Grateful

Lord, Have Mercy

In Luke 17 there is a story recorded of ten men with leprosy who came to Jesus asking him to have mercy on them and heal them. I can imagine that these men had suffered terribly and that, when they heard about Jesus, were desperate to see if the Son of Man could help them. 

Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priest and, on their way, they are healed from their afflictions. Imagine the relief! Years of suffering healed in a moment. Their joy must have been overwhelming. 

The sad part of the story, however, is that only one of the men who had suffered with leprosy came back to give thanks to Jesus and glory to God. 

Jesus even says:

The one man who had returned and fell facedown at Jesus’ feet was a Samaritan and considered a foreigner amongst them, yet he was the only one who came back to give thanks to God for his healing. 

This got me thinking about gratitude and the invaluable weight that it carries in our lives. 

Perhaps there was a time where you were praying fervently for something that you so desperately desired and when you finally received your answer to prayer, you began to treat the very thing you had hungered for with indifference. 

Maybe it was a home, a spouse, a child or a loved one to be saved. 

We can be so fickle as humans and often behave like the nine lepers who didn’t return to give thanks to Jesus and glory to God. 

It is my prayer that we would be – or at least become – a people who would give thanks to God for the miraculous answers to prayer that we have received.  

Forget Not

Psalm 103:1-4 (NLT) says this: 

Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies. 

Remember

I love that this scripture encourages us to never forget the good things that God does for us.  

I would encourage us to perhaps keep a gratitude journal of sorts, a list of memories and experiences that we have had with God where we have prayed and prayed and God has answered.  

In Joshua 4 the Israelites were commanded to set stones in the Jordan river where the flow had been cut off so that the ark of the covenant could cross. It would serve as a reminder to generations who would ask why the stones were there, that God had moved on their behalf and cut the river off so that they could cross. 

What metaphorical ‘stones’ can we set up in our lives to commemorate what God has done for us? When generations look back and ask how God came through for us, will we have memorials to these great occasions? 

May we never become so calloused to the goodness of God that we forget to return and give thanks for the miraculous provision and kindness that we see in our lives.  

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