Say No to Offense, Instead Forgive & Bless

Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. (1 Timothy 4:12 NLT)

How many times have you been judged based on your appearance? I know I have been given the ‘once over’ many times based on the way I look. I’m 38 but I look younger (or so I like to think), I have a pierced nose and many tattoos; this can cause people to give me ‘that’ look. I’m a big hearted person with my heart on my sleeve, so when I see someone snubbing me, I take it personally, instead of taking it as Jesus told us.

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.” (Matthew 7:1-2 NLT)

Now my husband, who gets that ‘look’ by others quite often , tells me not to worry about it and he lets it roll right off of him without a second thought.  Yet when this happens to me, I lie awake at night thinking about what was said or should have been said and letting the situation eat at me.  I’ve learned this is just another trick of the enemy.

The devil tricks us by moving our focus from God and onto an offense. That offense that we have been dwelling on, has given ourselves over to sin, and usually we don’t even realize that because we feel justified since we were ‘wronged’.  But Jesus told us, that we are to forgive someone when they sin against us, ALWAYS.

Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”  “No, not seven times, “Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!” (Matthew 18:21-22NLT)

Ouch!! Lesson #1: Forgive, forgive, forgive and keep forgiving!! I’ve learned that people (regardless if they are Believers or not) will make mistakes and judge others.  So when this happens to us, we don’t need to take offense, we need to forgive them! 

And now that we've forgiven them, we can start blessing them...what!?! I know forgiving them was big, but now we also need to bless them, because that's what Jesus said.

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven…” (Matthew 5:43-45 NLT)

Lesson #2: Bless your enemy. Yes this is going to take some practice (and in my case, a lot of practice!) Walking the talk is more than just saying we are Believers and followers of Christ, it means putting the scripture in action. It's not an overnight transformation, the renewing of our minds (renewing of our thoughts, actions and reactions) takes time.

Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2 NLT)

There is comfort in knowing that when we continue to put God’s Word in us and make an effort to practice the scripture's teachings; that over time, what once was awkward and difficult, can become effortless and natural, because with God’s help, we can do this!!

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13 NLT)

Write Your Blessings in Stone and Your Troubles in the Sand

You are my strength; I wait for you to rescue me,

For you, O God, are my fortress.

In his unfailing love, my God will stand with me.

He will let me look down in triumph on all my enemies.

But as for me, I will sing about your power.

Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love.

For you have been my refuge,

A place of safety when I am in distress.

O my Strength, to you I sing praises,

For you, O God, are my refuge,

The God who shows me unfailing love.

(Psalm 59: 9-10, 15-16 NLT)

What I enjoy about this Psalm so much, is that even though David is trapped and surrounded by his enemies, he doesn’t dwell on his circumstances. David chose to praise GOD and sing of GOD’s love and acknowledge that GOD is the one who protects him and that he doesn't need to worry.

How often do we need to have that mindset? The famous saying, ‘Don’t tell GOD how big your problem is, tell your problem how big your GOD is’ is perfect for this Psalm. David was surrounded by Saul’s men and they were waiting to kill David, David was trapped, no way out, but he didn’t focus on that; no he focused on his GOD. He sang of the strength of HIS fortress, he sang of the safety of GOD’s refuge, he sang of GOD’s unfailing love.

“The trials of his people will end in joy and praise. When the night of affliction is over, they will sing of the Lord's power and mercy in the morning. Let believers now, in assured faith and hope, praise Him for those mercies, for which they will rejoice and praise him forever.”  (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)

I know it’s sometimes easier said than done, focusing on the good instead of the bad. That’s why  this Christian life consists of renewing our minds. 

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:2 NLT)

We had so many years to learn the world’s way of doing things; the world tells people to complain about what’s wrong instead of focusing on what isn't wrong.  Renewing our mind is a one day at a time task, it will take time and it’s something we’ll be doing until we meet Jesus, but each day we can become better at renewing our mind than we were the day before!

The battle begins with our mind, our mind is where thoughts of the enemy are whispered, our mind is the battlefield. We need to daily work on renewing our mind, so we can prevent the enemy from gaining a foothold. The key to renewing our mind is getting GOD's Word into us. GOD's Word is HIS way, not our way; GOD's Word tells us how we ought to think, say and do; it's the instruction manual for our walk with GOD. When we’ve allowed our mind to be renewed and transformed into the way of GOD and not of the world, we will stand out, we will seem different to the world.

    “You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

     We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

     We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.  We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.  Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4:5-9 NLT)

With our fragile and broken clay jars, the light (Jesus’ love) that is within us, will shine through the cracks of our imperfections but illuminate the love of Jesus to those around us.   When the world is living in such darkness, the world can’t help but be drawn to the light! We will stand out;  use the light you’ve been given to draw others to break out of the darkness they are living in.

When we become new creations in Christ, our lives change, we are not the same. We cannot go back to the way we were before, we have to leave the old and renew the mind with the ways of GOD. We can’t go back to despair and emptiness and living in a world so filled with darkness. When we are in Christ, we will have troubles, but we must not focus on those troubles, our focus has to be on GOD. If we stay focused on GOD we will see HIS strength, HIS fortress, HIS mercies, HIS grace, HIS love and then those troubles will seem less and less because of where our focus is; on the GOD who created the Heavens and the Earth, who gave us life, who sent HIS Son so that we would have life and have an abundance ~ that is where our focus needs to be. 

If you'd like to know more about this topic, I found this resource while searching the scriptures for renewing the mind on the 'Christ in You Ministries' website.