This week I was thinking about the guy in Mark 5 who lived out in the tombs. [Mark 5:1-20] I was thinking about it so much I decided to read it. I was greatly encouraged as I read it because I began to think, “There is nothing Jesus can’t deliver us from.”
This guy lived out in the tombs. He was so messed up inside that Luke 8:27 says “he didn’t wear clothes or live in a house.” Someone tried to chain him up to restrain him, but he was able to tear the chains apart, often this man would cut himself with stones and cry out.
But when he saw Jesus, he came running and Jesus delivered him. This man received such a great deliverance that by the end of the account he was dressed and in his right mind and going back to his home town to tell everyone what God had done for him.
Why am I so encouraged when I read something like this? Because there is nothing we can’t bring to Jesus and get delivered from. There is nothing we have done that we have to be ashamed of in His presence. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” He loves us so much that it is his delight to set us free from the things that plague us and sometimes drive us to isolate ourselves in our own sort of ‘tomb’. Maybe we don’t go and live in an actual graveyard, but sometimes people put themselves in an ‘emotional graveyard’. They can chain themselves up and they don’t know how to get free. We cry out and weep and wail, but it doesn’t make us better. Yet when Jesus shows up on the scene, we have an opportunity to run to him, fall at his feet and he will deliver us! He loves us so much, that He delights in showing His power to set us free.
If you or someone you know is “living out in the tombs,” wait for Jesus to arrive on the shore and then as quickly as you can, run to Him. His power can set you free!
