DON'T BE OFFENDED

“But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.” Matthew 5:44-45 NLT

Harboring unforgiveness is natural, especially when we feel like we are the victim. I also find it easy to take on the offense of another person. If I have a friend I feel is being wronged, many times I will pick up the offense and hang on to unforgiveness toward the one doing the offending. The biggest problem with that scenario is when the other people in the relationship work through it, and I don't. They may bury the hatchet, but I'm still swinging mine. The only way to not be offended is to be dead. That can happen in one of two ways. I can pray and ask God to help me die to my fleshly self so I can live and not be offended, because I realize my flesh is just responding to something it doesn't like; or I can let it eat at me until I die spiritually and possibly physically. Luke 12:13-14 says, “And someone in the crowd said to Him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But He (Jesus) said to him, ‘Man, who appointed me a judge or arbiter over you?'” Jesus wouldn't grasp onto choosing one brother over another. We should maintain peace in relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We can't choose to be one way with one and another way with the other lest we become a liar to both.