(Luke 17:11-19)

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, Master, have pity on us!”

When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

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.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

100% Faith, 100% Healing

“Go and show yourselves to the priests,” Jesus told the ten lepers who pleaded with Him to heal them. Only one, a Samaritan, returned to thank the Lord. And Jesus’ response was, “Weren’t all ten cleansed?” One thing that strikes me here is the Lord’s firm conviction that all ten were healed. He knew they were healed. There was no doubt in His mind. He believed and knew that there was 100% healing.

Lord, give me faith to believe. Help me to be at that place where I believe that You are working through me and that I will have not even a single trace of doubt. Lord, transform me and help me to grow.

10% Worship

Receiving the blessing of God is not a time to be all prim and proper. The response of the Samaritan leper was to praise God with a loud voice. He was happy! He was ecstatic! He couldn’t help but go back to the Lord Jesus, fall at his feet, and on his face give thanks to the Lord. This is a picture of gratitude and rejoicing. Hallelujah!

Sadly, though, just as in this story, even today not many rejoice at their salvation. Even if they are saved, they don’t rejoice and worship the Lord with abandon.

Lord, help me to have the Samaritan’s kind of joy at my salvation! I want to return to You and praise You loudly, falling on my face and give thanks to You, Lord. Help me to see Your blessings. I want to be that ten percent that realizes the wonderful gift given to me. I don’t want to be the ninety percent that simply goes on my way, unthankful, with the blessing of God but an unchanged heart. Lord, transform me that I may not only receive Your blessing but also be transformed on the inside to humbly and gratefully rejoice with excitement!

Help me to believe in You 100% and be the 10% that worships You with joy!

“Then they will know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 29:21).

Prophecies of destruction often have that last little phrase at the end. It makes me wonder: “Why can’t people know that God is the LORD when He does good things?” I guess it is said to those people that are wicked and stubborn. If you have a heart yielded to God with faith in Him, then you would see the good things of God everywhere. You would know that Jesus Christ is Lord. You wouldn’t need to wait until the full measure of God’s patience has finally run out and He executes judgment on you before you realize He is Lord. No, instead you’d always see Him. You’d see how amazing and powerful He is just by observing the wonders of His creation. You’d know how much He loves humanity by observing what He did by sending Christ to earth to live and die for us. You’d marvel at His supernatural power which He showed in all the miracles of the Bible, the most powerful of which was Christ’s resurrection. You’d recognize His move all around, from the little blessings here and there to major moves of God which He lets you know about through prophecy ahead of time and lets you marvel at when they come to pass.

“Then they will know that I am the LORD” … does God want to be recognized? Isn’t that the hearts cry of every person? They want to be noticed. They want to be taken note of … notability. They don’t want to be passed over or ignored. They want to be acknowledged as a person. Is that what God wants, too? To be sure, God deserves the most respect of anyone in the universe. He deserves to be worshipped and adored. But I don’t think that’s really it. God is not insecure. He doesn’t need the adorations of his puny and weak created beings to feel good about Himself. In fact, Jesus even said that He didn’t entrust Himself to any man because He knew what was in a man. I think He wants us to acknowledge, fear, trust and worship Him because it is right and it is for our own good.

He loves us so much and as a good Parent He knows just what is best for us. He knows that if we will fear Him, we’ll will start us down the path to wisdom. First of all, its stupid not to fear God. He is all powerful. He created the universe. Even an idiot wouldn’t put his hand into a blazing fire. He has a healthy respect for the heat of the flames. If the sun is almost infinitely hotter than that fire and God is infinitely more powerful than a star, it is dumb not to fear God.

A healthy respect for God is the beginning. Once we fear and respect God, we will be willing to listen to what He has to say. Now, we’re getting somewhere. After listening to God’s truth for a while, we start to dismantle the web of lies that Satan has convinced us of. Once that’s done we start really believing in God and having faith and obeying His commands. That’s when the blessings really start to flow and we can enjoy a wonderful relationship with God that He really planned for us from the beginning.

