Tuesday the 5th

Luke 17: ¹⁷ Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸ Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?

 

Jesus had just healed ten men with leprosy. All ten men were infected, all ten men had the exact same ailment. Yet once healed only one showed up to give thanks…..furthermore, Jesus even points out that the guy that did show up was a foreigner! Someone who not only did not follow Christ, but being from Samaria, most likely had not even worshiped the one true God.  Yet this is the man that came back to give thanks. Where were the other nine? Were they not blessed as well? Were they not healed by the same undeserved love? This is a very convicting passage, because in today’s world we too take the blessing, yet forget the thanks. The very people who follow Christ are just like the nine guys in this passage. All too often we are more than happy to receive the blessing, then it is off to show it off to the world. We are so excited, so  happy, so thrilled……yet we forget the easiest part of the whole exchange, give thanks. This also transfers into our everyday lives with each other. If we are to treat each other as Christ would treat us…..better yet, if we stop to realize that Christ is alive in each of us, do we not find ourselves guilty again by not thanking each other? It is a simple acknowledgement, that is so often overlooked. I was talking to a friend just last night, and he was telling me about how he had bought lunch for a large group of kids that had gone to a UT tennis match. He did not take this group, they just happened to all end up at the same restaurant, and they were all on the High School varsity tennis team. So, being the guy that he is, he bought them all lunch. HE did not think about it, he just did it. However, as they parted ways and headed back to the courts, only one kid thanked him. Sure it is easy to say well they are kids, but at 15 – 17 years old, I think the term kid begins to wear thin. Now my friend was not upset, but he just could not believe that he would drop close to $200 bucks, and receive very little thanks for it. We all know how that feels don’t we? We go out of our way, or we stop and help, maybe we give up our time for ourselves, so that we can pitch in somewhere else, and in the end we get no thanks……now I do not bring this up, because I think that if we are not thanked for what we do, then we should stop doing it….no that would be quite the opposite actually! I bring it up because I want us to thank about how frustrating that can be sometimes. We get a little upset, we might even get a little angry, we almost always feel a little resentment……So…..how do you think God feels? We HAVE to remember to give thanks, give up the praises for the Lord! You want your life to improve, and it does….give thanks….you want that relationship to improve, and it does….give thanks! There is nothing that the Lord will not do for you, He gave His only Son……give Him the thanks that He deserves, for the blessing that we most likely do not. It reminds me of the guy who is looking for a parking space in a very crowded lot. He is driving around aimlessly, having no luck at all, so he begins to pray, Lord, if you will just help me out here, I am running late, I need to find a spot, I will start going to church again, I will start reading your word again…….oh wait a second…..never mind , I found one…….  I can promise you that we are not half as good as we think we are, and the Lord is far better than we can even begin to imagine. Give up the thanks today. Let the praises flow from your lips. Let it spill over into your life…..while people might be able to say you are a lot of things….never let them say that you are not thankful.

 

 

God Bless,

Brian Thetford

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www.thenewcovenantchurch.com

 

www.theworkweekwithchrist.blogspot.com