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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion February 11, 2006 Gratitude |
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Frontline Devotion for Saturday, February 11, 2006 by Don Kress
Gratitude
Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem when He encounters ten lepers. Standing at a distance, as lepers were required to do, they shout to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” And He does, telling them to “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And they do, and on the way they are healed of their leprosy. One of them, the only non-Jew among them, when he realized that he had been healed, turned back to where Jesus was and threw himself at Christ’s feet, praising God and giving thanks to Jesus for his healing. Jesus then did a second thing for this Samaritan – He pronounced him whole, meaning that He forgave his sins. Ten lepers were healed that day, but only one – the one who gave thanks to Jesus – was saved.
Some will claim that only one of these lepers was grateful for their cure. I’m not sure that I’m ready to jump to that conclusion. Perhaps the Jewish lepers were more intent than the Samaritan on following Jesus’ directions, knowing that the regulation governing the segregation of lepers and their readmission to society required them to report to the temple and show themselves to the priests. They may have been ungrateful, or they may have been grateful; I’m not ready to judge them. But if they were grateful, they weren’t grateful enough to take the time to say thanks to Jesus. They were too caught up in the busyness of obeying their religious regulations.
I’m a lot like that; perhaps you are, too. In the busyness of daily living, I often fail to say thank you to those who have done something kind for me. In my first draft of that last sentence I wrote “I often forget to say thank you.” As I reread those words I was indicted by my conscience – I don’t forget to say thanks; I just don’t make saying thanks a priority. I don’t forget to say thanks, I fail to say thanks.
As Christians, we are called to have a grateful attitude. Thankfulness should be in our heart. When you stop to think about it, about the only thing we can really give to God is our thanksgiving. That’s one of the primary reasons we should go to church on Sunday – to worship God and thank Him for all He has done for us. Our greatest act of worship is to throw ourselves at His feet and say thanks. Our Christian faith leans most heavily on the sheer grace of God as revealed to us in Christ Jesus. When we take the time to give thanks to God for His demonstration of His great love for us through His gift of grace in Jesus Christ, our ingratitude quickly turns into a grateful attitude.
Prayer: Father, we thank you that you planted your holy name within our hearts. Knowledge and faith and life immortal Jesus your son to us imparts. Lord, you have made all for your pleasure, and giv’n us food for all our days, giving in Christ the bread eternal; yours is the pow’r, yours be the praise. Amen. (“With One Voice” #704)
(Today’s devotion is dedicated to my father, Harry R. Kress, who was born on this day in 1909, and went home to the Lord on December 19, 1984. My dad taught me much about having a grateful attitude, especially that instead of wishing I had more for which to be thankful, I should just be more thankful.)
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