LEARNING DAILY

Luke 17:15-16, And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.

Another passage of Scripture that has often been preached is the healing of the ten lepers. Jesus told the lepers to go show themselves to the priests in order to get a certificate of release indicating they were free of their disease. Their obedience became an out expression of their faith and was done before there was outward appearance of their healing. As they went, they must have seen they were healed because one came back to give his praise, his worship and his gratitude to Jesus for his healing.

Gratitude! There is an expression that does not seem to be often expressed anymore. Only one of the lepers turned back to Jesus when he saw that he was healed of this dreaded disease. Only one! Only one returned to give thanks to Jesus. He fell at the feet of Jesus and glorified Him. Gratitude did not seem to enter the thoughts of the other nine; one would have thought they would have been as full of gratitude as the one who returned. “It was nine to one that nobody would praise Him. One day in seven is for the Lord’s worship, but only one man in ten is devoted to His praise” (Spurgeon).

Go back and read the rest of the verses pertaining to this event. You will see that there were ten lepers who cried out to Jesus to have mercy on them. Ten people prayed for His mercy but only one gave Him praise for answering their prayer for mercy. I wonder how many Believers pray for healing when they are sick or really need His healing or direction, but forget to give Him the praise for when they get well? How often do people, even Believers, try to explain their answer to prayer instead of giving the praise to the One who answered their prayer? Shouldn’t there be as much praise and worship as there is prayer in the lives of Believers? To go one step further, should we not be giving the Lord Jesus Christ praise even before the answer comes, before the healing comes?

The lepers must have believed in the words of healing Jesus gave as He instructed them to go to the priests. They did not hesitate to go; they had faith in Jesus and His instructions; notice He never even told them “to be healed”. I’m scolding myself and each Believer reading this for not being more grateful for all the spiritual blessings we have, for all the prayers heard and answered by the Lord Jesus Christ! I honestly wonder what greater blessing God would pour out on His faithful followers if our praise would match the benefits we have in Him! If the only thing you have ever received from the Lord is your salvation, you could certainly fall on your face at the feet of Jesus glorifying Him.

One aspect of gratitude as shown by this healing of lepers is that you need no one else, you don’t need a crowd to come to Jesus in thanksgiving for what He has done for you. Don’t get me wrong, I want each of our family members to come and worship Him together. But I am just as happy to do so alone. There is no doubt in my mind that Scriptures show us the desire God has to be honored through our gratitude, our praise, our worship, and our obedience. The one who returned to Jesus did so as soon as he saw he was healed. He did not go to the priests and then return. He did so right away. Praise for what He has done should be the first thing we do. It should not be flippantly but with humility and worship!

Do you believe Jesus was pleased with the one? The obvious answer is yes. He not only healed him physically, but He told the man, “Your faith has made you well”. Jesus cleansed the man, indicating his faith had “saved” him spiritually. I leave it to you to decide if this was Jesus’ way of forgiving his sins.

I want to encourage you to take time to praise Jesus right now for what He has done for you personally. Let your praise be continual and your highest priority as you walk the narrow way into His kingdom!