(Continued)
Don’t give up on yourself, or on others in your life…
The bible says there were about 2000 pigs that day who went over the cliff, meaning this man had about 2000 demons living on the inside of him – talk about a bad case of potential … I doubt whether you know someone like this, who is dwelling among the tombs; and no one can bind him/her, nor tame them, and who, night and day, is in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting themselves with stones … most people would want nothing to do with such a person, and would cast them off and say there’s no hope for them.
… Yet an encounter with the Son of God can change all that!
So much so that not only did he get delivered and set free, but Jesus now gives his life meaning and purpose by giving him an assignment to go to his home town and tell the people all that God had done for Him and the mercy/compassion God has shown him…in verse 20 we read that “he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marvelled.”
This man makes such an impact in that region that in Mark 7, when Jesus returns to Decapolis, the people brought a sick person to Him, and when the person received his healing, they were astonished and began proclaiming what Jesus had done…so due to the man’s testifying/sharing the gospel, faith had risen in the hearts of the people in that city – the result was that someone got healed – and now the people started telling more people about what Jesus had done … in other words, more and more people started hearing about Jesus.
What the devil meant for harm, by inflicting that man with demons, now turns into a massive evangelistic crusade with many people hearing the gospel!!
God was able to take a situation where there was no hope of recovery in the natural and turn it out for His glory!
My friend, let this passage encourage you to know that God is able to bring change where there seems to be no hope of change – that God is able to bring deliverance when others may be writing you off – that God can take what the devil meant for harm and turn it around for His glory - that great potential and purpose can be birthed, resulting in an entire city hearing the about the goodness of God!
God is able to do this!
So don’t write yourself, or others off, in your life – don’t write family off and say there’s no hope for them, rather pray for them and give God a chance to work in that person’s life … who would have thought that a man with 2000 demons in him would ever be the one to go and birth an evangelistic outreach in a city! If God could do it through that guy, then there’s hope for that family member/friend/neighbour/spouse/child, etc.
So don’t doubt what God is able to do in an individual’s life – but rather see the potential of what God can do and accomplish through an individual! … He is God after all!!!