It all starts with acknowledging God. If we would just know that He is the LORD! It’s not because He is insecure or a megalomaniac. He really does everything, even judgment, out of love.

O Lord, help me to know You! I want to be transformed. I don’t want to be stuck in the mire of fear of man and hurt and lies. I want to be servant-hearted. Help me to be a bond servant of Christ. Let my pride and selfishness die so that I may gladly serve You and others. Help me not to worry about anything but to trust in You. Lord, help me to love my wife. I put my trust in You, Lord. Praise You, O God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation (Philippians 2:14-15).

I like Philippians. It’s such a happy and uplifting book. Even though Paul was in prison while he wrote it, he was full of faith. The Philippians had sent him a financial gift. Paul rejoiced greatly that they had shown their concern for him. Yet he took the opportunity to instruct the Philippians on this point, that he had learned how to be content in every circumstance because he had faith in God Who gives him the strength to do everything. He had learned not to put any confidence in the flesh, not to rely on worldly strengths or riches. Instead Paul yearned to know Christ and to share in His sufferings. He had taken on the humility of Christ. As a practical outpouring of this faith, Paul teaches that we should rejoice always in the Lord. We should put our faith in God rather than be anxious. With thanksgiving, we should put our hearts at rest, set our minds on things above and present our requests to God. Then the peace of God will be with us. If we do this, by faith living without complaining or arguing, then Paul said that we will become blameless. There is a purifying effect to our souls when we choose to place our faith in the Lord rather than to worry about our circumstances. We show ourselves to be children of God when we choose rejoice and give thanks instead of arguing and complaining.

Lord Jesus, help me to be humble as You were humble here on earth. Let me trust in You through every circumstance like Paul did even when he was in prison. Help me to rejoice and pray with thanksgiving instead of complaining or arguing. Let me shine like a star in the universe to bring glory to Your name! 

And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest” (Habakkuk 2:2-5).

Habakkuk was grieved by the injustice going on around him and was frustrated that God had not done anything to stop it. So he filed a complaint with God. The Lord responded by that he was raising up the Chaldeans to destroy Judah. I think Habakkuk had wanted justice for his homeland not its destruction by ungodly outsiders. Yet he acknowledged God’s holiness and righteous judgment on Judah, and knew that the Chaledeans would one day get what was due them, too.

The Lord’s response to Habakkuk has great value for us today. There will be many times when we wonder where is God? We may wonder why isn’t he doing anything to save us. His answer is: The righteous will live by his faith. We should “write the vision” by encouraging others to put their faith in God that He is coming again in power and will set all things right one day. “If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay”. And while we are waiting, we are warned not to drown ourselves in alcohol for “wine is a traitor”. For one day God will return in glory.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).

Habakkuk ends with a powerful psalm of faith and praise.

    Though the fig tree should not blossom,

    nor fruit be on the vines,

    the produce of the olive fail

    and the fields yield no food,

    the flock be cut off from the fold

    and there be no herd in the stalls,

    yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

    God, the Lord, is my strength;

    he makes my feet like the deer’s;

    he makes me tread on my high places. 

These are the words of a man of faith. Even though he had no earthly strength or provision to rely on, yet he pledged to rejoice in the Lord. He resolved to take joy in the God of his salvation. He put his faith in God for strength to rise up to high places where he would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

O God, teach me the lesson of Habakkuk! Let me believe in You when everything around me tempts me to doubt You. I want to live by faith just as Habakkuk did. You are my strength, Lord Jesus. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. You will give me hind’s feet to run by faith to high places. I believe in You. Fill me with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. 

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind … Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment (Romans 12:2,3).

Paul admonishes believers to regard themselves with sober judgment according to the measure of faith given them by God. Dispassionate objectivity is a far cry from my normal pattern of thinking. I frequently compare myself with others to see whether I’m ahead or behind. I care a lot about what people think of me. I want to be successful and admired, respected and liked. These attitudes are not sober. Instead they are drunk with self-centeredness.

