Unlikely Subject
When you speak to him face-to-face however, it’s a totally different story.
Reference: v.39 “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. (NIV Bible)
Explore: I have a friend who is a brilliant public speaker. When he stands before an audience he is confident, articulate and creative. He tells the best analogies to get his point across and he has people hanging off his every word. When you speak to him face-to-face however, it’s a totally different story. Conversation with him is often disjointed, he rarely asks questions of others and the time spent with him is filled with many awkward silences. You would never think that this shy guy would be so amazing in front of an audience.
Application: I often find that God uses the most unlikely subjects to proclaim His name. In this eighth chapter of Luke we hear of many ‘unlikely’ people to have a strong faith in God. The one that stood out to me was the demon-possessed man. He was crazy, violent and exiled and yet the townspeople find him sitting down with Jesus having a conversation. When he was keen to travel with Jesus he was instructed to stay in the town and speak of God’s mercy. Who would have thought that God would take such an outcast and turn them into an evangelist?! And yet He does. Over and over we see God taking the most unlikely subjects and doing something amazing in their lives. If you feel like you’re not important or not worth noticing, be careful, God uses His most unlikely subjects to do amazing things.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for noticing every one of us. Even though we may feel like an ‘unlikely subject’ may we live in such a way that we proclaim how much You have done for us. Amen.
How has Jesus made a difference in your life?
This article was written by Linda Bailey
Linda started theological studies in 1999 in Australia. After working for ten years in various church ministries, she now works as the breakfast producer at 89.9 LightFM - the Christian radio station in Melbourne, Australia. She writes blogs every day about passages she is currently reading in the Bible. Follow her on Google Plus +Linda Bailey or Facebook by clicking the like button on the right of this page.
1 comment:
Nice, Linda.
Another passage in Luke is Luke 7:28 (NLT)
“I tell you, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of God is greater than he is!”
It’s pretty obvious that in the Kingdom of God people are valued not for what they accomplish, but rather for who they are inside.