Stop Being Offended

By Pastor Eric

These days, it seems as if everyone is offended. Turn on the television, media is offended at our new President. Conservatives are offended by the media. Liberals are offended by the conservatives. Family offended by family, and on and on it goes. If these people would act right. This person said something that hurt my feelings. You get the picture. An epidemic of offense has erupted across the land.
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We as believers are to not fall into the trap of offense. Being offended only hurts you, not the person that has done or said anything to you. Look at Proverbs 19:11 (AMP) “Good sense and discretion make a man slow to anger, And it is his honor and glory to overlook a transgression or an offense [without seeking revenge and harboring resentment].” 

​It is wise to let grace abound and overlook people’s mistakes. That doesn’t mean we allow abuse to take place. There are consequences for every action, good or bad. To forgive and to show grace brings us to a place of peace and not anxiety. 

Proverbs 17:9 (AMP) “He who covers and forgives an offense seeks love, But he who repeats or gossips about a matter separates intimate friends.” When we start murmuring and talking behind people’s backs, complaining to others about has been done, we are not walking in love. This can block the things God wants for you. It can block your healing by getting you out of faith.

Look what happened to Jesus. He was in His hometown and ministering to the people, yet they couldn’t accept Him or what He was doing. Matthew 13:56-58 “ And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?  And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

What should we do? How can we not fall into the trap of offense? Here’s what it says in Ephesians 4:31,32 “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”

When the opportunity for being offended comes, and it will come, step back and think about how much you’ve been forgiven. Choose not to be offended and walk in the fullness of God’s love and blessing.