Don’t Take Offense  | Enjoying Everyday Life

Offense is a trap that keeps us from enjoying our own lives. On this episode of Enjoying Everyday Life with Joyce Meyer, learn how to resist offense quickly and thoroughly with help from God’s Word!

Did you miss the Joyce Meyer Love Life Women’s Conference? It’s okay. We’ve got you covered.
You can stream the whole conference live right now at joycemeyer.org/wclive.
In words to live by, it is such a beautiful book.
Joyce shares how her life was transformed when she began to not just read god’s word, but really study it.
Powerwords is a really easy little read, and it’s a powerful small book.
You’re gonna learn what the Bible says about the words you say before you say them.
Learn to use god’s word daily in your prayers, your conversations, and this little 2 book power pack is really gonna help you.
This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries.
Tonight, we’re gonna talk about not taking offense.
I can’t guarantee you that somebody won’t try to give you some, but it’s up to us rather we want to take it or not.
I’m Joyce Meyer, and I believe that god can heal you everywhere you hurt.
Let me ask a question.
Do any of you ever get offended?
Right over there, two people.
I mean, if you get your feelings hurt kinda easy.
I knew it’d be all the women, you know.
There’s an occasional man that may be like that, but, usually, it’s ladies because we got lots of emotions.
And, uh But, you know, You’re always gonna have opportunities to be offended.
I mean, one lady after hearing me teach said she counted how many opportunities she had to be offended in a week and had 40 things on our list.
You may have an opportunity to be offended before you get out of this building tonight.
I mean, that’s just the truth.
I mean, you know, some wonderful Christian who’s been in here and heard us talk about love may almost run you over in the parking lot.
And you’re gonna you’re gonna have to choose to believe the best that they didn’t see you, although you really think they did.
You’re gonna believe that they didn’t. And you’re gonna keep your peace because your peace is your power.
Did you hear what I said? Your peace is your power.
I can’t control what everybody out there does, and neither can you that god has given us a spirit of discipline and self control so we can control ourselves with god’s help if we really want to.
Amen? So I’m gonna talk to you this weekend about offense and strife both of which I believe are just demonic spirits that are sent out from hell to steal the anointing, to steal god’s blessings, and to steal our peace.
There’s so many wonderful scriptures in the Bible about not giving offense, not taking offense, not being offended by the truth, not being offended by trouble, When Dave and I started the ministry, the way it is now, I did home bible studies for 5 years and worked at another church for 5 years, but now For 30 years, we’ve had the privilege of birthing and starting up this ministry.
And There were three things that god put in my heart when I first started.
And I felt that he said very clearly, if you do these things, I’ll bless you.
And one of them was keep the strife out of your life.
And I have found out if I’m going to keep the strife out of my life, I’m gonna have to really want to And I’m gonna have to work at it, and I have to be the one that’s gonna be first to be a peacemaker, even if nobody else is.
And, um, the more you do it, the easier it gets, because the more you refuse to live with bitterness, resentment, anger, and unforgiveness, and strife and offense, the more you realize how useless it all is.
And how it doesn’t solve your problems, it doesn’t change the people.
I mean, really, staying mad at somebody that hurt you is like, taking poison, hoping you’re in a meal die.
It you you don’t hurt them at all. By doing that, you only hurt yourself.
And so He said, keep the strife out of your life.
Do everything that you do with excellence, and always be a person of integrity.
And I believe that those are 3 very important things, but strife, keeping the strife out of your life, is very, very important.
And sometimes in the beginning, it can almost seem like a full time job, because if you’re not very good at it, if it’s an area of weakness for you, the devil’s always gonna find some way to try to get you stirred up and upset about something.
I always like to say the devil sets us up to get us upset.
He knows what buttons to push at what time to get us bothered by something.
And I don’t know if you’ve figured it out yet or not but anytime you’re getting ready to go hear the word.
If he can get you rattled in any way, so you come in you know, with your church face, but I’ll stir it up on the inside.
Cause actually, the Bible says in James, and this is a powerful scripture that the seed of the word must be sown in a heart of peace by someone who works for and makes peace.
In order for it to bear good fruit.
So that means I’ve gotta get here in peace, and you need to get here in peace.
Otherwise, things that we say.
And, you know, the word is so I mean, it’s not just like going to church, or I’m gonna go see what Joyce looks like in real life.
I mean, the word of god God’s word amazes me.
Please love the word.
Love the word of god.
And so we have worked really hard over the years to keep the strife out of our life.
And to try to walk in peace. And I’ll be honest with you.
I could not be mad at my husband and get up here and preach.
I don’t care how much crow I had to eat.
We would have to come to terms of peace before I stood up here.
