​You are always and dearly loved by God! So robe yourself with virtues of God, since you have been divinely chose to be holy. Be merciful as you endeavor to understand others, and be compassionate, showing kindness toward all. Be gentle and humble, unoffendable in your patience with others. Tolerate the weaknesses of those in the family of faith, forgiving one another in the same way you have been graciously forgiven by Jesus Christ. If you find fault with someone, release this same gift of forgiveness to them. For love is supreme and must flow through each of these virtues. Love becomes the mark of true maturity.
Colossians 3:12-14
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Lord, help me to be so filled with Your love that I become unoffendable.

I understand the dangers of this statement. It’s kind of like praying for patience. LOL It doesn’t just come down in a pretty gift basket and voila patience. No, that would be to easy. Instead what tends to happen is you wind up with what we will call opportunities to show patience. In a hurry? One kid will only be able to find the left foot of every shoe and not the right the other one can not seem to find their backpack. On the way you’re gonna hit every red light. So on and so forth.

I think that it is very important when asking for new gifts, yes they are gifts, that we count the cost and go in with open eyes.

Do I really want to become “unoffendable”? What does that even really mean to me?

Can I just let you into me Jesus time this week for a minute?

‘Father, forgive me I forgive them, completely, totally & irreparably. I release that hurt. I give up that anger. Let peace and love reign in my heart that I may leak that all over them today.’
This was the beginning of one of my journal entries this week after reading the passage above. During my devotion time Holy Spirit prompted some anger and resentment that I had held in my heart. Previously, I justified it. There was good reason, in my mind, that I was grumpy and frustrated and hurt. I began to pour out my heart to the Father to ask him to forgive me for holding on to that. Not 3 words in and I stoped.

I had allowed my anger to mask the need for the very things Christ told us to do. Forgive and love.

How am I supposed to leak the love of God on the people around me if I am walking around offended, angry and resentful?

‘Father, I ask that with all of my heart that You forgive me for allowing anger & hurt to take up space. Please, would You fill the space we cleaned with Your virtues, Your mercy, Your compassion, kindness, gentle-ness, humility, patience and love. Help me to be a reflection of You today. That’s what I want. Help me to walk it out.’

Often times I get so focused on receiving my forgiveness that forgiving others is an after thought. I do it once I receive my forgiveness. Don’t get me wrong, the important thing is to forgive, and still I believe this week the Holy Spirit has been showing and revealing to me that there is an even deeper level of forgiveness to be had.

So as I pray to become the person who is unoffendable I would be remiss if not to remind us of Jesus on the cross. He held no anger or resentment when He said ‘Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.’
 
 Father God, help us to see those around us the way You see them that we may leak Your perfect love all over them. Help us to choose mercy and grace over offense and resentment. Help us to be better reflections of Your Son today.

Love YOU sis,

Alexandria

Last night, we had dinner with a family from our church. It was so lovely to share a meal around our 9-foot-long table and to hear our kids running around together downstairs as we talked and got to know one another a little more. 


We shared about our kids, our interests, how we met our spouses and how long we had been a part of our church and how we came to be there. We landed on the subject of our church several times throughout the night, almost as if this common thread was woven throughout our varied topics of conversation. 


As our friends described some things about our church body that they love, and as we agreed, I remembered a time a few years ago when I prayed for this exact thing. I remember reading through a book with a group of friends and reading the most beautiful descriptions of the church operating as laid out in Scripture: just as the body of Christ. 


And don’t get me wrong: my experience with the church up until that point had been wonderful. I adored ‘doing life’ with and serving alongside brothers and sisters. But I began to read illustrations of how this particular author’s church operated alongside countless Scriptures outlining how the body of Christ is to operate and I honestly was overwhelmed. I wondered over what that would look like, what it would be like to be a part of that church, operating in the giftings given to me and surrounded by my brothers and sisters doing the very same thing: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:7


I began to pray for that, for the Lord to show me what that could look like. And sitting around the table last night, talking about our beloved church, I almost had fresh eyes to see the gift that is my local church. We were led to our church mere months after this praying and dreaming and our church family has been the most delightful gift. 


It’s funny, though, because as I’m sitting here at the same long table with a cup of coffee and reflecting, the Holy Spirit reminded me of just why my heart longed for this so much in that particular season. I was honestly in such a refining season, walking through hardship and suffering and a purification that I had prayed for but didn’t realize would come in the form it did. 


I was real tender and surrounded by people I loved dearly who were serving the Lord through all sorts of roles and avenues and.. I felt like I didn’t have a place. I felt like I didn’t belong and that I didn’t have anything to offer up. There was one particular night that I felt actually sidelined as my people were celebrated for their roles and giftings. I tried desperately to hold back the tears that pricked my eyes and immediately felt great shame and guilt. I didn’t want to be feeling this way! I loved seeing how the Lord was working in my friends’ lives. I wanted to wholeheartedly celebrate, too, but at the same time I lamented, “What about me?” 


My sweet friend, who loved me well through this difficult season and who didn’t know exactly how my heart was aching then, sent me this passage from 1 Corinthians 12:12-26:


“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.


For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.


The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.  If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”


As I suffered, these people suffered along with me. As they were honored, I was to rejoice along with them. And as I sat off to the side, wounded and bemoaning my inadequacies and almost completely believing the lie that I didn’t belong, my heart needed this truth: I was not any less a part of the body of Christ. Not one bit. 


This is such a marvelous design. “God has so composed the body.” No division, all members having the same care for one another. The many parts of the body having specific and unique purposes, indispensable and making up one body, Christ as the head. 


It’s such a beautiful thing, to have walked with the Lord through this difficult season, almost just right into an opportunity to live this out in my everyday life. It gives me such an appreciation for the Lord’s design for His church and for the church itself. It makes me want to take commands regarding the church seriously. I want to nurture His church in this way:


“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.” Romans 12:10 


Friend, I don’t know if you can resonate with any part of what I’ve shared here today, but I pray that you let this passage of Scripture sink down deep into your heart and soul today. The way God has created His church to function leaves no room for exclusion, division, feelings of inadequacy, resentment or selfishness, even. No, we belong to and are called to nurture the body, operating as one under Christ. We are called to lay down our lives just as Christ did. 


So Lord, would you open our eyes to areas of our hearts that we may, even unknowingly, carry bitterness or resentment? And would you then purify our hearts and awaken us to the design of your church, that you yourself intentionally composed? We want to obey your commands regarding your church wholeheartedly, delightedly even. We want to strive for the sort of love that undeniably presents us to the world as yours. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would reveal to us the gifts and talents that you have given us and that you would teach us how to use them for the building up of your church and for your glory, God. Amen. 

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