Victoria Osteen

We are to forgive those who persecute us.

We are to forgive and pray for those people.

You see, one way to do it is to pray.

One way to insulate yourself from that irritant, that offense that's trying to embed itself in your heart is to pray.

And every time you pray and you declare, God, I forgive that person in the name of Jesus,

you know what you're doing?

You're secreting the nacre of God's love around that offense.

Every time you release that wrong into God's hands, you're secreting more of the nacre of love around that offense.

You see, we've got to keep that distance between that offense and our heart.

We cannot hold on to offense because God wants to get all these good things to us.

And if we're holding on to the wrong, we can't make room for the right.

We can't make room for what God wants to do in our heart.

So we must choose

Love.

We must choose what we're going to do with that offense.

Listen to what it says in Luke 6, 4.

It says a good man brings forth good things out of the good treasure stored up in his heart.

See, that is saying that God wants you to store up the good treasure in your heart.

He's saying, don't give offense valuable space because it's bitterness, it's resentment, it's pollutants.

It is things that will pollute your life and nobody wants those things.