Daily Devotional for Saturday February 19, 2005

Coming Back to Give God Thanks

(Luke 17:11-19)

How often do we pray, asking God to help us with a need in our life, and in His grace and mercy our prayer is answered. The real question for today is, after we get our answer, how often do we take the time to go to the Lord and give Him the praise and thanks He deserves? Mankind really has changed very little over the years. In today?s scripture, we read about the 10 lepers who were healed, yet only one came back to give Jesus thanks.

It is easy to read that passage and condemn the other 9, yet each one of us has been guilty of receiving God?s blessings and not being as thankful as we should be. We can get to a place in our walk with the Lord where we are used to His blessings. We can get to a place where we expect His blessings. As His children, we enjoy the rich blessings of God in our life and live a life of faith expecting Him to bless us. The problem comes when we take His blessings for granted and aren?t as thankful as we should be. We must never forget, we are blessed by His grace . . . not because we deserve to be blessed.

Today?s message is not difficult or hard to understand. If nothing else, let it be a reminder to you to never take God?s blessings in your life for granted. More importantly, never forget to show your gratitude for all He does for you each day. Growing up, young children are taught to say please and thank you. It is not only good manners to say thank you, but should be something we want to do. We pray, believe, trust, and see God answer our prayers . . . the natural reaction should be one of gratitude. Our praise and thanksgiving should flow from a grateful heart for what He has done for us.

The reminder today is to never forget when God is blessing you that it is because He loves you and cares for you. The natural response to that love should be to love Him, obey Him, and give Him the thanks He is due. Check yourself and make sure you are not like the 9 who took their blessing and went on with their life, but like the one who came back to thank the Lord for what He did.

I love you and care about you so much. I pray that you continue to grow closer in your relationship to Christ. Like any relationship, it doesn?t happen overnight but grows day by day. I can promise you that the most exciting days are still ahead. He has a perfect plan for each one of His children, and it is our job to stay close to Him so that He can work through our lives to reach others. I will be praying today that you will stay in that close, intimate, daily relationship with Christ that is the key to our day to day journey.

Please, take a moment today to simply say a prayer of thanksgiving and thank God for ALL that He does for you each and every day. It is out of His love for us that He blesses our lives, and it is out of our love for Him that we say THANK YOU!