How to Avoid the Trap of Offense

Debbie Przybylski

“God is absolutely just, and only He can ensure that justice is fully carried out. If we are impatient and seek revenge, we presume that we are wiser than God, and we reveal a blatant lack of trust that God will do the right thing. Only by trusting God’s sovereign wisdom will we be free from our anger and preoccupation toward those who have committed evil. If we refuse to trust God’s justice, we become enslaved to bitterness and anger.”
  
The Son of God came to set us free (Galatians 5:1). Jesus could have easily been offended by all of mankind. He faced every possible opportunity for offense, and yet He forgave. He was able to take every thought captive even when others treated Him badly. 

Even though He was bombarded by every lie from Satan, He did not give in. Instead Jesus quoted God’s truth in the face of those lies from the enemy. We must do the same. How can we be unoffendable?

Five Ways to Avoid the Trap of Offense

Let’s look at what we must do to avoid these traps of offense and lies from the enemy: 

• Listen carefully to our thoughts about others - These are like silent conversations in our heart. Has someone or some situation caused us to be offended? These ongoing conversations can be destructive. They are dead-end conversations that get us nowhere. We must guard our heart and listen carefully. 
   
• Learn to release others - We must learn to forgive from the heart and not seek revenge. This takes time, and we must work at it until it works into us. Then our secret dialogue begins to change. We need God’s grace to forgive. He will help us to forgive and pray for our enemies. We may need to talk, repent, or pray with that person.  
   
• Walk around the traps - We must live carefully and wisely. Satan will use every opportunity to bring offense. He will lie to us about others. We must not minimize the danger of harboring an offense. We need to walk through life carefully because 
  these set-ups are everywhere. They are Satan’s bait to try to trap us.    
   
• Crucify our carnal flesh - We must use every offense as an opportunity to die to our selfish ways. We need to use these offenses as an opportunity to become more like Christ. We need to diligently work daily at bringing our thoughts captive to Christ.  
   
• Focus on God. Jesus is our example. He will give us a new heart. When we let ourselves get offended, we are focusing on self instead of God. We need to look up and ask God for help. We need to focus on His attributes and worship Him. He will help us through every offensive situation.  

Let’s learn to walk carefully. Let’s not fall into the bait of Satan and the trap of offense. Our just and sovereign God has all wisdom, and we can trust in His perfect justice. He can break through every difficult relationship, if we learn to focus on Him. We will go through suffering at times, but God will use it for our good. He will make us steadfast in spirit, as we shall discover in the coming pages. If we want to see breakthrough prayer, we must learn to live without offense. We must learn to trust God to bring about justice in his own way and time. 

How can we be unoffendable? What can we do to avoid these traps of offense and lies from the enemy. The following animated video will give you five ways to avoid the trap of offense: How to Avoid the Trap of Offense

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"Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21).

Together in the Harvest,
Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC)
www.intercessorsarise.org

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