The Thankful Samaritan

12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Luke 17:14, 14-15,17

One of the first things we teach our children when they learn to speak is to say please and thank you. We call it common courtesy or being polite. It gets so ingrained in our lives that we may find ourselves thanking people for things we really don’t want. Have you ever thanked a police officer for a ticket? I have.

We live in a society that as a whole is very rude, just look at the trolling and bullying that takes place on the internet. People who have an anonymous voice will say all sorts of rude nasty things. Many people feel as if society owes them a debt and they have no reason to be thankful or even pleasant. As you can see from these verses it isn’t just a modern problem.

Jesus was traveling through Samaria to Jerusalem when he encountered these ten lepers. They called to Him for mercy and He healed them. He then told them to go show themselves to the priest, but only one thought enough to return and give glory to God.

How many prayer meetings have you been to where there were very few or even no praises? How many times have we prayed about things and when the prayer was answered in one way or another just took it in stride and went on with our lives, forgetting to thank our Lord? 1 Thess 5:18 says it is the will of God for us to give thanks for everything. That includes the bad things.

So when God answers your prayer be sure to stop, go to Him, and thank Him for what He has done in your life.