Psalm 139:24 (NLT) Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

One of the things that is a part of having relationships with each other as human beings is that unfortunately, we can offend each other. When you offend someone, it usually causes a rift between you and that person. If handled correctly, the offended person would go to the person that offended them to let them know that they were offended and what offended them. The person who did the offending should then apologize, and then forgiveness should be granted by the person that was hurt. That is how it should work in theory, but we all know that many times people hang on to their hurts and don't let the person who hurt them know what they did. This then leads to a separation or a diminishing of the friendship that they had previous to the offense. If you obey scripture, then the right thing to do is address the situation and then be ready to forgive.

That's how it is with our relationships with each other, but did you ever stop to think about the prospect of offending God? We may think of the Lord exacting judgement on sin and being angry when people act in evil ways, but we usually don't think of God as being offended. But if you read the Bible, you will find many instances where God is offended by His people. God takes offense at people whom He has shown mercy to that continue in their sin. He is offended when anyone comes against one of His children (that's us!). He is offended by sin, period. That's why David, in the words above, wanted the Lord to point out anything in his life that may be offensive to the Lord. Not trusting his own judgement, he asked the Lord to search his heart (Psalm 139:23) to see if there was something there that was offensive to God that he may have missed. He wanted to be right with God at all costs.

But it is also needful to know that God's offense is in no way like what offends us. When we get offended, it usually has to do with our own pride and ego that got hurt, or that someone let us down or disappointed us. God doesn't have those issues. He is surely not prideful, and He doesn't get down about things because He is God. What offends Him is the affect that sin and wrongful actions have on us, His children. His offense with sin is that it is severely harmful to us and that it leads to our ultimate death. It separates us from Him, and that offends Him. God's offense is due to the great love that He has for His children. You can be sure that if there is anything in us that offends God, it's because it will lead to trouble for us. Because of this, we should continually do what David did and ask God to search our hearts for anything that may offend Him. As He points things out in our lives that do, let's rid ourselves of those things so that we can be right with God and spare ourselves a lot of grief. It is then that we can be assured that we will be on the awesome path of everlasting life!

Pastor Joey Vazquez