The Grateful Leper | Luke 17
Luke 17
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Chapter Notables:
Be careful not to be the source of someone’s fall - verses 1-4
“Increase our faith” - verses 5-6
Unworthy servants - verse 7-10
Ten Lepers and the heart of gratitude - verse 11-19
The End Times signs and the coming Kingdom - verses 20-37
Gratitude | Lemuel Ayudtud
Gratitude opens us to the authority of heaven. The grateful heart God knows and recognizes even before we ask or even think. When we are grateful we open up the doors of heaven and the power of God for our lives. You don’t have to be a believer to be grateful but you can’t be a believer and not be one.
Jesus healed 10 lepers. If you study how lepers were treated back in those days, you’d understand how the miracle of receiving lepers may be even greater than healing the lepers. Luke records that all 10 lepers were healed by Jesus but only one returned to give Him thanks. As we read, we realize that Jesus took note of the gratitude of this leper.
God takes notice of our gratitude. There’s not a moment when God does not recognize a grateful heart. Let’s talk about some of the ways we can be grateful:
Recognizing who we are.
When we do a self evaluation, without narcissism, with just understanding of our most base self, we’ll realize that we are in no place to receive anything from God.
Recognize who God is.
Once we understand our base self, excepting the fact that we are, even in our greatest, unworthy to receive anything from God because of who He is, we stand in awe of how good He is.
Recognize what God has done for us.
The disparity between the goodness of God and our worth is greater than any chasm in the universe. So when God reaches out to touch us, save us, or to even bless us, it is not by the measure of our goodness but His.
Take time to see what God has done.
If we would spend simple moments of our day just recognizing the goodness of God, we’d live in gratitude of Him and our lives we reflect it.
The leper understood what Jesus did. He understood that the miracle of healing was great, but being so undeserving, the leper understood that what Jesus did was beyond touching his body. The leper understood the weight of isolation his disease had caused him. The leper understood the depth of the impossibility for his healing. The other 9 we’re just so happy to be healed but the 10th leper understood something. The grateful leper understood that Jesus didn’t need to do it, but He did it anyway.
Don’t miss out on the chance to be grateful. Jesus will recognize your gratitude even if everyone else does not. And always be grateful, even if others are not. Gratitude shows a lot about who we are and how we view our place and space in the world.
Lord, always help us to be grateful to You. May we also be grateful for those whom You use. Every day may we count the number of blessings we have. Help us to fully understand and realize that we are undeserving of any blessing You’ve given us. Help us to turn every day to You with gratitude and thankfulness of heart. In Your Name, Jesus, I pray, amen.
