Living Above Offence

Thursday 26 October
READ: Col. 3:13-14
MORE LESSON: 1Cor. 10:32

You cannot go to play at the river and then complain when someone splashes water on you. It is impossible to play at the river and not get splashed with water. In relating with people in any community, one of the things that we cannot avoid is being offended. Whether at home, school, work or church, people will do things that we do not like. The reason is that everybody cannot behave the same way in a community. Offences result from differences in behaviour. Has someone ever done things and you wonder how on earth anyone could behave like that? Well, the reason is because he is not you; if he were you, he would never behave like that. People are different and so they will behave differently.

The Lord Jesus Himself in Luke 17:1, unto His disciples, …It is impossible but offences will come… He realized that there will always be people who will offend us. Therefore our quest is not to look for a place where we will not be offended but to seek to live above offences. Do you know that one cannot be offended until he decides to take offence? You can refuse to take offence when it is offered to you. The New Living Translation of Col. 3:13 says, Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

We must learn to make allowance for people around us. Give room to people when they do things that you don’t like. Probably you like quietness while he likes noise and turbulence wherever he is: you have to learn to make room now that both of you are roommates or else you will fight every day. Life is a about recognizing people for who they are and learning to overlook their faults.

Everyone loves to hear that he is a gem who is unique and uncommon in every way. It is pleasing to know that no other person in the whole earth has the same finger print as yours; you are specially and wonderfully made. The other side of this pleasant news is that no one else is like you so they will not behave like you. Therefore, grow out of complaining that the person behaved in such and such a way. If you insist on relating with only people that are like you, then you will relate only with yourself.

On the other hand, there are people who delight in causing offence and then claim, “that is who I am; you must learn to live with me.” The truth is that no one causes offence anyhow and goes scot-free. People around may be spiritually mature enough to overlook it but the one involved will suffer the consequence ahead. We should not take offence and we should not cause offence.

Pray/Action
• Ask God for grace to live above offence and to forgive those who offend you.
• Pray that you will not be an agent of offence to others.
• Ask God for grace to always make room for others and be an agent of peace.

TODAY’S PROPHETIC PRAYER
By divine favour, I shall no more be tolerated but celebrated in life and destiny, in the name of Jesus.