Great Peace

“Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Psalm 119:165

Have you ever been offended? Unfortunately, most of us have been. Getting offended can hinder us from doing what we ought to do. It can become a stumbling block in our Christian lives. When we are offended, we have a tendency to hurt others; sometimes unintentionally. People can offend us with their words, their actions, and with the omission of words or actions that we expect from them. We can be offended if we perceive certain attitudes, even if the words or actions themselves would have been acceptable if they had been said or done in a different spirit. If we had the opportunity, most of us would choose never to be offended again; but we have no control over what other people say and do. However, the verse above gives us a formula by which we can work toward never being offended. The verse says that we will have great peace if we love God’s law. Our peace can be so great that it would become impossible to offend us. How can this be? The primary message of the Bible is the love of God. God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son to die for our sins. When we think about God’s love for us, it causes us to love Him back. “We love him, because he first loved us,” (I John 4:19). If we can come to the place that we can bask in the love of God so deeply that we can remain focused on the goodness of God no matter what happens to us, we will never be offended; and that would certainly be a life of great peace.