Grateful Hearts

Like many of you, I have been extremely blessed over the course of my life. I have a wonderful family, a job that I enjoy going to each day and many friends that I enjoy associating with. These blessings are only a tip of the iceberg. God is and always has been very good to me. Yet, despite these blessings in my life, I am afraid that I tend to be forgetful.

Not the kind of forgetfullness that older people gets with age, (like me) but the kind of forgetfulness that comes from the lack of gratitude. Sometimes I am guilty of not being grateful enough for all that God has given me.

In Luke 17:11-19 we read where Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. He was met by ten lepers who cried out for Jesus to have mercy on them and to heal them. He told them to go show themselves to the priest and as they went they were immediately cleansed. Now only one came back to thank Jesus for what He had done.

It is the response of Jesus that I want us to consider. Jesus said, "Were there not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?"

Jesus had taken the time to cure them of their disease, but for what ever reason, nine of them failed to offer thanks. Too often I am afraid that many of us have the same response as the nine who failed to return.

It is not that we are purposely ungrateful to God for all that He has done for us, we just get so busy enjoying all of God's blessings that we don't take the time to offer up our heartfelt gratitude as we should.

I hope we all remeber to thank God for all that He has done as we go through these trying times.