As a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, I am not to let my mind be consumed with such worldy thinking. By faith, I can be transformed by the renewing of my mind. By faith, I can regard myself with sober judgment. The emphasis is on faith. In the past, I thought of the command to “be transformed” as requiring draconian thought-control. I have not been however able to conquer selfish thought simply by relying on the strength of my mental abilities alone. I believe it can only be accomplished by faith in God and by identifying in my role as a member of the body of Christ.

Each one of us has been given a measure of faith and different gifts, not for ourselves; we are many members that form one body and each member belongs to all the others (Romans 12:5). I must entrust myself to God and remember that I belong to the body of Christ and the other members also belong to me. This is the basis of family and the love of God.

Lord Jesus, by faith in You, I entrust my mind to You. Let it be transformed as I put my faith in You and identify myself with being a member of Your body. My skills are not for my own glory, but rather for Yours and for ministering Your grace to others. Give me the grace to regard myself with sober judgment and also to be devoted to my neighbor with brotherly love. In Your name, amen. 

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12).

If you have what you hope for, then you no longer hope for it because you have it. You can only hope for what you do not yet have. Romans 12 teaches that we should be joyful in the time of hoping and not having. Hope looks forward with confident expectation in the fulfillment of what is hoped for. What is the source of this confidence? Faith. Faith is a belief that does not rely upon on logical proof or material evidence. It is based on the trust in God and the person of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes I am tested. Perhaps I’ve been working really hard and there is no end in sight. Or maybe I’ve been unjustly treated by someone. Exhaustion or offense tempts me to start doubting. I may not purposely be saying to God that I no longer trust in Him. But I may start to think negative thoughts like: “This isn’t fair.” “I’m tired.” “Why is this happening?” Doubt erodes joy because it pulls out from under me my foundation of faith.

I must be patient in affliction. Paul said that he considered his momentary afflictions to be nothing in comparison to the glories to be revealed. In the span of eternity, our lives here are momentary. Even though times may be tough, I should remind myself to be patient and keep my eyes on Christ.

Those times of testing are times to rebolster my efforts to be faithful in prayer. I should not try to find comfort during my times of trials in things like movies, games, and hanging out with friends. They might be convenient temporary distractions but they do nothing to truly sustain me through the testing. I need to go to God in prayer. I need to go to the lonely places like Jesus did to be with the Father. Even though Jesus was super busy with His ministry, He knew how crucially important it was to be faithful in prayer.

Lord Jesus, help me to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer. I need Your help to keep my eyes on You. Let me be planted firmly on the Rock. Strengthen me so that my faith will no fail. Lord God, I confess my trust in You.

I declare to you that the LORD will build a house for you … I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father and he will be my son. (1 Chronicles 17: 10-12).

David wanted to build a temple for the Lord to house the ark of the covenant. But God sent Nathan to tell him that David was not to God a house, but that God would build a house for David. What an interesting switcher-roo. In fact, God said that He would make one of David’s son His own Son and that Son would build a eternal house for God and the Son would reign on an eternal throne. The earthly pre-fulfillment of this promise came in Solomon’s lifetime when Solomon built the first physical temple. The the real fulfillment came in Jesus Christ. Jesus was a descendant in the line of David. And He truly was God’s Son. He suffered and was crucified, but now He reigns with the Father in heaven forever. He is building a house for God through believers. Each believer is a living stone being built up into a spiritual temple for God, in which He lives by His Holy Spirit in us!

Praise the Lord, for Your amazing promise and Your faithful fulfillment of it. Praise You that I get to be part of that fulfillment. I am a living stone. Establish Your throne as You reign in me. Be exalted, O God, and live and glorify Your name in me as a living stone in Your temple. Praise You, Lord, that You live in me. Praise You for Your wonderful Son, Jesus Christ! Praise You for Your faithfulness and for the honor of Your name. Help me to remember all throughout the day that I am a temple of God built by Your Son, Jesus Christ.