Priorities and Perspective

Luke 8:40 “And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him.”

The story just before our text this morning is the story of Jesus meeting a man possessed with devils. The man “had devils [a] long time, and wore no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs” (Luke 8:27). If you want the ultimate picture of life without Christ, this man is it! He was without clothes and without sense, all a result of his following the wrong master.

You know the story-the Lord Jesus casts the devils out into a herd of swine. What was the response of the people? They “besought him to depart from them. . . .” Jesus sent the devils away from this man-their neighbor-and the people sent Jesus away! Contrast that with the response of the people in verse 40: “The people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him.” The response of the first crowd was to send the Lord away, but the second crowd gladly received Him.

What was the difference? Well, these two responses remind us that your priorities determine your perspective on life. The first crowd thought the hogs were more important than their neighbor who was healed. What the Lord did in healing the man caused problems that they were not ready for. Perhaps they were thinking of the great financial loss of their hogs. Their priorities determined their perspective, and their perspective ended with them sending the Lord away.

I wonder what you are waiting for today. If your priorities for the day are waiting for your “ship to come in” or everything to work out just right, you will have the wrong perspective. But with the right priorities, even the inconvenient, unplanned events of today will be taken in with the right perspective. “The people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him.”