I write for an online devotional ministry once a month. They emailed changes for me to approve. As I sent back my email, the Lord spoke these two words “proud flesh.” Hmm.

Proud flesh is a medical term. It means that tissue grows beyond the wound’s margins. Hyper granulation: tissue protrudes above the skin’s surface. Think of scar tissue which is hard.

Let’s take that into a spiritual application. When we are emotionally wounded, the Lord empowers us through His grace to forgive right then. However when we react in fleshly pride we block His gift. James 4:6 says, “…God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Hebrews 3:13 is a great definition for blocked grace. It says, “…hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Offenses will come. Satan’s deceptive suggestions are designed temptations to get revenge, stuff it, use it as gossip, or reject the one who hurt us.

God’s way is to forgive from the heart the moment we are offended. Matthew 18:34-35. Ephesians 4:30, and Colossians 3:13. Jesus paid for those sins against us on the cross.