Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! -Deuteronomy 30:19
I’ve moved a lot of times. When you move, you have to grieve what you’ve left behind, yet you still have to choose whole-heartedly to enter into the new place. You have to decide daily to let-go of the life you had, and embrace the new life God has for you. It’s similar with our hearts. Many times, God is calling us to new seasons, new challenges, and new “lands.” Sometimes we get stuck dwelling on what “could’ve” been or frankly go back to old ways of thinking.
In Deuteronomy, God is giving us a choice to either reject or accept his covenantal relationship with him. He is saying that we can CHOOSE life with him, which in turn means we are choosing LOVE. We can choose peace, and joy. WE can choose to leave bad habits behind, and move on to experience more freedom. Yet, why is it so hard? It starts with accepting our circumstances, realizing that we aren’t victim to them, and then choosing LIFE through him today.
![Has a post on social media ever made you immediately frustrated? Maybe you even started to think ill of the author of the post. You feel your chest tighten and wonder, how could they have said that? You are so mad you want to click the unfollow button.
[save for reference for when you’re offended]
An offense can happen when someone sins against us, or even if someone just rubs us the wrong way! Often, it comes out of a “right versus wrong” mentality. We get offended and harbor bitterness. Wounds and resentment create rifts and divisions and we find ourselves clutching our anger tightly in our fists to prove we are right.
It’s okay to feel upset when you are offended or sad, but we can’t let bitterness take root. Instead, we must be quick to forgive. As believers, holding a grudge inhibits our ability to reconcile. And when we avoid reconciliation, we miss out on what God wants to do in and through us.
Typically for me, offense stems from pride or self-righteousness. I have received some pretty offensive comments over time, and my feelings do get hurt. But as Christians, we need to be able to “overlook an offense” just like it says in Proverbs.
This passage says it is “one’s glory to overlook an offense.” #chasingsacred (read the rest of the article on @hosannarevival)](https://www.chasingsacred.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
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