Devotional 5/9/20
“Do Not Carry Offense”
“Listen to the truth I speak to you: If someone says to this mountain with great faith and having no doubt, ‘Mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the midst of the sea,’ and believes that what he says will happen, it will be done. This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, if you find that you carry something in your heart against another person, release him and forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also release you and forgive you of your faults. But if you will not release forgiveness, don’t expect your Father in heaven to release you from your misdeeds.”
Mark 11:23-26 – The Passion Translation
Let us look closely at this scripture as we meditate upon ~carry~ today. Jesus is instructing us how to face mountains in our lives. Here we see great faith and no doubt is absolutely necessary. Jesus proceeds to bring up a matter that we must always be looking closely at. We cannot be carrying offense in our hearts against someone, and expect our faith to move mountains.
On Wednesday we looked at carrying burdens and internalizing them. Offenses can be carried in the same way. One may think if they just do not talk about the hurt that it will fade and go away. Know this to be true, if an offense is not dealt with it will certainly grow and fester in our heart.
Carrying offense is so dangerous. It has the ability to cause one to step out of God’s perfect will… what a terrible price to pay. When one continues to hold onto offense the mountains of their life seem to get even bigger. Instead of being able to face their mountains they just keep going round and round the same mountain, and their offense keeps their heart stagnant, and hindering their faith. An offended person will grow bitter and hard, yet they will become easily hurt over the smallest of things. Interesting isn’t it?
Let us be a people that are constantly in pursuit of a heart that is pure, not carrying offense, and full of the love of God and those around us. May we be slow to anger and so very quick to forgive, and let go of any offense.
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free
and discover that the prisoner was you.“
Louis B. Smedes