Are my praises as loud as my pleas?
Now on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border
between Samaria and Galilee.
As He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him.
They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice,
“Jesus, Mater, have pity on us!”
When he saw them, he said, “God show yourselves to the priests.”
And as they went, they were cleansed.
One of them, when he saw that he was healed,
came back praising God in a loud voice. He threw
himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him…
Luke 17:11-16a
This advent season I have been challenged to think of God’s goodness in a new way. Where is my knowledge of God’s goodness coming from? It is out of my experience or is it propositional?
We make requests to God because at some level we have an awareness of the proposition that He is Good. Ten men with leprosy had that awareness. All ten were healed after making loud pleas to Jesus, asking him to take pity on them and bring healing. But we read of only one person who took his propositional awareness of God’s goodness and transferred it into a blessing of gratitude by recognizing his own experience of God’s goodness.
I contain so much power to bless when I show appreciation for God’s goodness. When I harbor my gratitude behind walls of dissatisfaction, complaints, or negativity, I not only withhold some of God’s enormous power to bless others but I am often unaware of his goodness in my life.
It is so easy for me to offer up my pleas in a loud voice with the expectation that God will respond. But why am I not equally—or better yet, more—vocal with my praise?
Then he said to him, “Rise up and go; your faith has made you well.” Praise be to God whose goodness is more than an abstract ideal, that he enters into our pain and need in tangible ways as comforter and healer.