My Mama used to have this phrase. She would call me and tell me somebody was in the hospital that wasn’t doing well and then she’d say they were “looking to die.” Finally one day I told her, “Mama give them some hope, they might live.”
The thing is though sometimes spiritually some people are looking to die and don’t even know it. These are people that are easily offended. So easily offended that they seem to be looking for it. Not only are they offended, they want you to be offended too. They will pick some minor thing be it a minor infraction or whatever they can find to grab onto. By this I mean that they will find something that isn’t an offense at all and turn it into one.
Now you may think they aren’t looking to die. It says in Proverbs 18:19 (KJV) A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle. I know we use this to show that we shouldn’t offend others as we should, but we should also not get ourselves offended. Because the bars of the castle that we will find ourselves in are the dungeon that we’ve locked ourselves in. Then our spirit will become wounded. It says also in Proverbs 18:14 (KJV) The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? A wounded spirit can destroy someone. It doesn’t have to be a fiery dart from the enemy or friendly fire that caused it. It can be a self inflicted wound.
The problem is if you are always looking for offense, you will find it. Eventually you begin to get offended at the truth. You can become so offended that you begin to see those that tell you the truth with your well being in mind as enemies. We see Paul address this when he asks the Galatians, am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth (Galatians 4:16 KJV)?
I tell you this because I want you to be aware that you can harm yourself by always having your radar going looking to be offended. To avoid this tune your radar to grace. Always look at things through the eyes of grace and be quick to forgive. This way you don’t get easily offended. Because it’s hard to get offended when you’re looking through grace.
Proverbs 19:11 ISV A person’s discretion makes him slow to anger, and it is to his credit that he ignores an offence.