Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Are We Begging Christians?

MARK 5:18 – As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.

THEME OF THE DAY. ARE WE BEGGING CHRISTIANS? Today’s scripture is on the heels of a riveting account of Jesus casting out many demons from a single man. The entirety of this miracle by the Lord runs from Mark 5:1 through Mark 5:20. Read it soon. It is thrilling.

Imagine the torment this man endured and for a long time. He never knew a perfect night’s sleep due to demonic torment. He couldn’t control his raging emotions or physical outburst. Nor could anyone or anything else as the scripture states – He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones (Mark 5:3-5). So easy to feel sorry for this depraved man, but then Jesus arrived on the scene. And when Jesus arrives so does light and liberating power. Our Lord simply cries out, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit” (Mark 5:8), and the man was instantaneously set free from his spiritual bondage. The testimony of deliverance was clear and undeniable – And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind (Mark 5:15). All we have just covered leads us to the scripture and theme of the day.

How grateful was this now set free man? Very. How do we know? Look at his response. He didn’t just say, “Hey, Jesus, thank you. Have a nice day.” Nor did he offer a quick burst of gratitude and start his new life forgetting the One who gave him new life. Not at all. He begged Jesus to be with Him, but we need to really grasp what this begging was. It was intense. It was persistent. In one reliable translation it reads, “He prayed that he might be with Him.” Does this not make perfect sense? A man in helpless bondage is released to experience true life and all he wants it to be close to the One who did this for him. I can see this. I can picture the man wanting to cling to Jesus like glue out of gratitude and love.

Well, the story is not just about the man set free. It is about us; each of us who experienced the liberating power of Jesus and the setting free from our sins and condemnation. And here is where we must identify more with the man – are we beggars like he was? Not beggars for more of God’s work in our lives but beggars, out of gratitude and love, to be with Him who has already done the greatest work in our lives – salvation. Friends, thankful hearts always produce beggar hearts; a begging for more of the Lord Jesus, more wanting to be with Him, more basking in His glory through His Word and prayer. Oh, may the Lord who has delivered us from our greatest bondage – sin, Satan, and self – make us thankful beggars for more of Himself.

PRAYER: “Father, create in me a hunger for You with a hunger that intensifies daily.”

QUOTE: “A hunger for God is produced when we remember what He has done and is doing for us.”