Released

If God changed your life for the better, would you tell the world about it?

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me." For he had said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion; for we are many." He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, "Send us into the swine; let us enter them." So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea. The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you." And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed. - Mark 5:1-20

The man who had been tortured by demons for years wanted to go with Jesus, but Jesus refused him.

Go home, Jesus said.  Tell your family and friends what God has done for you.

The way this story is written, it is obvious that the man couldn't have cured himself.  He was totally possessed by demon spirits.  At least, that is the way the people of the time saw it.

But today, we are better informed, riight?

We can Google the disease we think we have and come to our own judgment about healing and cure.  And if we call upon Jesus for help, and we find ourselves healed, do we make the connection and give Him credit?

Or do we thank medicine, doctors and breakthroughs?

Back in Jesus' day, the common belief was that God had a hand in everything.  If we were sick, it was punishment for something we did or failed to do, and God was the cause.

If we overcame troubles, God was the reason there as well.

So, this man possessed would have been assumed to be guilty of something that caused the demons to take hold of him, and only God could make them leave.

Jesus told him it was God's grace that saved him.

Today, God is mostly out of the picture for many of us. We don't give God credit, though we tend to blame God when we are frustrated.

But what if God is behind us fully?  What if God does take us in His hand and guide us to health and wellbeing?

Shouldn't we give God thanks?

Maybe we should start when we are ill.  We should acknowledge God's presence in our lives like the man did when he asked Jesus what he was doing there.

If God has come to us in our pain, shouldn't we be willing to let God help us?

He may just be waiting for us to ask.

More to come...