When we think about the prospect of sharing our faith, it can feel both overwhelming and intimidating. Opening up and being vulnerable about what God saved us from, and sharing it with others can feel as though we are exposing ourselves to the judgement of others. But it reality, it is an opportunity to open others up the Gospel of grace. The man who was healed from demon possession in Luke is a key verse to experience similar feelings.
This tormented man lived as an outcast for many years, naked and alone in the tombs near Galilee. When he saw Jesus, he fell to his knees and shouted at the top of lungs, begging for mercy from God. Jesus commanded the demons to leave him and them cast them into a herd of pigs that rushed down the steep bank into a lake and drowned. The man was healed physically, but just as importantly, he was healed in his soul.
He was so overwhelmed with gratitude for what Jesus had done, he begged to travel with Jesus and stay by His side. But Jesus had other plans. Ins, Jesus told him to go and share his story. And he did. What had once been a burden to bear became a powerful story of Holy transformation. This man’s past, and the healing he experienced, became the foundation of a purpose in life that he would have never imagined. Living his life as proof of the life-changing power of Jesus.
The man’s account became a testimony all over the region when he was willing to share it with other. How many people believed in Jesus and found their way into everlasting life simply because this former demon-possessed man allowed his past to become an account of redemption and purpose?
Purpose can deny Christ, dispute Scripture and ignore prophecy, but they cannot deny, dispute or ignore God’s transformational power in someone’s life. Our accounts of pain, adversity and overcoming in Christ are meant to serve as a testimony of God’s faithfulness and power, evidence that God really can take what the devil meant for evil and use it for good.
It is always God’s desire for us to go and share our accounts, whether we feel Conor not. God never wastes our pain. God had a plan for great purpose and a beautiful future for all who believe in Him. Not despite our past, but because of it.
Luke 8: 27-39
From Pity to Praise 