What has the Lord done for you?
Today's passage is from one of the most dramatic stories of conversion in the New Testament. A violent, demon-possessed man is healed by Jesus. Restored to his right mind and health, he is intensely grateful and asks to join Jesus’s traveling band of disciples. Jesus not only didn’t accept his offer but didn’t “permit him.” Instead, Jesus gives him a task to do and instruction on who to do it with: “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.”
Not everyone is expected to become a missionary or a traveling evangelist. If that is truly your call from God, then work to fulfill it with passion. What God wants for most of us, however, is simpler. We form communities, raise families, do our work, and go about our routines. Following Jesus doesn’t extract us from where we live. Rather, these things are exactly what God wants us to do.
There is sometimes a feeling that if we were truly faithful Christians, we should be trying to convert everyone around us to the faith, but it’s really much simpler than that. We are just to tell our friends and neighbors how much the Lord has done for us.
Every believer has a unique story to tell of what the Lord has done in our life. Some, like this man, can tell of how Jesus rescued us from a terrible condition. Others have a less dramatic story of the Lord’s work in their life.
It doesn’t matter. It’s your story to tell, and only you can tell it.
Father, remind me today of what you have done for me. Let me have it fresh and clear in my mind, ready to share as you give me the opportunity.
Photo Credit: Ethan Walsweer on Unsplash