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BEFORE YOU BEGIN...
In life, there are battles to fight, and bridges to walk across. God wants you to live in freedom and with purpose. We want to equip you to do just that by sharing thoughts and strategies to overcome life's challenges through the power of the Gospel.
This Battle Plan has five parts:
BEFORE YOU BEGIN: This Section
BACKGROUND: All about offense
BATTLE GROUND: Where is the fight?
BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE: What can we learn about offense
BATTLE PLAN: How to beat offense and walk across the bridge of forgiveness
We encourage you to read this slowly and keep coming back to it as many times as you need to. Feel free to share the post with others that may benefit from this.
BACKGROUND
An offense happens when you are hurt, upset, or annoyed by another's words or actions. Offended is the condition that follows when you fail to process the offense in a healthy way. Being offended, carrying an offense, and holding unforgiveness can be thought of as the same thing.
We can hold unforgiveness toward other people, toward God, and even toward ourselves.
The danger of holding onto offense (or unforgiveness) is that it negatively impacts your health:
1. Physical Health - Unforgiveness leads to resentment which leads to bitterness which leads to fatigue, muscle tension, body aches, ulcers, and high blood pressure.
2. Emotional Health - staying offended steals your joy and robs you of peace of mind.
3. Spiritual Health - Carrying offense hinders personal relationship with God. Holding unforgiveness gets in the way of prayers!
There is a cycle of offense: You get upset, the emotions remain unprocessed, and they can lead to unforgiveness, which leads to an unhealthy place, which leaves you prone to get upset again...
