Go Home First

Jesus sent the healed man home, straight back to the people who’d known him at his worst. That’s exactly where his testimony was needed most.

“Go home to your family, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been to you.”
— Mark 5:19 GW

This man had lived among the tombs, so consumed by what controlled him that no chain could hold him. The people in his town had given up on him completely. When Jesus freed him, the first thing he wanted was to leave that place and follow Jesus somewhere new, somewhere no one knew what he used to be.

Jesus had something else in mind. He sent him home—to the same people who had watched him fall apart, to face the very community that had written him off.
Lord, it would be easier to tell strangers about You than to tell the people who already know my whole story.

That’s the part of sharing faith most of us skip past. We picture witnessing as something that happens with people who don’t know our history—coworkers, neighbors, people we just met. Jesus often points us first toward the people who’ve already seen us at our worst.

Never underestimate what God will do with your story when you’re willing to share it!

The man went home with one thing to say: how much the Lord had done for him, and how he’d been shown mercy. That was enough. Scripture says he began to tell people throughout the whole region, and everyone who heard him was amazed.

The Holy Spirit takes a simple, honest account of what God has done and uses it to do real work, even before you have answers for every objection. Jesus trusted this man’s story to reach a town that had already decided who he was—and it did.

God’s gift of mercy that changed your life is worth mentioning to the people who already know you best. They need to see what His mercy actually does.

Today’s One Thing
Think of one person who already knows your past, and tell them one specific thing God has done for you. Just one true thing is enough.

Go Deeper

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