“Accents are recognizable right away. There is an accent in leadership. You can recognize quite quickly if one has it or not. These leadership blogs are written to enhance the accent.”
YOU OFFENDED BRO?
Luke 17:1, “Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but offences will come:”
The spirit of offense may possibly be the greatest tool the enemy uses to break up godly ties. Jesus gave His disciples warning when He said, “offenses will come…”
The definition of the word offense:
- Something that causes one to be hurt, upset or angry
- The act of stumbling
- The act of feeling attacked
- The act of feeling displeased or insulted
Again, Jesus said this is going to happen. It is impossible to live a life where you won’t at times want to feel this way. This blog is for leaders and believe me leader, you will have the opportunity to be offended by people! There will be seasons where it will present itself quite often.
How we handle this will determine many things in our leadership and personal development. If our buttons are easily pushed and it ruins our day, maybe God is revealing that the problem is within us and needs to be worked on.
Most may be surprised if I tell you that some of the biggest church divisions, divorces, life long enmity all began with small and tiny seeds of offense. The spirit (attitude) of offense is brutal and can divide the closest of hearts.
One of the subtle temptations we all face is to entertain a “Spirit of Offense.” Although very subtle, such a mindset certainly disrupts personal peace and collective unity. Hence, this is a situation, an attitude, a mindset, a spirit we should flee from. A spirit of offense is the opposite of a James 1:19, “be slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to anger.” Carrying this attitude looks like this: it is quick to speak (including rumors), slow to hear (including not hearing the positive aspects about others), and quick to become angry (or offended).
WHAT MUST WE DO?
- BE COOL
Offense must come. Our Master said that. And there’s no two ways about it. Someone is going to rub you the wrong way. Someone is going to not treat you right. Someone is going to try and push you around. Remember you are bigger than that to take offense. Sure, they didn’t do right so that’s why you overlook it. To overlook the mistakes or intentions of offense of others and not getting bent out of shape is a sign of great Godly maturity. - REMAIN HUMBLE
Most of the root causes of offense is the feeling of entitlement. We live in a world where people are taught to fight for their rights. While that is not wrong, however, it spills to taking quicker offense because of not getting what we think we are entitled to get. In the process we forget humility, forgiveness, and love. - DON’T FORGET ABOUT YOUR OWN SHORTCOMINGS
The fact is that at some point, our frailty gets in our way. Bitterness becomes too bitter, ego becomes too hurt, hate reaches its highest degree and humility can get out of immediate reach. We must forgive as we have been forgiven. We must realize that often times people don’t try to offend on purpose. We must put ourselves in other’s shoes and don’t take things so personally.
Keep your bumpers on. People are going to bump into you.
Guard your hearts at all cost and don’t give the devil an inch. Leaders rise above!
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