Offense, The Great Energy Stealer

There's a great book by John Bevere called The Bait of Satan about offense. Allowing ourselves to be offended at other people is The Great Energy Stealer. I'm not talking about disagreeing or being angry with people – I'm talking about being offended at people. You know the difference. We've all felt it.

It takes so much energy to stay offended. God made us very capable people, so we can do pretty much anything we put our mind to. So if we decide to stay offended, we certainly can. But that's not what God designed us for, so it's exhausting.

All that energy could have been put into being who we were created by God to be, but being offended steals it. And it blinds our mind so all we can see is red. Here's a litmus test: If we can't pray blessing on the other person, we're offended.

So let's disagree with others without being offended by them. We do that by praying to God, confessing our sin of offense to him (it doesn't matter whether the other person sinned or not, or how wrong they are), and asking him to take our offense. And then let it go by praying blessing on the other person. You'll be amazed at how much lighter you feel, and how much extra energy you have.