The Bible tells us that Jesus came upon a group of lepers when traveling through the area of Samaria and Galilee on His way to Jerusalem. The lepers cried out for help when they saw Jesus, and their cries for help did not go unheard. Jesus, having compassion on them, healed the lepers of their disease. He told them to go before the Levite priests to show themselves as clean.
Leprosy was a dreaded and deadly disease in the Middle East during the time of Jesus Christ. According to Jewish Levitical law, lepers were to live in isolation outside the city, and they were not to come in contact with any "clean" person. They can have contact only with each other, because theirs was a life of uncleanness. In order to return and live a normal life in society, their only hope is for the Levite priest(s) to declare them as "clean". After Jesus cleansed them, the lepers journeyed to the priests, in faith. And so it was, as they were traveling, that the disease left them. The Levite priests confirmed they were well. Of the ten lepers that Jesus healed, only one took the time and energy to return to find and thank Jesus for what He had done.
Same is true with us. We cry out to Jesus for anything and everything. Jesus heals us of our emotional, spiritual, and physical diseases. Yet how often do we return to thank Him? Like this one leper, we must return to give thanks. It is so easy to cry out to God when we are in pain, or when disaster strikes us and we don't know what to do. We turn to God and ask Him to help us and heal us. And God always hear us and answer us, sometimes instantly or sometimes progressive. When we are already surrounded with prosperity and good health, we tend to be so busy, simply enjoying life and so caught up with what we are doing that we forget to return to God to acknowledge His gifts. The one leper who returned was a Samaritan -- the least likely to come back to Jesus because there were cultural barriers between the Jews and Samaritans. But the leper did return. Nothing held him back. Let us not also be held back by anything. Let us always make the effort to have a grateful heart before our Lord about anything and everything and make it on our every waking moment.
"... giving thanks always and for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," (Ephesians 5:20)
                               HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!!!!
Leprosy was a dreaded and deadly disease in the Middle East during the time of Jesus Christ. According to Jewish Levitical law, lepers were to live in isolation outside the city, and they were not to come in contact with any "clean" person. They can have contact only with each other, because theirs was a life of uncleanness. In order to return and live a normal life in society, their only hope is for the Levite priest(s) to declare them as "clean". After Jesus cleansed them, the lepers journeyed to the priests, in faith. And so it was, as they were traveling, that the disease left them. The Levite priests confirmed they were well. Of the ten lepers that Jesus healed, only one took the time and energy to return to find and thank Jesus for what He had done.
Same is true with us. We cry out to Jesus for anything and everything. Jesus heals us of our emotional, spiritual, and physical diseases. Yet how often do we return to thank Him? Like this one leper, we must return to give thanks. It is so easy to cry out to God when we are in pain, or when disaster strikes us and we don't know what to do. We turn to God and ask Him to help us and heal us. And God always hear us and answer us, sometimes instantly or sometimes progressive. When we are already surrounded with prosperity and good health, we tend to be so busy, simply enjoying life and so caught up with what we are doing that we forget to return to God to acknowledge His gifts. The one leper who returned was a Samaritan -- the least likely to come back to Jesus because there were cultural barriers between the Jews and Samaritans. But the leper did return. Nothing held him back. Let us not also be held back by anything. Let us always make the effort to have a grateful heart before our Lord about anything and everything and make it on our every waking moment.
"... giving thanks always and for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," (Ephesians 5:20)
                               HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!!!!