I just absolutely cannot do it. Because if there’s anything I can’t stand, it’s phoning us. Amen?
And I remember enough years of my life going to church me and Dave mad at each other fought all the way there and probably would fight all the way home.
But when we got in the building, praise the lord. Thank you, Jesus. Glory to god.
And I’ll tell you what, I know that that stuff just I’m sure god’s just like really people So tonight, we’re gonna talk about not taking offense.
I can’t guarantee you that somebody won’t try to give you some, but it’s up to us whether we want to take it or not.
Amen? So what is an offense?
The word offense in the Greek is the word scandal on. Very interesting word.
It actually describes the name of a part, just a little part on a trap that held the bait that lured an animal into that trap.
You know, uh, an animal is not gonna go into trap without some kind of bait.
You gotta make it look good or smell good. Or something.
You know, Satan in the Garden of Eden, he baited Eve, and he baited her with there’s something that god knows that you don’t know.
And are you sure that he told you that you couldn’t eat a every tree of the garden, making it sound like god was withholding something from her.
And so she got her mind working And I tell you what, when you think too much in the top of your head and don’t use enough discernment, you’re on your way out before you ever get in.
Because if you think that Satan does not work day and night to try to deceive you, he does.
He absolutely does. But you know what?
We’re smarter than he is because we’ve got the mind of Christ, and we know the truth of god’s word.
Hey, man? And you know how offense is?
You may be alright if you’re not seeing the person that offended you, but, boy, you run into him somewhere inside.
Don’t even know what I’m talking about.
You know, I don’t play these stupid games they but when I used to get mad at Dave, I wouldn’t go in the room where he was at.
I’m I’m not I’m not gonna be be with you. Well, Dave didn’t care.
He’d sit and watch television and have a good time, but I thought I was really getting him back, you know, by putting up my walls and not I’m I’m not gonna talk to you.
He probably thought, good. Get some quiet for a change.
So it’s interesting to me, and I hope to you that an offense in the Greek is actually bait for a trap.
So keep in mind when somebody offends you, it may not even be I guess we need to ask the question, are they offending me, or am I getting offended?
Cause he’s we just have do do you need to just have touchy days?
Come on. All the women got their hands up again. Some got both hands up, you know.
You know how it is? I mean, something can happen one time.
A person could do something one time or say something one time, don’t bother you at all.
But boy, if it’s a bad hormone day, they can say the same thing, And, man, now you are upset.
You are tired of it.
You’re not putting up with it anymore, and you are cutting them out of your wife.
Period into the conversation. So let let’s just say this.
It’s not gonna do any good to go on with this teaching if you’re not gonna be willing to say, okay.
I’m gonna take responsibility for being offended.
I I’m no longer gonna put that responsibility on everybody else to not offend me.
Don’t make me come down there.
Do you know how much we deflect our problems onto other people?
Well, you, well, you, well, you. And if you didn’t, and if you did, then I’d be happy.
And if you didn’t upset me, then I wouldn’t feel this way.
But god gives us self control.
If you don’t understand that, That means the ability to control yourself.
There’s no gift called others control.
I can’t control what others do all the time, but I do have a spirit of self control.
So we have to take responsibility for our stuff.
We will never ever be free from any problem as long as we’re blaming somebody else for it.
Got that.
We’ll never be free from any problem as long as we’re blaming somebody.
And you’re like, I know. I know. I’m not saying they didn’t do anything wrong.
I’m just trying to teach you how you can be free no matter what they do.
Come on. Trying to teach you how you can be free no matter what they do.
Because when it all comes down to it, if you don’t care enough about yourself, to run your life in such a way that you can enjoy it, probably nobody else is going to either.
It’s time to stand up for yourself and say I’m not gonna live in bondage anymore, and that doesn’t mean that you’re gonna keep every you’re gonna have everything out there be the way you want it to be.
It means that you’re gonna take responsibility to not buy into that nonsense because it’s all the the devil anyway.
And if nothing else works, the time you get as old as me, you just won’t have any time to be angry anymore.
I don’t have any days left to waste.
So John Bevere wrote a great book on strife called The Bay of Satan.
And, uh, so it It’s the bait that the enemy uses, and he will use things that will get your mind churning or get your emotions stirred up.
Satan uses bait to lure us into a lifetime of bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, strife, hatred, and revenge.
So it starts out as a hangail, but, you know, a hangnail, if you don’t take care of it properly, Even a paper cut, if you don’t take care of it properly, I mean, that thing can begin to fester and it can get infected, and it can cause you big, big, big, big, big problem.
Let me tell you something. It’s so much better to take care of a problem when it’s little.
And and it’s also good to take care of it as quickly as possible.
Before it has any opportunity to take roots. Amen?
