
The way forward is the Psalm 23:1 way. Meditate on it; get it in your spirit. Let those words sink so deep into your heart that you become them.
If you live in the words of Scripture, you can’t help but live out the words of Scripture.