Leadership is influence. Everything rises and falls on leadership, everything.
All offense is to ultimately to have us offended at God.
Choose to not be offended.
- Satan’s ultimate goal is to get you to be offended at God where he can destroy our relationship with God and then, he can destroy us. (Luke 7:23, NKJV)
- Our ultimate goal as Christians should be to not get offended.
- Jesus never got offended no matter what people did or said. (John 19:8-16, TLB)
- God has power over those that offend us, so stop worrying about it.
- Jesus’s response to those who crucified Him was to forgive them. (Luke 23:34, NKJV)
How to live with less offense.
- Forgive quickly.
- Forgive before they ask.
- Forgive because you understand and know God is in control and knows what they are saying and doing.
- Forgive because if we don’t it will hurt us as much or more than it does the one who has offended us.
- If we harbor offense or try to get back, we are playing God. (Romans 12:17-21, NKJV)
- The goal is to get to a point that we are walking void of offense and being offended. (Psalm 119:165, KJV)
- Offenses are based on expectations.
- The greater the expectations you have in somebody, the more likely you are to be offended by them.
- The closer you are to someone the easier it is for them to offend you.
- Learn to love people but put your faith and expectation in God.
- The key verse to learn how to deal with offenses: (1 Corinthians 2:5, NKJV)
- Questions to ask yourself:
Is the real reason I’m so offended is that my faith was in that person instead of God?
Am I offended because I feel I need to take care of this instead of allowing God to handle it?
Am I offended because of the way it made me feel, instead of what God says about me and how He makes me feel?
Homework:
Try to live life LESS offended this week!