Wounded by One You Love

Something the enemy uses to get our lives stuck, so that we don’t grow in our spiritual life, is “offence”. Offence is something that can break relationships and tear down church communities.

Some people get offended at a church, and leave to another one and then another one. They begin to form a prejudice against church and fellowship and then resort to sitting at home and rejecting a church community. If they carry this offence with them, they will not progress in their spiritual life nor find a fellowship to connect to- because hurt people hurt people.
 
They jump from church to church and don’t grow anywhere. 

Luke 17:1 “Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.”

There are two types of people- the offender and the offended. We should strive to become neither of these- otherwise we cannot progress to the destiny that God has kept for us. 

Psalm 55:12-14  12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: 13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. 14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

Here, David says that if an enemy had offended him- he could’ve borne it. But when someone who walked with him- his own sweet acquaintance- offended him, it hurt him deeply.

There is a hidden principle here- deep hurt and offence usually comes from those you are very close to. Offence from an enemy doesn’t hurt that deeply- we try to fight back. But from our close ones, we never expect to be hurt and this leads to deep wounds.
This person was David’s close acquaintance and counsel.

When there was a revolution against David, Absalom shifted sides and stood against David. He knew the deep secrets of David and knew how to betray and defeat him.
 
2 Samuel 15:12
While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. And so the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept on increasing.

2 Samuel 15:35
Now David had been told, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David prayed, “Lord, turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness.”

2 Samuel 17:23
23 When Ahithophel saw that Absalom and the leaders of Israel were not going to follow his advice, he saddled his donkey and rode back to his home in Gilo. He told his family and servants what to do. Then he hanged himself, and they buried him in his family's burial place.

Similarly, Judas betrayed Jesus.

John 13:8 But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’

Judas was a disciple of Jesus and was the treasurer! The one who handles money is usually the most trusted person in the group. He betrayed Jesus. 
Just like Ahithophel, Judas also eventually hangs himself.

Matthew 27:5
So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
The closer the relationship- the deeper the wound.
In an earthly relationship- the closest one we have is with a spouse. If a small hurt occurs, this hurts deeply. Only after a spouse, does a friend or colleague come.

Among spouses, if one cheats or lies to the other, the hurt is very deep. It can happen through words, actions, lack of submission, pride and ego, etc.

When God called Abraham out of his land, he took his nephew Lot, who was an orphan and had nothing. God slowly blessed him and grew his resources from nothing. His herd and wealth began to grow. This caused issues between Lot’s people and Abraham’s. Lot should have instructed his people to not cause any issues with Abraham’s since all his blessings came because of Abraham!
 
And when Abraham decided they should split up and offered Lot the choice of land- he chose for himself the greener and better land. This eventually turned out to be Sodom and Gomorrah, a land of sin, that God later destroyed.

If we are ever offended, we should forgive and let go of the anger and bitterness. If we do not get rid of this, we cannot move forward in life.