Abundance In The Bush - Country DevotionsSample

Offended

There are lots of smells out in the bush. You beaut ones, like horses, eucalyptus in gum leaves and rain on thirsty ground. Really crook ones like my dog after she has rolled in some decaying, maggot ridden carcass. After that, her offensive stench can plug your nostrils and the only relief is when the wind changes direction!

Would people rather stay up wind of us? We get a bit of a stench about us when we get narky at others and spit the dummy. Everybody's life dishes up opportunities to get offended. We each have the same choice: respond maturely or be on the nose as we become (or create) a stink.

If anyone had a ‘right’ to throw a wobbly it was Joe. His brothers seriously hated him - were going to kill him - but instead decided to at least get some money for him, so sold him. Joe spent the next 10 years - the prime of his life - as a slave. Then his master’s wife falsely accused him of rape and he was thrown into prison (and we’re not talking 21st Century jails). Then the man who promised to remember Joe when he was released from prison forgot for two years. To cut a bonza story short, years later when Joe was an overseer in Egypt and his brothers came begging for food, instead of killing them he gave them the best of Egyptian food and land. Joe refused to let his life be ruined by taking offence, either at his brothers, at other people or at God. That’s impressive! (For the whole story, read Genesis chapter 37 and chapters 39 to 46).

Father, I don’t want to be a stench in Your nostrils by being a person who easily takes offence. I choose to forgive and to pull down any walls I have built to separate myself from others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.