Has God ever helped you? I can remember many times when God has helped me. What did you and I do afterward? Did we tell anyone about the way God helped us? Did we thank Him and praise Him for it...or did we just go on with our lives? While there are many things we don't know about God, one thing we do know is that God wants us to be thankful. Today, let's listen to an account of Jesus helping 10 lepers and see what we might learn from it:

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 7:11-19)

In this passage, all ten lepers cried out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” His response was, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Isn't that interesting? I'm guessing that the lepers had already been to their priests but had not been helped. But they did as Jesus asked, and Luke tells us that as they went on their way, they were all healed. The result of that healing would have been truly life-changing. As lepers, they would have been excluded from society and forced to live only with other lepers. Suddenly now, the 10 lepers were once again members of society and their community, able to get work and support their families. Were they thankful? Maybe—but only one of those ten men, and he a Samaritan, proclaimed it out loud to the one who had healed him. How about you? Has God helped you lately? What did you do about it? Which leper in the story do you and I identify with? When God gives us direction and delivers us from our problems, the always appropriate response is to praise Him. God is always worthy of our praise...and that is very Good News!