Rock of Recovery

Great peace belong to those who learn to not give or take an offense. A blameless person is pleasant and does not take an offense or engage others with exaggerated emotions. Let us quickly recognize when we are offended so we don't develop a wound and end up in a trauma cycle with insecure attachments and emotional triggers. We will also explore reasons to not take an offense and understand who needs a boundary in our life. 

Accepting an offense will become a wound. This will trap us, tempt us, and entice us into indulging bitterness. This will cause us deep suffering. An offense is shifting sand. It causes our hearts to become hard, calloused and prideful. We will compensate by wallowing in the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of the world. This feels like thorns poking us with exaggerated emotions. It will rob us of all our effort and choke out our fruitfulness. The answer is to forgive and focus intensely on the truth. Learn to walk as a peacemaker and hold the ground of forgiveness with mercy, courage, compassion, grace, etc. 

What would it look like to never be offended? I can enjoy walking in love, joy, peace and the other fruit of the Spirit. This is an intentional daily choice and is my responsibility to pursue through self-discipline and self-control. This is opposite of my nature. I must refuse to be in a sinking boat of double mindedness and stop rolling over for the enemy to destroy my relationships through offenses. I must gear up and prepare for battle!

When we accept an offense, it begins to dismantle our armor. The word offended can be translated "to stumble". If we allow an offense to take root in our lives, we will develop spiritual sickness. This causes an imbalance in our spirit and is manifested by fretfulness, anxiety, fearfulness, restlessness and despair. Offenses need to be dealt with and released quickly. This is a maturity skill, it does not come naturally. This lesson and the next four will give us the skills to release offenses quickly.

Unwinding Tormented Thinking is a maturity skill. The word offended means stumbling. Freedom from mental torment is work. Train your mind in the mental gymnastics of great thinking. The lesson finishes with a thought test and a Mental Torment Evaluation Scale. 

Principle: Indulging Exaggerated Emotions produces Chaos and Torment. The Tormented Mind Cycle includes being offended, fretting, anger, bitterness, revenge thinking, anxiety, depression and finally ending up in the Tormentor's Prison. There is an inward, subconscious, and outward expression of torment to be explored along with reasons why we may stay stuck in the Tormentor's Prison. 

Peace hides behinds our problems. Learn to let peace guard your heart and mind by learning to surrender. Peace brings potential down into reality.

Anxiety is a cover-up and hides root emotions. Substance Use Disorder or even suicidal thinking is just an attempt to rebalance the inner soul from dysrhythmic emotions. Let's find the hidden emotion and process it!

Unless we can identify the difference between true and false recovery, it is impossible to know if we are beginning to recover. Recovery without change isn't recovery. True recovery is a turning away from destructive behaviors and then turning towards something valuable. 

Double mindedness makes us unstable. Instead, find a trustworthy path and focus on the destination and not the distractions. Say "no" to yourself often, think higher thoughts based on truth and unravel confusion by finding your teachers.