Offensive Breakdown: 'Out of all people..... Why YOU!'

If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide.¹³ But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend,¹⁴ with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshipers.¹⁶ As for me, I call to God, and the LORD saves me. 

   Now that we have come to the understanding that we have to acknowledge the realization of what we have been facing- which is the fact that we have been or are offended- then our next step is to talk about the plans of satan and the plans of God. In everything that happens in life there is a two-fold plan. One fold of the plan comes from the prince of the air, satan, and the greatest plan comes from God. 
   Though we are dealing with two different sources we must come to know that the lesson that we are to learn from the plans are the same. Here is the lesson: "Our response to an offense determines our future." Regardless of what happens to us in life we all have to understand that the way we react to the things that take place in our life, will truly play an important part in what we do in life and the roads we will have to take in order to get there. 
   We as Christians, followers of Christ, have to be willing to take responsibility for our actions, but also work to make sure we are doing the right things to not fall into the same deadly traps that so many others have already fallen into. As I stated once already, God will not be pleased with us trying to justify the wrong that we do to others, although they have done wrong to us. Remember we will receive the same consequences as the offenders if we decide not to act the way in which God has called us, as His followers, to act.
   Therefore since the way we respond determines our future now that means you probably want to know the two-fold plan that I began talking about at the beginning? Well here it is.
   The plan of satan is that we become: shocked, bewildered, and amazed by being offended by others. Understand that satan uses the very ones that are closest to us to bring us into a state of shock, bewilderment and amazement. Now amazingly enough most of us think the same way that David did when he wrote Ps.55:12-14. David says it this way, "If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshipers." In essence what David said was, if it had been my enemies or someone that I didn't know, then I could probably just be upset about this and go on about my business a lot faster, but that's not the case. These are the one's whom we sing alongside in the choir; the one who stand's before me in Sunday school teaching the lesson; or better yet the one who is delivering the sermon from the pulpit. The one's we spend holidays, attend social functions, and share offices with. And for most of us it's even closer than that. It's the one's we grew up with, confide in, and sleep next to. Yep, it's the church family, those we consider as friends, and our very own family members.
   What I've learned and what David is saying is that, we are truly only offended by those whom we care about. No, I'm not saying that we don't get hurt by others that we don't truly know, but when it comes to dealing with offense there is a deeper root to the problem we are facing. The deeper root is caused by the fact that the relationship is much closer. It is a relationship that we have come to expect more from, because we have given more of ourselves to them. Which in return has allowed us to place higher expectations on them, which makes the offense cause us more pain and hurt. All of this in return causes us not to only be: wounded, hurt and bitter, but it also causes us to put up a wall against others that may try to befriend us.
   Now that is the plan of satan, but the God we serve has a greater plan than that. His plan is that the potential and purpose, that he has placed in us, be fulfilled. God wants us to understand that everything we face and go through in life is so that we will be prepared and armed for the offense of others that may come our way. If we go back to what David says in Ps.55:12-14 then we should come to understand and know that if it was someone else then we could handle it, but God gives us the strength and power to handle those things in which we don't expect. 
   The amazing thing about this scripture is not what David says in the following verses, but really what he further goes on to tell us in vs. 16. David says, that "He called on God, and the Lord saves me." So many times we are relying on our own strength and power to handle that which we can't handle, but we need to rely on the protection and provision of God. No, it won't always feel good, because flesh will always rise up to want to do what it feels is the best thing to do, but we are responsible for controlling our flesh and those things which we may be influenced to do that totally go against the word and plan of God.
   In the end please understand  that satan's plan is that our God given potential and purpose become handicapped and hindered. But the plan of God leads to our purpose and potential being fulfilled, by us serving those whom we are called to serve, so that we might please our Heavenly Father. 
   If you don't get anything else please don't forget, that "Our response to an offense determines our future." Be Blessed! -AJH