Lately, God is really teaching me that in order to be strong in Him, I must be completely unoffendable.
What do I mean by unoffendable? Someone who cannot be hurt by the comments or actions of others. Someone who wakes up every morning with a forgiving heart - already letting go of anything anyone might say or do that could offend before the day even begins. A woman of God who lives and loves like Jesus Christ.
Why is this so important? If we allow others to offend us, we are surrendering our control and our power. We are also not guarding our hearts. When we get offended, we are choosing to allow another person's words or actions to negatively influence our thoughts, attitude, perspective, joy, and ultimately, our life.
Jesus died so that we can have peace with God. And through our peace with God, we can have peace with one another. God did not just desire reconciliation of ourselves and Himself, but also of reconciliation between ourselves and one another. Jesus makes reconciliation with God possible; reconciliation with God makes reconciliation with others possible.
Our belief in Christ restores our damaged relationship with God. Yet it doesn't stop there.
God doesn't just want us to be reconciled with Him, but to be reconciled with one another. To know God is to know love and love is not something that is just between us and God. For once you truly begin to start to understand how much God loves you, you cannot be so blinded to forget that the same God who loves you so extravagantly and unconditionally, also loves your neighbor that way. And your co-worker. And your family members. And every single person on this planet.
Let that sink in.
To enjoy God's love is to share His love. You cannot rest in His love and despise someone else. For if you do or think that you can, you know nothing of His love. Nothing.
The love of God in Jesus compels us to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors. How do we know that God loves us? Because Jesus died for us. And now that we believe that He died and rose again, we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to love God with all that we are and thus to live in His love.
Once we experience God's love and love Him, we are compelled to look around and love those God has placed in our lives. For true love for God is loving others - those He has made in His image. When we truly follow Christ, we cannot hate someone that God Himself has created. It is impossible.
And furthermore, we cannot remain offended towards our neighbors.
Offense is the first step toward unforgiveness and unforgiveness is the first step toward hatred. It's a nasty cycle. So we must be vigilant to guard our hearts from any offense creeping in trying to defile us.
That rude remark your co-worker made?
As Elsa would say, let it go. (I am a preschool teacher).
That driver that cut you off in traffic?
Let it go.
The insensitive thing your family member said?
Let it go.
Don't let little things blow up into big things. Offense starts out as a thought in our heart, like a tiny seed planted in the ground that just needs a little time to sprout into a poisonous weed.
But maybe for you, the weeds are already there. I'm talking about unforgiveness. Are you still holding on to what someone did to you? Are you harboring a grudge toward anyone? Do you wish things had happened differently? Is there someone who you have told God you can never and will never forgive?
If so, please let it go. I beg you. Unforgiveness will keep you from a beautiful life with Jesus. The devil will use it to rob, kill, and destroy from you. An unforgiving heart will prevent you from having an abundant life. It will be the reason why your dreams never come to fruition, why your plans never succeed, why you never experience healing from your brokenness.
Jesus taught us that if we do not forgive, we cannot experience God's forgiveness. When you don't forgive, you are living in a state of being unforgiven by God. How scary! I would not want something someone did to me make me miss out on God's best for my life - His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
That's why I let go of all offense as soon as it happens. Right away. Now. I don't want anything anyone does, says, or will do or say to keep me from my relationship with God and His will for my life. And I know you don't either.
We are meant to live our lives with our eyes fixed on Jesus, looking to Him and marveling at His greatness and glory. Offense is so wicked because it makes us look at something else besides Jesus. And not just anything else but something evil. When we get offended, we are choosing to take our eyes off of our holy, wonderful, amazing, glorious Savior and look at someone else. And not just someone else, but the evil that they did to us.
As my preschoolers would say, "That's yucky." Offense is so yucky! It makes us spend more time thinking about the evil from our neighbor than the goodness of God. Friends, this is a great sin. We must not allow the enemy to use someone's actions or words to pull our gaze off of God. If we are going to be successful and victorious, we have to be smarter than that!
I'm writing from personal experience, so please don't think I'm on some high horse. I know firsthand what I am sharing. Letting go of offense and becoming an unoffendable Christian is the key to not only living like Jesus, but loving like Him.
When someone says something mean or does something hurtful, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can love them and show them the grace of God. Instead of thinking of ourselves, we can see further and realize that maybe that person is hurting. After all, if someone is mean-spirited, do they really know the love of Jesus? Probably not. So the people that hurt us really need Jesus. If they truly knew Him, they would not hurt us!
Knowing this, we can respond to them with the unconditional love of God and remember that this is how God responded to us. While we were dead in our sins, God reached out to us and forgave us. He showed us unconditional love when we wanted nothing to do with Him. Though we nailed Him to the cross, Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do."
THIS is love.
Others will know that we are Christians by our love. By how we overlook an offense and pursue peace with others no matter what. By how we show grace and mercy and don't write people off. By how we give others second chances. By how we live our lives like Jesus would. How we turn the other cheek, have compassion on the lost, forgive seventy times seven times.
THIS is the love of Jesus.
I pray that God would help us all live this way.
To conclude, I want to also make the point that much of this relates to the fear of man. When you no longer are consumed with what other people think of you, you are free to be unoffendable. Their criticisms cannot touch your heart because you have already given up the idol of people-pleasing. You aren't prideful. You aren't defensive. You know that you live for an audience of One and you have nothing to prove to anyone. You live only to please your Heavenly Father. And He calls us to love Him and to love our neighbors.
To live like this is to be free. To live this way is to experience the greatest joy. To live this way is to know God and reflect His love to this world. To fix your eyes on Jesus and walk in God's good, pleasing, and perfect will - not moved by anything or shaken by anyone. Fully rooted in His great love for you and expressing that to this world that God loves so much.
Listen to these words from 1 John. Let them sink into your heart: