PRAISE FROM A FOREIGNER

So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? – Luke 17:14-18

REFERENCE
Luke 17:11-19

The staggering ratio of the thankful to the unthankful in this story calls for deep reflection and largely inspired today’s devotional. It beat Jesus that thanksgiving was found only in the mouth of a foreigner; hence, His question: “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?” This question proves that there are usually more people on prayer lines than there are on thanksgiving lines. God knows what He does daily, but He hears very little about it. We give Him less credit than He deserves.

It is sad that God still asks this same question today. He took note of the fact that the nine thought little of what was done. They must have fallen victims of forgetfulness. They forgot how desperate things were before the turnaround. They must have ticked ‘healing’ off their lists and moved on to the next item.

Humans have a natural bent to quickly forget God’s blessings because we are driven by needs. When one is met, we seek another. The woman who just marries forgets to thank God because she is on the prayer line for babies; the pregnant woman forgets to thank God because she is now praying for safe delivery. The person with the nice job forgets that he is one in a thousand and is praying for promotion; the person with the car has forgotten how he used to trek and now wants an SUV…and the list goes on! Oh, how quick we are to forget…and this hurts God.

We are quick to see what is lacking, missing, unfinished, undone, etc., but we forget to see what we have, what is done, and what is left. Imagine how you would have craved for the things you have now if you didn’t have them? So, rather than get depressed and complain about the things that didn’t happen for you in the first half of the year, thank God for what you have, no matter how minute it seems. Quality thanksgiving is not a function of how much God has done for you, blessed you with or delivered you from; it is a function of how good you are at remembering.

I sense in my heart that this second half of the year will usher in for you and your house, ‘laughter, comfort and satisfaction’ by the Spirit of the Lord. You may have toiled and toiled in the first half, you may feel like the ‘opposition’ has an upper hand so far, but God will arise for you in this second half and make the glory of the latter to be greater and better than your former, in Jesus name – Amen! Switch on thanksgiving, because it is a ‘faith key’ that unlocks the door to miracles. The leper that came to thank God was the only one Jesus told, “Your faith has made you WELL!”

Don’t be like the ungrateful and forgetful nine lepers; be like the ONE that returned with thanksgiving!

PHOTO QUOTE

ADDITIONAL STUDY
Psalm 107:1-3, Isaiah 12:1-5 & Job 8:7

TO DO
+ Take time out and consciously write out the things God has done thus far in your life, and thank Him affectionately for them.

+ Declare by faith, that this last part of the year will be better for you than the beginning; that you will supernaturally accomplish using God’s strategies the things that were unsurmountable in the past months.