May 2003

God is good

I often refer to the story of the 10 men who were healed of their leprosy by Jesus (Luke 17:11-19). The reason is that it contains prayer, answered prayer and gratitude (and ingratitude, but that is not the point I want to emphasise!):

1. Prayer
They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’ (Luke 17:12-13).

This is a cry from their hearts and we often read in the Bible of times when the people of God cried out to him to come to their aid. God seems to welcome urgency in our prayers.

2. Answered prayer
And as they went, they were cleansed. (Luke 17:14) What a result! Answers to our prayers are certainly not the whole point of praying, but they do form a very important part of it, so long as they are seen in the context of an ongoing and developing relationship.

3. Gratitude
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan (Luke 17:15-16).

This is a picture of enthusiastic, even exuberant, gratitude and that perhaps for us is the most important part of the story. It certainly disturbed Jesus that the other nine failed to show gratitude, but there is also a quality of gratitude point in the story.

At the beginning of another term, I am so excited and grateful as we look back on such a record of God’s faithfulness, kindness and goodness to us as his people. We will certainly be seeking to remember gratitude in the corporate context.

Whatever else we are, let us hope that God sees us as a grateful people because as John puts it in his gospel, 'From the fullness of his grace, we have all received one blessing after another' (John 1:16) and our gratitude will surely help release yet more blessing in terms of answers to our prayers.

Jeremy Jennings

This article is an edited version of one first published in Focus, May 2003. Reproduced here with permission.