Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 20). Witnessing greater works of God
Recommended Citation
Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 23). Truth can offend (Vol. 7, No. 49). Youth For Jesus.
“Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?”” (John 6:61NIV)
Who were grumbling about what Jesus said? His disciples! Why were they grumbling about what He said? It was because it offended them. But what He told them was the truth. How come they were offended by it?
Well, the truth is that truth has the tendency of offending people. And it will surely offend them, if they do not want to change their ways and walk in the will of God for their lives. Those disciples of the Lord did not want to change their ways and walk fully in the will of God for their lives. So, they allowed the truth that the Lord Jesus had told them to offend them. That, of course, made them to stop following Him and to also lose their places in His kingdom. What a shame! (Cf. John 6:66)
Also, we are told of King Asa and how he allowed himself to be offended by the truth God had told him through one of His prophets. This king, as we are shown in Scriptures, loved God and gave himself to living to please Him. He so loved God that he removed his grandmother from her position as queen mother because of her idolatry (2Chro 15:16).
But then, at some point during his reign, he made a mistake. He trusted in military strength instead of God to defeat an army that had come against him. So, God sent a prophet to tell him that he had done a foolish thing and would start to really be at war. And what should he have done in response to that? He should have humbled himself, repented of his error and asked God for forgiveness. But he did not do that at all. Instead, He punished the man God sent to him and also oppressed some of the people in the land. (Cf. 2Chro 16:1-10)
Well, because of that, the word of God that Asa would continue to be at war came to pass. Truly, no enemy nation came against him from that moment till the end of his reign. However, he was afflicted with a foot disease. And because he was yet offended by the truth God had spoken to him, he would not even ask Him for mercy and healing. Instead, he entrusted himself to the royal physicians. So, he was at war with that foot disease until it took his life. What a shame! (Cf. 2Chro 16:11-14)
Now what is all this teaching us? It is that we need to always have the right attitude towards the truth. Truth may be bitter. Truth may be offensive. Truth may be hurting. But it is the only thing that can make us free, heal our lives and lift us up from where we are to where God wants us to be.
Therefore, however painful or offensive the truth God is bringing to us in any area of our lives may be, it will be in our interest to embrace it and allow it to accomplish His will in us. Otherwise, we will sooner or later learn the hard way that we cannot do anything against the truth – truth will also prevail.
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