And JESUS answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?
There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
LUKE 17:17-18
Religion makes for frustration, only revelation makes for distinction. The problem of many is the fact of operating in the realm of religion. Our subject of concern today is thanksgiving and it is very crucial we pay close attention by giving due diligence to it, especially at this time when we are about to cross over to the second half of the year 2023. I have come to observe that when many people think about thanksgiving, they think of it as a Church programme or event. Thanksgiving is not an event, it is a covenant exercise that keeps God committed to blessing you, answering your prayers and doing more of whatever He has done. It is what you do naturally when God has done you good.
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Whenever God does a thing, He is waiting for your return. In Luke chapter 17, the Bible gives an account of the ten lepers who came to JESUS seeking to be healed and He simply instructed them to go and show themselves to the Priest. While they were on their way, they noticed that they were cleansed. Out of the ten of them, only one returned to JESUS for thanksgiving. JESUS said in verse 17, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?” JESUS was waiting for their return but only one of them showed up. The truth is, nine of them were ingrates, they were not thankful for what God did for them. He didn’t tell them, “As you go on the way, when you are cleansed come back and thank Me.” He didn’t need to command thanksgiving. If you issued a cheque to someone as a gift, you don’t tell the person to come back and thank you; it is expected that the person should naturally come back or reach you to say thank you. An ingrate will have a hard life; nobody wants to continually do things for an ingrate.
If you are grateful, you will be thankful by default; being thankful is a default lifestyle of grateful hearts. If you are not thankful, you will be stranded in life. You don’t need cajoling to thank God, what you need is a revelation. The leper who got cleansed and returned to JESUS caught a revelation about thanksgiving that others did not have. How thankful you are for what God has done will determine whether He will do anything else in time to come. If you are not thankful for what God has done in the 1st half of the year, you won`t see what He has for you the 2nd half of the year. Many people depend on prayer and fasting alone; if fasting and prayer was the only thing, all those who engage in it should be high flyers but that is not the case. I recommend that you dedicate the rest of the days in this month to thank God for His faithfulness to you from the beginning of the year. There is so much that God will do in your life in the next few months of 2023 but you must first thank Him for what He has done in the past; it flows from a heart of gratitude.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN
OLD TESTAMENT: JOB 13 – 15
