My first big "gem"

I've been writing and re-writing this post for a long time now... It actually happened back in September when I was still struggling with the "Gems for Jesus" devotions. I referred to it in a previous post... it was what happened that third morning... the "gem" that jumped out at me and has stuck with me ever since. I want to share it now, because so much of what has been happening in my life since then is directly related to that "gem."

I was reading in Matthew 8 where Jesus finds the Gadarene demoniacs. He casts the demons out, they go into a herd of pigs, and the pigs run into the ocean and kill themselves. This doesn't go over real well with the folks in town... and it says that the whole town came out and implored Jesus to leave their region. So He left.

A couple of things jumped out at me from this passage that morning:

First, when Jesus does something, it can be messy and inconvenient and even seem to be destructive.

Second, if we ask Jesus to leave us alone, He will.

And this is how I applied it to my life: When God wants to do something in my life that will bring healing -- but could also be very messy / disruptive -- would I trust Him or ask Him to leave me alone? I knew that there were some areas where I had definitely asked Him to just leave it alone... but I felt like He was challenging me to trust Him, and instead of imploring Him to leave that area alone, invite Him right into the middle of it...

That was my first real "gem" moment. I knew that God was up to something, but I had only the vaguest idea of what it was or how far it would go...

There's so much more I'd like to share, and hopefully over the next few days I'll be able to get my thoughts together and share some of that here as well.