A hidden chord rests in your soul. You have brushed up against it before. Every time you do the sound that emitted brings joy not just to you but everyone around you.
This is a chord we must all learn to play. Better. Often. Loud. Beautiful.
This chord brings Jesus great joy.
Today, we continue with the #LentChallenge in Luke 17—a chapter that calls us to unlimited forgiveness dynamic faith, and unwaivering faithfulness.
(NOTE: Click here to download a FREE one-page reading guide of Luke and Acts. or upgrade to the downloadable ebook called The 40-Day Live Lent Challenge: A Color Method Study for Luke-Acts for only $8.99. This 200-plus page booklet includes: a welcome letter, the reading plan, instructions on how to use the Color Bible Study Method, ideas on how to get the most from your study, creative artwork, and space to journal and doodle.)
Then Jesus makes a pitstop between Samaria and Galilee. Ten lepers bellow at Jesus from a distance. These suffering ones have spent their lives keeping their distance.
From friends.
From family.
From strangers.
From anyone.
From everyone.
The cruelty of leprosy crushed the body, the mind, the spirit. Isolation. Unclean. Misunderstood. Yet this band of lepers rose up to ballyhoo for help.
Jesus. Master. Have mercy on us.
A short prayer. A simple request. A handful of syllables that would transform their lives forever.
Jesus instructs them to visit the health inspector, the priest, to certify their cures.
A chord of gratitude reverberated in one of the 10 lepers so loud and clear he had to return to Jesus. Thankfulness abounded from his lips. Appreciation dripped like honey.
Jesus tells the man the restoration is more than skin deep. Jesus’ healing extends throughout his whole being—body and soul.
Ten were healed, but only one struck a chord of gratitude.
Gratitude is an essential facet of our faith. When ever we encounter Christ and his healing power, his readiness to set us free, we must remember to be like the one.
Not the other nine.
Today, may you and I be the one. The one who resounds with gratitude. Who booms with thankfulness. Who echoes with holy acknowledgment.
May we be a people who create a chorus of gratitude for all God has and will do in our lives.
What are you learning in today’s reading of the #LentChallenge?
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Thanks for this! It’s interesting to notice that gratitude often benefits the possessor more than the recipient. Beyond physical healing, the man was spiritually healed too!
I find it much to easy to fall into an attitude of taking God’s blessings for granted. The stories of the lepers and the rich man & Lazarus touched me deeply. Abundance and suffering can both bring ingratitude and selfishness. This chapter showed me the joy of an unselfish life.
Thankful and grateful for you, your faithfulness and your friendship. Thanks for always pointing me to Jesus!
Here is the thought God brought me that I thought you would appreciate.
It has come after a very tough 6 months with our son both in his health and his behavior. I am still such a student of how to love.
I was listening to God through our Lent reading and a thought came to me as I brought my son and how I felt to God. I should look at him not with the eyes of criticism or being “not enough, or too much” because of how his present life situation is affecting him and us but with the eyes of Jesus as they look at me. Love and expectancy. Gladness to know me. Surrender in my heart to the unexpectedness of God in and at work thru me. How will that change me, change my son. Ahhhh
This is NOT what I expected. This situation, my crashed expectations are scooping out my heart bit by bit and yet this might help me to reset so I can see what impossible thing God wants to do not only in him but in me.
Isn’t that the journey of … Jesus in the garden, the women as they approached the tomb, the disciples as they waited following his death…the challenges the disciples faced as they continued Jesus’ work.
I would say that If you are challenged by someone or something. A challenge that saps your strength and maybe even your hope. Health, , a sense of loss or grief, relationship crashes, a feeling of desperation or being trapped or maybe it is just a distance- a numbness to joy. My arms are around you, I get it my friend. Joy comes in the morning as we yield to the unexpectedness of God’s love as we surrender the challenge we face to Him!!