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Being thankful in all things is the goal of every true follower of Jesus.
And the way to be thankful in all things is to live a life through the lens of gratitude.
When we live in the reality of how much we have, instead of how much we want, desire, or need, we create a space for God to move more impactfully in our lives.
God has given us so much, and even in our trials and disappointment, God still is good, steady, and true.
It’s a countercultural approach to life, but hey – we are countercultural people. We follow Jesus, who was always living radically different than the culture around Him. And Jesus has so much to teach us about a life of gratitude.
In this Bible study, our goal is to help you develop an even deeper understanding of gratitude by looking at Jesus Himself and a story in Scripture where He came face to face with ten men who themselves had every reason to be thankful for Jesus. And yet, as you’ll discover in this study, the vast majority of these men missed the mark on what true gratitude looks like.
I hope that this story and study is helpful for you as you pursue a deeper lifestyle of gratitude and thankfulness to God.
In Him and His enormous love,
Alexis and Aaron
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Why should we place so much emphasis on gratitude? Why an entire study on the importance of being thankful? Well… because thankfulness is a countercultural message that needs to be explored and taught on a regular balance.
We need to be intently focused on gratitude, because the world we live in is all about “having more.” More income, more influence, more stuff. To want what is bigger and better is a natural human inclination.
Human beings are naturally predisposed to covet, just like it was displayed in the Garden (Genesis 3) all those years ago when sin entered the world and we were separated from our Maker.
Genesis 3 is such a foundational piece of Scripture for us as the root of all of our brokenness can be found in this chapter.
When the Serpent tempted Eve, he did so with desire – a desire to be like God and to have His wisdom. And Eve thought that was a good thing. She thought it was better to be like God instead of being with God and grateful for God.
Of course, I’m sure Eve had little understanding of the grave consequences that would follow after eating the forbidden fruit. No, she was too focused on a desire.
Wanting what we do not have is an ingrained default position as humans.
And unfortunately, wanting what we don’t have is the source of all discontent and grumbling in the human spirit. When we look at those who are not closely tethered to God, or follow Him, we inevitably see that their lives are filled with the pursuit of the things that they most want and desire.
So should the Christian’s life be characterized by the same kind of endless, insatiable desire for what we don’t have?
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Don’t get me wrong, we all need and want things. We all have hopes and dreams. But, desire can lead to coveting, the obsessive want of what we don’t have, without our even realizing what a slippery slope it truly is.
So yes, it’s ok to have desires – but our desire needs to be shifted from self-interest to holy pursuits.
The only way to rid the endless human inclination of wanting more is to choose to be thankful.
And this – this is the countercultural message. We have more than enough to live a purposeful live of gratitude, because we have God with us.
Sure we know this as Christians, right? This is a truth that we profess – that God in our lives is enough…but do we really live it out?
I’m sure there are some of you out there responding with an emphatic, “Yes! God is enough!” and that is absolutely amazing! Keep trucking along on the road of gratitude for all that God has given you, for you are an example for all of us.
But for the rest of us, myself included, we struggle to keep our perspective.
Alexis has always described herself as a “chronic desirer.” She’s always looked at the world and her life and said, “Couldn’t it be better? Shouldn’t there be more?” And while that may be a notable desire, it can often become a blockade, because those desires, even for things that are good and noble, can stand in front of the need for true desire and thankfulness for God Himself.
Our desire for more can play out in many ways, many of which are good things, like the want of a better career, a happy family, a restored marriage, a debt-free life, and so forth.
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Yes, all of these things are good and freeing, but we need to constantly remind ourselves even in the midst of our desire, our hearts need to be tethered to the magnitude of God and how much we do have to be thankful for.
When we have noble desires, even as they are good and something to work towards, they can’t be the ends to the means. We must realize there is so much to be thankful for even in the trial or in the waiting.
I hope that this is coming across clear, because there is a subtle nuance in it all.
The primary thing that we desire should be God and a closer connection and faith in Him. All other things must stem from the result of that relationship with Him.
There is a story in Luke 17:11-17 that highlights so many important details about why thankfulness is a powerful, life-changing attribute.
