4 - I refuse to be offended!

Mark 7:
24. Then he left Galilee and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and tried to keep it a secret that he was there, but couldn't. For as usual the news of his arrival spread fast.
25. Right away a woman came to him whose little girl was possessed by a demon. She had heard about Jesus and now she came and fell at his feet,
26. and pled with him to release her child from the demon's control. (But she was Syrophoenician - a "despised Gentile!")
27. Jesus told her, "First I should help my own family - the Jews. It isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."
LB

In this incident, Jesus confronted and cast aside the racial prejudice which His culture held against non-Jews, and also the gender prejudice of his culture which dictated that in public Jewish men did not speak to women they did not know.

However, He also tested this mother to see whether she was willing to put aside her own cultural conditioning so that she could receive the healing she so wanted for her daughter.

Jesus did this by letting her know that the boundary set for His ministry was the He should first help His own family, the Jews, before He would even consider going outside and helping her - a non-Jew!

Jesus went further and voiced in the open the typical Jewish prejudice:
He compared her to a dog!

Now how would she respond to that! Would she become offended and angry enough that such a comment would stand in the way of her true purpose - the healing of her daughter?

Was Jesus trying to insult her in her time of need?
Hardly!

He was pressing her to give Him a legal loophole which would allow Him to go beyond His boundaries and give her what she wanted!

Has there been something that has so offended you that it has stopped you from achieving what you really wanted?
Talk to God about it today!

Prayer:
Father, today I come before You and thank You for the opportunity to air my grievance:
(Now tell the Lord what your grievance is .....)
I ask that You show me the way forward in this situation, so that I can achieve my true purpose in this area of my life,
in Jesus' name,
Amen.