Victoria Osteen

And as a result of it working and secreting and covering it with nacre, it forms a precious and beautiful pearl.

You know, offenses in our life are a lot like that irritant in the life of an oyster.

Words come, actions come, they're irritants.

They can become offenses.

See, we have got to push those out of our heart and into the hands of God.

See, God has given us a way to insulate ourselves, to put distance between what wants to harm us

And it's the fact that we can decide what we do with it.

We can either push it and release the hurts, release the wrongs, or we can bring them into our life.

And I just want to encourage every one of us to get good at pushing out, pushing out what would try to harm us.

Now, the Bible says this.

It

who have wronged us.

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.