2010-10-09

Today’s Verse:
"As Jesus 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!" - Luke 17:12-13

Prayer for Today :

Heavenly Father,

As Jesus was traveling around with His disciples, He didn't stop performing miracles, one of the remarkable ones is the healing of ten lepers.

As Jesus walked by, they called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!". Sounded familiar? Throughout the bible, people called out onto the Lord for help:
- As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, "Help me, my lord the king!" (2 Kings 6:26)
- "In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears." (Psalm 18:6)
- "In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and he answered by setting me free.(Psalm 118:5)

When Jesus saw them, he told them to go to show themselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. Sounded familiar? There are no free lunch in this world, if you want healing, You'll need to follow the instructions and "walk it out". Sometimes, we'll need to take repeated steps relentlessly until one day, we get to our miracles. (Same in 2 Kings 5, Naaman was sent to wash himeslf in Jordan River for seven times.)

Father, at the end, there's only one out of the ten who came back and praise You in a loud voice.

Father, when we were in distress, did we not yearn to get healed? Father, sometimes, we didn't "work out for our healing" as told. And on far too many occasions, we were just like these 9 lepers who forgot about Your mercy, Your grace and Your love after recovery. Were we too busy to praise You, Lord? Were we too self-absorbed?

As St. Teresa of Avila says “Each of us has a soul, but we forget to value it. We don’t remember that we are creatures made in the image of God.” Father, grant us wisdom to be smart enough to count our blessings each day.

In Christ's glorious Name we pray, Amen.