Luke 17:11-19
Suggested further reading: Psalm 92
What a rare thing thankfulness is! Of all the ten lepers whom
Christ healed there was only one who turned back and gave him
thanks. The words that fell from our Lord's lips upon this occasion are
very solemn (v. 17).
The lesson before us is humbling, heart-searching and
deeply instructive. The best of us are far too like the nine lepers. We
are more ready to pray than to praise, and more disposed to ask God
for what we have not than to thank him for what we have.
Murmurings, complainings and discontent abound on every side of us. Few
indeed are to be found who are not continually hiding their
mercies under a bushel and setting their needs and trials on a hill.
These things ought not to be so. But all who know the church and
the world must confess that they are true. The widespread
thanklessness of Christians is a disgrace of our day. It is a plain proof of
our little humility.
Let us pray for a daily thankful spirit. It is the spirit which
God loves and delights to honour. David and Paul were eminently
thankful men. It is the spirit that has marked all the brightest saints
in every age of the church. It is the spirit which is the very
atmosphere of heaven. Angels and `just men made perfect' are always
blessing God. It is the spirit that is the source of happiness on earth. If
we would be anxious for nothing we must make our requests known
to God, not only with prayer and supplications, but with
thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6).
Above all, let us pray for a deeper sense of our own
sinfulness, guilt and undeserving. This, after all, is the true secret of a
thankful spirit. It is the man who daily feels his debt to grace, and
daily remembers that in reality he deserves nothing but hell, who will
be daily blessing and praising God. Thankfulness is a flower
which will never bloom excepting upon a root of deep humility.
For meditation: Perhaps of all the prayers that are prayed,
none is prayed with less feeling than the giving of thanks before food.
Is it not because in fact we so often feel not one iota of
thankfulness for God's provision?
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