Don’t Forget to Thank Jesus
“One of them, when he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him…”
Luke 17:15-16
Isn’t it amazing how we are quick to blame God when everything in our lives is falling apart, yet, when things are going well, we refuse to give Him any credit? That’s exactly what happened one day as Jesus was traveling from town to town, on His way to Jerusalem.
There was a group of ten outcasts standing far from Him, shouting, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” (See Luke 17:13). They were yelling for help from a distance, because they had a skin disease called leprosy. People with this condition weren’t allowed to be around others, they were castaways from society.
I’ve done some research on leprosy and this is a terrible disease! With a quick Google search, you can see that the images alone are horrendous! It’s a disease which makes the skin all over your body bubble up like huge sunburn blisters, and it also impacts your respiratory system, nerves, and eyesight.
Wiki’s information states: “Leprosy results in a lack of ability to feel pain and thus loss of parts of extremities due to repeated injuries or infection due to unnoticed wounds.” That’s bad! Losing body parts from infection because you can’t feel yourself getting hurt?! Ouch!
To top it off, back in Jesus’ day, anyone who had leprosy was not just physically hurting but also emotionally. Having this disease meant banishment from civilization! Adding insult to injury, these outcasts were deemed “unclean” by the legalistic Jews, as if God were punishing them through leprosy–which was not true.
Because of their disease, these ten men knew they weren’t supposed to get next to Jesus. So in order to get their miracle, they stood at the tree-line and yelled for Him to heal them…and…He did! Boom! Ten miracles at once, from far away! That’s what Jesus does!
Afterwards, He immediately told them to go show themselves to the priests. Why? Because before they were healed, these people weren’t allowed to be around priests due to the affliction on their bodies. Personally, I think Jesus wanted to show the self-righteous folk what He had just done for the “nasty people” these “Samaritans”–the ones whom the priests kept rejecting while using legalism as an excuse for their refusal to love everyone unconditionally.
One last thing I want to point out: only one of the healed men came back to thank Jesus! JUST ONE! Imagine that! Jesus had just completely changed these men’s lives, and they steal the blessing and run away! Not even so much as a thumbs-up and smile! Just…gone! THEY STOLE IT, I TELL YOU!
I feel bad about this when I think about my past, just how much Jesus had done for me and I too ignored Him…I just kept on doing whatever the sin of my flesh and unrenewed mind wanted! Blessing after blessing after blessing, and I couldn’t even do so much as get rid of my pride and say, “Thank you, Jesus. Thank you so much.”
Oh how glad I am that I finally began to give Jesus all the credit He truly deserves! What a wonderful Savior! Thank you, Lord, for everything! You are good! SO GOOD!
A prayer for you: Jesus, I want to thank you today, not just for all that you’ve done, but for all that you are. I appreciate you! Right now, I lift up everyone who is reading this, directly to you. For those who may have forgotten to thank you for what you’ve done for them, remind them that you are the giver of all good things. Remind them what you’ve done. Sometimes we get so excited about a blessing, we forget to stop and give you our gratitude. We love you! We thank you! Amen.
This devotional is from 60 Days for Jesus, Volume 1. Get your copy here!