3 Days of Prayer and Fasting (2019/03)

Luke 8:22-39 (ESV)

22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

26 Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. 32 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

34 When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 36 And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

Jesus is able to sleep in the stormy sea, while His disciples are panicking. The difference between them is identified by Jesus’s question in verse 25,  “Where is your faith?” The source of the disciples’ fearfulness was faithfulness. In what areas of your life are you experiencing trouble? Are you going through this trouble with a posture of trust and dependence, or self-reliance? In what areas of your life is God calling you to more faith?

Even though Jesus’s disciples were often slow to learn, and didn’t fully come to understand Jesus’s identity and mission until later, we see them faithfully accompanying Jesus through His journeys in this passage (v. 22). In this context of community, “they marveled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” Are you helping other church members grow in their knowledge of Jesus?

The healed demoniac asked to join Jesus as one of His disciples (v. 38), but Jesus refused His request saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you” (v. 39). In this way, the man became the first Gentile missionary, and “he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him” (v. 39). Do you share with your family, friends, and neighbors “how much God has done for you”?