Date: June 06, 2021 | Number: Vol. 10, No. 5
Beloved: welcome to the second week of the month of June 2021. May God’s grace and mercy overflow without measure over your life and through your life in the week and throughout the remaining part of the year, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now, while it is good to pray in this manner and expect God to answer, we also need to understand that if we have not been showing adequate gratitude for all that He has been doing for us, we really should not be expecting Him to do more for us. Of course, I am not saying that God will definitely not do more for us, if we do not show Him that we are grateful for what He has already done for us. He is God and not man. So, He does not always wait for us to thank or appreciate Him for what He has done for us or is doing for us before He does more for us.
Nevertheless, He always expects us to show that we appreciate what He is doing in our lives or has done for us. For example, Luke, in his gospel, tells us of how certain ten lepers came to the Lord Jesus for healing. And when they came, He did not drive them away. Instead, He had compassion on them and asked them to go and show themselves to the priests. So, they went, as He had instructed them. And as they were going, they suddenly realised that they had been cleansed – their leprosy had disappeared. (Cf. Luke 17:11-14)
What, then, was the most appropriate thing for these men to do? With my own little knowledge of things, I believe it was for them to go back to Jesus and first thank Him wholeheartedly for what He had done for them. Their condition at that time, of course, may not give them access to money or other resources that they could bring to appreciate Him. But at least, they could go back to Him and appreciate Him for their healing before they would think of what next to do with the new beginning He had given their lives.
Now did they do this? Did they all go back to find Jesus and appreciate Him for what He had done for them? No! Only one of them, a Samaritan, came back to Him to worship and thank Him for his healing. And the Lord, of course, was displeased with this and said, “”Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”” (Luke 17:17-19NIV)
That means the Lord actually expected all these ten men to come back and thank Him for their healing. At least, He was not asking them to bring Him money or anything else. And He did not collect anything from them before healing them, for healing is always a free gift of God. This, of course, is not to say that it would have been wrong of them to bring money or any material thing to appreciate Him, something He would most likely not collect from them. It would not be wrong of them to do that at all.
By the way, according to the Law of Moses, there were things anyone that got cleansed of a terrible disease like leprosy was to take to a priest, who would make atonement for him. That was why the Lord asked those men to go and show themselves to the priests. And as the Law also says, certain parts of whatever such a person brought would go to the priest ministering to God on his behalf. If it was alright, then, for a priest that did nothing for them to get well to receive offerings from them, what about the one that actually healed them? Was He not more deserving to receive thanksgiving offerings from them along with their worship? He was. (Cf. Leviticus 14:1-31)
But He was not expecting anything else from them other than their words of praise and thanksgiving. Unfortunately, only one of them came to give Him this. And it was only that one that came back to appreciate Him that received additional words of blessing from His mouth — your faith has made you well. What these additional words of blessing would mean in that man’s life only God knows. But he certainly received more than the other men because he came back to give thanks.
What, then, is this story teaching us? It is that there are certain things that we may never receive from God, if we will not learn to appreciate Him for what He is doing for us. And He is doing all kinds of things that our wisdom, money, position, fame or education cannot get for us. So, let us stop being ungrateful to God and instead start thoughtfully and wholeheartedly appreciating Him for everything He is doing for us, even with our resources. I pray that our hearts will be awakened and strengthened to always do what is right in this matter, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Do have a very pleasant week.