I’ve learned the quicker I forgive somebody the easier it’s gonna be.
The sooner I decide to believe the best, the easier it’s gonna be. And I’ve come to the point.
I don’t even even if you did mean it, I don’t care I’m gonna believe the best because I’m not gonna waste my day.
You’re you’re we’re getting a breakthrough. I can tell.
Okay. Who wants to hear a Dave story?
I have a brand new Dave story This is hot off the press.
I don’t know that I could preach if I wasn’t married to Dave.
He continually provides me with sermon material. You should hear me at home. He’ll do something.
I’ll say, yep. That’ll preach. Yep. That’ll preach. Okay.
So Dave and I, this January, were married 49 years. 49 years.
Now, Dave was a wonderful man, but he’s not a gift buyer.
Which could be a problem because one of my love languages is gifts.
The other one is acts of service. So he is good at that.
He he, you know, Dave’s just like, he’d take trash out.
I mean, I think if I wanted something from the store at 10 o’clock night, he’d get dressed and go get it if I ask him to.
So, you know, this is not a let’s put Dave down night because he is a wonderful, wonderful man.
But you know how we are. Sometimes we focus too much on what somebody’s not.
And we totally forget about everything they are because we get used to that stuff.
We begin to take what people do for granted.
And so For some reason, this year, well, Dave was in Florida.
I was in St. Louis, and I was gonna go to Florida, but we couldn’t be together on anniversary.
So people were saying things to me like, um, well, I bet they will have something special planned when you get there.
And I’m thinking, probably not.
And, uh, now now let me just say, I don’t know why this 49 year bothered me because didn’t do anything on 45 or 46 or 47 or 48.
I mean, it’s not even 50 yet. I could’ve waited and got mad at 50, but no.
So in my I got this expectation.
And, you know, now I just wanna say this for good measure and be sure you get this.
Sometimes it’s not even people that are disappointing us and offending us.
It’s our expectation that we put on those people.
Well, I thought you would.
Well, I expected you too. Oh, you did. I am. Right.
And, um, so morning of the anniversary, I’m thinking, well, he’s gonna call me, wish me a happy anniversary.
Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.
So finally, I called him, and I waited around to see if he was gonna say anything.
It didn’t say anything. So finally, I said, well, I guess you’re not gonna say anything, so happy anniversary.
And he said, oh, is that today?
Well, I took the bait I took the bait, but I was fighting to get out of the trap because I I know all about this.
So thankfully, it was a few days before I was gonna see him.
So got a chance to try to talk myself off the ledge.
I don’t even know what I mean by that. You’re you’re ready.
You’re like, I’m gonna and I’m gonna And, boy, I’m gonna and so I I mean, I, you know, you get some spiritual smarts after 40 years.
So I’m like, okay, god, I’m not gonna be offended. I know Dave loves me. I was talking to myself.
And so I got okay.
But I still had this thing in the back of my head that when I got there, that surely he would do something.
Well, then people started to say to me before I left, I think it was my friend Penny.
She said, so what did Dave get you from your anniversary? And I said nothing.
And she said, Well, a couple of my kids came over, And, uh, they said, so did that get you did that do anything for anniversary?
I said, uh, no. And they were like, So how many of you can the devil’s feeding this.
Okay? It’s like he was not gonna I was good on 48.
Good on 47, but 49 became something else.
I’m doing this to show you how we can just get things cooked up in our head.
And I know he loves me.
I mean, nobody would put up with me for 49 years if he didn’t love me.
A fence is a challenge for all of us, not being offended too easily, not holding on to offense longer than we should.
And just as joy shared, you can’t grow and succeed.
If you have a fence in your heart, it holds us back.
But when you walk in love and forgiveness, you will walk in god’s peace, and there’s great power in that.
You see making that choice to rip out those roots of offense is not easy, but it makes a huge difference in your life.
I suggest you check out these resources that will really help.
Joyce’s book, words to live by, and another little book called Power Words.
In words to live by, it is such a beautiful book.
Joyce shares how her life was transformed when she began to not just read god’s word, but really study it, it makes such a big difference.
She serves some of her favorite scriptures in this book as well as how they’ve impacted her life And I think you’re really gonna enjoy this book when you sit down and spend time with it.
It’s just lovely. Powerwords is a really easy little read, and it’s a powerful small book.
You’re gonna learn what the Bible says about the words you say before you say them.
Learn to use god’s word daily in your prayers, your conversations, and this little 2 book power pack is really gonna help you.
So stay tuned with us. I’ll be right back with a touching story that reminds us all that god has his hands on us, including you, No matter how difficult the circumstances.
The Joyce Meyer Conference is back.
If you will start crying out to god on a regular basis need more of you in my life.
