Exodus 25 & 26, Mark 4: 30-41, Mark 5: 1-20, Psalm 31: 19-24
Mark 5: 18-20 (ESV)
“As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been
possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. And he did not
permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the
Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” And he went away and
began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and
everyone marveled.”
Verses 18 through 20 from Mark 5 reminded me that when
something miraculous happens to you, Christ wants you to proclaim it to the
world as your new ministry. The man who had been possessed with demons who said
his name was “Legion”, wanted to go with Jesus but Christ told the man to go
home and tell his friends of how he had been healed. So the man who had been
possessed with demons went back to Decapolis and told everyone how Jesus had
healed him. These verses also remind me that sometimes the things we pray for
and want might not be the right thing for our lives, and that God will
sometimes turn us in a different direction. Decapolis was also a Gentile
community, so it was part of God’s plan that the seeds of Christ’s miracles
would be planted in this area which would later become an important center of
Christ’s teachings after his resurrection. We have to trust that if God doesn’t
answer our prayers and turns us in a different direction, that God has a plan
for us and salvation of humanity.
