Blessed is the one who is not offended by me…

There have been moments when we’ve all been tempted to throw in the prayer towel, but one promise will sustain us through the toughest times: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Here’s the context of that promise. Jesus is doing miracles right and left. He is healing diseases, driving out demons, and restoring sight to the blind, but John the Baptist misses the miracle train. It seems like Jesus is rescuing everybody except His most faithful follower, who is in prison. And John is His cousin, nonetheless. It seems like Jesus could have, and maybe should have, organized a rescue operation and busted him out before he was beheaded. Instead He sends a message via John’s disciples. He tells them to tell John about all the miracles He is doing, and then He asks them to relay this promise: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” ~ Matthew 11:6

Have you ever felt like God was doing miracles for everyone and their brother, but you seem to be the odd one out? It seems like God is keeping His promises to everyone but you? I wonder if that’s how John the Baptist felt. “What do you do when you feel like God is answering everyone’s prayers but yours?”

 

We need to live our lives un-offended by God. Jesus promises that we will be blessed if we aren’t offended. Obviously we aren’t in prison about to be beheaded, but maybe you have seen many answers to your prayers for other people when you have prayed for their finances, their health, and their kids. Yet in our your own lives, well …”

That’s where most of us live most of the time — in the triple-dot punctuation known as an ellipsis. The ellipsis indicates a pause in speech or an unfinished thought. When we’re waiting for God to answer a prayer, it’s a period of ellipsis. You can give up or hang on. You can let go or pray through it. You can get frustrated with God or choose to live un-offended.

The thing that sustained John during the ellipses in his live was a fresh encounter with the love of Christ. The Savior’s long-suffering on the cross inspired him, inspires us, to press in and pray through. And we don’t just live in the shadow of the cross; we live in the light of the” “resurrection, even in our darkest days. 

 

Have a Christ centered day and please share this blog with others and I pray it will encourage many!  God bless you!

 

So my friends let me encourage you to chose to live unoffended: “Living an unoffended life is living a life surrendered to His sovereignty, His mystery, and His love. Jesus promises blessing if we are not offended when He does things for others. I don’t know why God does what He does when He does it. I do know that 100 percent of the prayers I don’t pray won’t get answered.”

Advertisement

God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand!

God will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand! We need to have a battle plan from God to be victorious over the battles we face during this lifetime. Today I want to focus on the temptations we all face each day. It is giving into those temptations that end up putting us in the battles we eventually have to fight. So it is key to understand how to overcome the initial temptations, thus avoid having to spend so much of our valuable life fighting battles in our personal life which keep us from being the productive servants God has raised us up to be. Have a wonderful day in the presence of the Lord. Love you all.

“The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” ~1 Corinthians 10:13

Hear this point clearly. If Satan can’t get your soul, his next goal is to at least keep you so busy fighting personal battles. The more time you spend fighting personal battles, the less time you have to serve God. That is why overcoming temptation is so important.

The Bible clearly teaches us that evil comes from our heart. The actual progression is that it starts in our heart, moves to our mind, and is manifested in our actions. That is why “creating a clean heart” is so important. That is why it is important to stay in that deep, intimate, daily contact with the Lord so that what flows from our heart is pure and clean…since that is what dictates our actions.

Temptations flow from the sin and evil still in our heart, and then goes into our mind. It is in our mind that the temptation finds fertile ground to grow. That is why is it so important to “renew our mind”, how important what we put into our mind on a daily basis is. It is in our mind that temptation grows and ultimately manifests itself in our actual conduct.

This scripture is one of God’s special promises. God tells us that He will always provide us a path of escape. That path of escape occurs while the temptation is still in our mind. THAT IS THE TIME WE MUST OVERCOME TEMPTATION. Once we allow it to live in our mind, the die is cast and will ultimately result in our rebellious behavior.

There is not one person reading this that can say God didn’t give you a path of escape. The problem is, you chose to ignore it. Many times, He gives us many chances to escape, but we choose to keep going right through the stop sign, right through the red light, right through the barriers….and then wonder how we could have gotten into such a mess.

To overcome temptation, you MUST use the path of escape God gives you while that temptation is still in your mind. Once you decide not to use that path of escape, it is only a matter of time before that temptation actually results in rebellious conduct.

I love you and care about you. I know so many of you are fighting the battles of life each day.

You are in very difficult situations. My goal is not only to help you overcome those difficult situations, but help you to avoid getting yourself in those circumstances in the future. Jesus loves you so much. Having walked this earth, He understands your weaknesses and has promised to help you to avoid the temptations of this life.

Your intimate daily contact with Him strengthens you, and your love and desire to live for Him give you the motivation to take that path of escape He offers and overcome temptation. You can count on my prayers, that you recognize each day the temptations this life offers and use the tools God has given you to live victoriously.

Think of the incredible peace, joy, and abundance this life can be when we are living for Him, serving Him, and not constantly wrapped up in those personal battles. May you be committed today to take that path of escape he offers the next time you face temptation, and live in the victory Christ won on Calvary!