You better put on your seat belt and get ready for the ride of your life.
Coming to Hershey, Pennsylvania November 10th 11th with worship by Pat Barrett.
The way she connects with people, I mean, you can’t help but to leave energized.
For more information and a complete conference schedule, visit joycemeyer.org or call 1866, see Joyce.
These are volunteers at our medical and dental outreaches.
And when you use the gifts that god has given you to do thing for him.
He always blesses you for it. Amen. And we invite you to
come along with us. What do
you think? Should they should they do You can go to our website and find out more information, but volunteer for a medical dental mission as soon as you possibly can.
You know, I’ll never forget a young girl named Marshette who is just so precious and so close to my heart and so many of us here at Joyce Meyer Ministries.
Her story is a great inspiration to all of us.
That even when you think all is lost, when you don’t see a glimmer of hope, god is working on your behalf.
Watch this.
Preaching is wonderful, and that’s our number one thing to introduce people to Jesus, but I learned a long time ago to be honest.
Some people are hurting so bad that they can’t hear you when you say Jesus loves you.
You have to show it to him. This is Marchett.
She started coming to our clinic. And in 4 months, this is what she looked like.
Now that’s why we do what we do. Amen?
We are very grateful to be here in East Africa at a malnutrition clinic that hand of home is so blessed to be part of and we see amazing things happen here.
Children whose lives are literally at the edge of starvation, and god blesses us to be able
to help them. But what I
wanted to share with you today is only kind of the other side.
So things that we don’t often share with you that difficult times, and sometimes the sad parts, I guess, you would save serving the lord.
Because as you know, in your life and every life things don’t always go the way you want it to go.
And so when we first got here, we got some really difficult news.
There’s a little girl named Marchett and she was one of those girls that came into the clinic in terrible condition.
And she just flourished after being fed and being cared for and her health was going so well.
And so coming here, we were really looking forward to seeing Marshed and following up on her story and telling you how she doing.
But when we got here, we heard about tragedy.
Just last week, she and her mother were on her way to this clinic.
And a man on a motorcycle came up and told her mother that there was a police checkpoint coming up and that he would take Marchett to take her safely through that and then leave her afterwards.
And the terrible reality is that since that point, Marsha’s mom has never seen her again.
So we just need you to pray.
We want to ask you to be praying from our shed and her mother who’s obviously heartbroken And we are trusting god with this little girl’s life and, um, really praying for miracle.
That’s what we’re doing, and we want to add keep praying for that with us.
So we just got the most fantastic news that Marshette is bound and back with her mom, and there is nothing that could make us happier in this moment right now.
So we wanted right away to let all of you know too because I know you’ve been asking, you’ve been praying.
We don’t have a lot of details. And right now, we kinda feel like that doesn’t even matter.
Just praising god. We’re so grateful.
Thank you, lord, for what you have done in this life, uh, this young life.
And we know that he has an amazing plan for her.
We have no doubt she’s been through so much, and and god is good.
We’re also grateful to, uh, hand of hope and crisis aid in her National and all of the local officials and the different people who really came together to find this little girl.
And it just tells you what we can do.
We come together as family and we pray and we work together and we cooperate and coordinate.
So anyway, I’m pretty excited. Good news.
We’re all really happy, and we wanna to let you know as soon as we can. Thank you for praying.
God bless you all. Bye.
Whatever ounce of energy that I ever have in my life, I will give it to god to see people’s suffering relieved because I’ve not heard like they have, but I’ve heard enough in my life to know that it’s not enough to say that’s a shame.
Somebody needs to do something. We are the somebody that needs to do something. Amen?
We were so happy. Marshette and her mother saw god work in miraculous ways.
Not once, but twice. God did not give up on Marshet just like he won’t give up on you.
He has a plan for each one of us.
And Marsha’s life has been profoundly impacted, partially because of the prayers and the generosity of people just like you.
You have no idea when you give, when you pray, how god will use it to help other people.
I know that it’s always astounding. You may not hear all the stories.
We love to share what we can, but there are so many stories just like Marshet, you may be part of a miracle about to happen for children and so many others around the world.
So today, my question for you is, would you consider giving a special gift to our Project Girl Outreaches?
Project Girl is our initiative to help grow, restore, and love women, and girls all over the world.
It’s sharing who they are in Christ.
Providing fresh water so they don’t have to walk for hours, helping them get an education, rescue from human trafficking, All areas of great importance to women and girls, and it makes such an incredible difference You can be part of it too.
Give what you can. Any amount makes a great difference.
Just reach out to us through our website or give us a call today.
We’re so grateful for anything that you can do.
We hope you enjoy today’s program. For more information, visit joycemeyer.org.
This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries.