BEING LIKE THAT ONE AMONG THOSE TEN | KAIROS GLOBAL | DECEMBER 2023

Author: Raifiel Cyril

Intro: Raifiel Cyril reminds us that we have exactly what we need in our lives today, and that we need to place our focus away from what we lack and upon Him – the source of everything good and right in this world.

In the Gospel of Luke, we find the account of the ten lepers who were healed and only one returned to express his gratitude.

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? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well’ (Luke 17:15-19).

Gratitude is a key lesson that God has been trying hard to teach me. I can confidently say that how content and joyful I have felt at any point in my life has had much less to do with my circumstances and much, much, more to do with gratitude. It is hard to understand or grasp but this is the truth. 

If we want to be happy, we must be grateful. Gratitude doesn’t follow joy. It precedes it. If gratitude was a natural response to things happening in our favour all ten lepers would have rushed back to Jesus and hugged and kissed and honoured him. However, only one turned back. If I had to hazard a guess, I would believe that this one healed leper who returned had a grateful attitude before he was healed. Gratitude is more a state of being or attitude than it is an action. What I mean is that if your heart isn’t already in a ‘state’ of thankfulness, it would be very hard to find things around you to be glad about. Those nine lepers, much like me, were probably already in the state of #glasshalfemptyness before they were healed and promptly got focused on the next thing in their life that needed fixing. As you can well imagine, their and my greatest disease isn’t leprosy.

I recall being much more joyful and enthusiastic when life was much more of a trial than it is today. It was a choice then and it is a choice now. What I focus on becomes bigger, larger, more intense and insurmountable. If I am focused on a small annoyance, I only just need to think and worry about it a little more and it will grow in size, exactly in proportion to my focus.

 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me’ Exodus 20:2-3.

Worship is nothing but paying rapt attention. To be so focused that you are aware of very little else. I can think of several things that capture my attention other than God. The Word says that every good gift is from above. God is the source of everything good and right in this world.

St Paul also says, ‘Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things’ (Philippians 4:8).

Yes, those are the things we need to focus on. On what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. Lies, ignoble thoughts, impure, deplorable thoughts are not from God, nor is a focus on them. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2).

A Thousand Gifts is a beautiful book by Ann Voskamp where she shares how she accepted her friend’s challenge to write down a 1000 things to be grateful for. I had purchased this book several years ago and never read it, but the Lord led me back to it quite recently, knowing how much I needed it. In this and many, many ways the Lord has been calling out to me to be thankful. When Tania from Kairos told me the topic for this article was ‘gratitude’, I couldn’t help but chuckle at God’s persistence. I am too human to understand or appreciate his patience but how very PATIENT he has been with me.

So painstakingly He draws me back to his delectable source of living water and bathes clean my self-pitying, problem-focused heart and gently raises my chin with his soft fingertips to set my mind on things above again. He reminds me of Martha who worried about too many things when ONLY ONE THING WAS REQUIRED. But sometimes the journey from the worry to His Feet is not as simple as going from the kitchen to the living room like for Martha. No, like the grumbling Israelites, what could take 11 days took 40 years. Ah yes, the Israelites. The unhappy people. No amount of deliverance, freedom and provision from God would change their stubborn sighs. They would not be grateful. ‘Over my dead body’, they would probably say and die they did. Two people lived to see the Promised Land. Two.

What is God doing in your life and mine that we simply take for granted and busy ourselves with everything we lack. My and your GOD IS ABLE TO MEET ALL YOUR NEEDS. You and I have exactly what we need in our lives today. Exactly what we need. Not less and not more. So, what is that lovely, pure, admirable thing that we do have and can help increase with our attention? Family, friends, jobs, hobbies, blue skies, beautiful trees, chirping birds, snoring children, food, senses, organs, lungs to BREATHE?

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

I praise You my lovely admirable pure noble loving perfect God. And I THANK YOU for the many, many lovely, admirable, pure, noble things I am surrounded by. Thank You.

'A nobody who is precious to Christ', Raifiel lives with her husband, Cyril in beautiful Canberra, Australia.