God’s View on Gratitude

Scripture Reading: Luke 17:1-19

Key Verse: Luke 17:18

“Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”

While Jesus was making His way to Jerusalem, he came to a border line between Galilee (a land filled with mostly Jews) and Samaria (a land filled with mostly people who were half Jewish and half Gentile). The residents of Samaria were, by and large, hated by the Jewish community. The Jews felt that their heritage was ruined by anyone having the blood of a Gentile in their veins.

On the outside of a village Jesus was about to enter, He encountered ten men with leprosy. They were standing the appropriate distance from the crowd and yelling out to Jesus for healing. Jesus looked at them full of compassion, and told them: “go show yourselves to the priest’, and as they went they were cleansed of their leprosy” (Luke 17:14). Since leprosy was such a horrible disease, anyone would expect that all ten would be so full of gratitude to Jesus for His compassion and healing.

However, only a “foreigner” returned and fell at Jesus’s feet to give his praise and gratitude. Since Jesus used the term “foreigner” to describe the one that returned to give Him praise, we can assume the other nine men were Jews. Jesus made a lesson for all of us, out of this situation.

Our prayers are full of requests to God for His help in our lives. That is not only okay, but it is exactly what Jesus told us to do. Jesus made that clear in Luke 18:1. However, we must remember to “return to Jesus” and give Him praise for all He has done in our lives, and we must do this often!

In my morning prayers, I always start with my praise to God for all His many blessings in my life. If a special prayer request was answered, I give special praise to God for that. In other words, before we start asking for more stuff, we want to make sure we show our gratitude for the many things God has done for us!

By the way, be sure to praise Him for the many mercies He shows us of which we are not aware. I believe that God does this more than we realize. How many times does God steer us away from danger, quietly directing us to live a life of victory over the evil one? How many times does God create circumstances to help us accomplish His Will for our lives, and we, too often, take the credit for that accomplishment? Let me encourage you to always start your prayers with a time of praise and thanksgiving to a God who is so good to us in so many ways… all the time!

Father, I will never understand why you are so good to me, but I praise you for your daily new mercies that come to me. In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.