Hello everyone!
I'm glad I opted to take this one further as the more that I delved into the issue of forgiveness and offences, the more I realised that there was to unpack. In reality, there was far too much for one post so I've done another one to follow this up some more.
If you haven't already done so, go back to part one here and if you're up to date, then let's crack on...
Release the Offence, Embrace the Freedom
Last time, we looked at the possibility of creating occasions for the offences that people stumble over in their day to day lives and whether there really is anything that we can do about it or just accept it as a fact of life.
I think there definitely has to come some acceptance due to the fact that, if nothing else, we are all different so therefore stand on different ideals, morals and judgements. As you know by now, I hold no ill will towards anybody who is not a Christian and in fact have my fair share of non-Christian friends.
Let me just recap with that verse I mentioned last time from 2 Corinthians 6:1-3 in the King James version: -
We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For He saith, "I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.). Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed.
This time, I want to put some emphasis on the latter part of that passage because the previous chapter saw Paul advising us of the fact that, as a believer, we have a dwelling we will inhabit the moment we breathe out our last on this earth. In essence, this refers to our heavenly bodies which make these corrupt one's pale in comparison for they have no sickness, no lack, no decay whatsoever!
So consider this, next time we are bringing an opportunity for offence forward, be it through harmful, yet unspoken words that we know if spoken will just devastate the person, or any other form of grievance, we are in fact gradually leaving open a door for the enemy to twist our intentions. This will then mean that the occasion for offence has arrived and the occasion has morphed into an actual offence committed. The likely consequence will be that a friendship, relationship or partnership breaks down instead of being built up.
In these circumstances where we might think we are being helpful and mature by bringing up an offence that happened in the past, sometimes it's a case of the plank and the dry twig just like is referenced in Matthew 7. Sometimes we are blinded by our own offences that what we see as awful in somebody else is just a reflection of what we see in ourselves and despise in ourselves and there's a word for that... hypocrisy.
Don't Morph It or It'll Morph You
By bringing out the opportunity for offence to our relationships, we are allowing our enemy, Satan, to create schisms which will do nothing other than drive us further and further apart instead of bringing us closer and closer together.
The Kingdom of Heaven is unity.
The kingdom of hell is disunity.
We are effectively doing the enemy's work for him and at this point he can almost sit back and just watch as the schism fractures and silence descends between us. He does not want us to be unified in our approach to loving one another universally, for in loving one another universally, we show that we are all accepted in the Beloved, just as Jesus accepts each and every single one of us just as we are.
At this point, people's lifestyles can be brought up, but I'm not here to do that today as that brings division and schism (alright, that's the last time I'll use that this post, lol!) as we start attaching labels to one another.
We are loved.
We are accepted.
We are wanted.
I like to look at this as the L.A.W. of God; Loved, Acceptance and Wanted.
Final Thought
In the end, isn't that what we are all looking for in one form or another? To feel loved, to feel acceptance and to feel wanted in this life?
Some turn to sex, some to drugs and some to other hedonistic options, but none can offer the claim of life more abundantly (John 10:10) for they all aim at alleviating the temporary, the here, the now. Christianity, on the other hand, is all about restoration of your current self for rebirth as a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) into God's kingdom so that you can embrace everything God has got planned for you.
Well that's exactly what Jesus offers as a way of transcending our difficulties as we go through this life because He came to relinquish us from all labels that society tries to place upon us so that we can experience the truth and freedom that comes with knowing Him.
Some people will not want to hear that and you know what? That's fine. I'm not going to blame you, it is your choice and your decision. At the end of the day, though, don't you want to know if what you do actually matters in other people's lives?
Find a cause that's greater than your own, which for me is following after God, and take a step out from your comfort zone this year.
Peace!
===TLP===
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