GLORIFYING GOD

Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. So when He saw them, He said to them, ”Go, show yourselves to the priest”. And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed – Luke 17 : 11 – 14. 

These people could not go close to Jesus. People might have told them to keep quiet but they refuse to be silent despite the fact that they were far from Him, they could not be silent because they were in need of help, they need Jesus to intervene in their situation. When Jesus heard them, He could not abandon them because He said, ”come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” – Matthew 11 : 28. Jesus could not pretend that He did not hear them, He could not pass them without intervening in their situation. He will always fulfill His promise and Who does not fulfill his promise is we humans.

Only speaking, the leprosy have to obey and leave their body because there is a higher instruction that the sickness could not stand, so it has to be evacuated from them. What is it that has been trying to stop you, trying to hinder your forward movement, trying to delay you as a child of God? Just invite Him today into that very situation that seems too difficult for you because your strength cannot carry it, call upon His name as the lepers did because He is waiting and expecting your call.

 

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 thanks. And He was a Samaritan. 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 : 15 – 18.

Most of the time, we spend alot of time in asking God for a blessing and at times when it is delayed, we start asking God, why me Lord? We always forget that there is something God want to change in us first before the blessing manifest. He want to see how grateful we will be after the manifestation of the blessing, He want to see how we will value the blessing, He want to see if we really depend on Him as the sole provider, He want to see if we will be thankful to Him as one of the lepers, He might be changing something in the life of another which He want to use for you.

There are blessings that might take days, weeks, months or years to manifest and until its manifestation, the bible instruct us not to stop praying for such. After the manifestation, how long do we spend in thanking Him? Is it proportional to the time we spent in asking Him? Whenever anybody render any help to us, we will keep on thanking the person anytime we see him or her but when it comes to the issue of God we become very busy and relax as if He do not want our thanks. How many times a day do we thank Him for giving us the breath of life which we do not even deserve due to our way of doing and reasoning. Out of the ten lepers, only one went back and show appreciation, Not even up to half the number. Brethren, I do not know what you think in your mind, but I want to tell you that God wants our thanks even more than any other thing because in thanking Him, you are telling Him that you trust Him which will make Him to bring more blessings to you.

And He said to him, arise, go your way, your faith has made you well – Luke 17 : 19.

Because he came back to thank Him, he received the second part of the healing which was even more greater and important than the first part. At times God will bring a blessing to us and we will refuse to tell Him thank You and after sometime, the blessing will disappear it is then we will remember to ask Him questions, it is then we start running from pilar to post, it is then we will remember His existence as a loving Father.

When you thank Him for any blessing, you are protecting and preserving that blessing so that satan cannot take it away from you. I believe it is very important to thank Him for every blessing no matter how small we might think it is because without Him, we are nothing.

Father, I thank You for all the blessings You give to me everyday even when I don’t merit it. Lord, give me the grace to be thankful to You for every blessing that You bring to me in the name of Jesus Christ.