Unless you’ve lived alone in a cave all your life, you’ve probably had opportunity to have your feelings hurt many times over. And one by one, these offences stick to you like scales on a fish, until you’re covered with them, and your heart says, “Nobody will ever hurt me again.” But that’s a lie, because offences come on a daily basis, and some people are “offence magnets”. They just seem to take everything and everyone wrong, until their “armor” is so thick, their heart can no longer be touched. And that’s not what God wants for us.


The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 18:7-9,
7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
8 Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

Here we see two things being addressed: the person CAUSING the offense, and the offense itself. Jesus said whatsoever it is causing you to offend people, it is better to cut if off and cast it from you. Maybe it’s your attitude, maybe it’s your mouth, maybe it’s both, for after all, Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So actually, it boils down to being a heart problem, and the mouth simply follows along for the ride.

But the flip side of the coin is, you cannot be offended if you won’t allow yourself to be. You’d think a person who has been offended many times would have thick enough skin not to allow themselves to be repeatedly offended, but that just isn’t the case. No, the offenses just stick to them like a magnet, dragging them down in every area of their life. That in turns ruins their attitude toward life, and they get an attitude toward EVERYONE, including God.

The answer? If offenses offend you, cut them off and cast them from you and get FREE! Better to enter life “maimed”, that is, “cut off” from the things that offend you, than to harbor unforgiveness and be cast into the lake of fire. Once you’re free, you’ll find things no longer offend you, and the love of God can start working through you, and you’ll stop being an offense to others as well.
Have I ever had to deal with this issue? Yes, but I got free, and it sure feels good. That doesn’t mean the devil doesn’t rear his head and offer me chances each day to be offended about this or that.

Those closest to me know the issues I deal with, and each of us have our own “cross” to bear. Some think they have a “thorn in the flesh”, and some think they have the whole thorn bush, but we all have the choice whether to water and fertilize the thorn bush, or to uproot it and burn it. If you ask me, burning the thorn bush is best. Let the fire of God set it ablaze, and don’t go back looking for seeds to plant a new one.

The most powerful weapon you have against the devil is forgiveness of offenses. God never promised “easy”, but He promised grace to “git ‘er done”. You want peace in your life? The weapon of forgiveness is your mightiest weapon. USE IT DAILY!