Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” – Luke 17:17-19
I’ve looked into my own heart and I know that when it comes to spiritual things, I’m a leper. Without Jesus’ touch, I would have died in my sin and spent eternity separated from him.
Perhaps this story in Luke 17 points to a deeper leprosy that lives below the surface, in our spirit – the leprosy of ingratitude.
To be unthankful, to be unappreciative, is in fact to be diseased.
The only question that remains is what kind of leper will I be? Ungrateful? Too busy to say thank you?
When practiced, thanksgiving has the power to transform us into different people.
Here is a basic principle that applies to all of Jesus’ habits: To get different results, we need to make different choices.
We must choose to be thankful. When we do, we will not only be different from the people around us, but we will also be different from the way we used to be.
We will be transformed.