This story genuinely speaks to the true value of gratitude, and the difference that it makes in our lives with Jesus.
As you read this story, I sincerely invite you to step into the various character’s mindsets and imagine the emotional response that each had throughout the steps of the narrative.
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Luke 17:11-19
11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
If you listened to this story closely, there are no doubt many important details about gratitude you’ve ascertained – but let’s go through it closely and tease out all that we’re able to understand about thankfulness from this Scripture.
This story begins in v. 11 with Jesus traveling on the road between His homeland of Galilee and Samaria.
Samaria is a region between Galilee and Judea, where Jerusalem is, and if you’re familiar with the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), you know that the people of Samaria were considered religious outcasts by the Jewish leaders during the New Testament era.
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For the purposes of our lesson on thankfulness, we’re not going to focus too much on the Samaritan element of this story, although it is certainly
important for other topics, such as God’s love for all people.
In v. 12, Jesus enters a small village and is immediately approached by ten men with leprosy.
During Jesus’ time, little was understood medically about leprosy. We now know it’s a bacterial infection that affects the skin, causing sores, disfigurement, and numbness. Although widely documented throughout human history, effective treatments in the 20th century have dramatically reduced the instances of leprosy worldwide.
However, during the time of Jesus, the contraction of incurable leprosy was somewhat of a “living death sentence.” Sufferers were outcast in their communities, both out of fear of the disease spreading, and because the severe disfigurement led to the declaration that such people were “unclean.”
Leprosy was a life-destroying event.
People from all walks of life would find themselves suddenly shunned by their friends and family at the onset of leprosy, marginalized by a disease and circumstances they could do nothing to control.
So when the ten men in Luke 17:12 approach Jesus, we’re looking at people who have lost everything in life, not just their health. Because of their disease, they have essentially lost even their own identities and former lives, with absolutely no possibility of restoration or return. Their desperation is of the utmost severity.
However, you can imagine their excitement to learn that Jesus had approached their community.
At this point in His ministry, Jesus’ reputation as a healer and exorcist had spread far and wide, and these men had certainly heard rumors of the man from nearby Nazareth who possessed the ability to cure leprosy.
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Jesus’ visit was their only chance – their only hope in the world – to reclaim their lives and be cured of this disease that had taken everything from them. So the ten men, working together, approached Jesus as He entered the village.
Knowing their status as unclean people, they stood at a distance, careful to respect the rules and customs of the time. But with their voices in unison, they cried out to the Lord in v. 13, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
Can you imagine how agonizing and pained their voices must have been, bellowing out over the village? Once proud men, reduced to beggars without options, except to ask for pity from a miracle worker they’d only heard rumors about in the past.
When Jesus noticed the men in v. 14, He didn’t question them in any way. He didn’t ask them about their devotion to God, or what sins they had committed in the past. Very simply instead, Jesus told them “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”
It’s interesting to note that Jesus’ miracles didn’t always work exactly the same way.
In Matthew 8:1-4, Jesus healed a leper and the Scriptures report that this man’s disease was healed “immediately.”
When Jesus healed the blind man at Bethsaida, He had to bless the man twice, because his vision did not completely restore on the first attempt.
In this instance in Luke 17, the Scripture makes clear that Jesus did not heal these men immediately. Instead, He gave them an instruction to go see the priest first.
Now, as lepers, these men would have likely thought of the priest as the very last person they’d want to go see!
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The priest was the chief representative of God to the people, and with their beliefs that leprosy had made them unclean, the priest, who maintained rigorous rituals of cleanliness, would have never accepted and audience with lepers, no matter who had told them to go.
But again, the desperation of these men was so profound that they were willing to do anything in order to be healed.
They no doubt hoped that Jesus would heal them immediately, right there on the spot, but even when He didn’t do that, they still responded in obedience, and journeyed off together to see the priest.
Their faith paid off!
In v. 14 it states that as they were traveling to see the priest, “they were cleansed.”
Unbelievable, right? Ten men who had lost everything in life were restored together at once. Imagine the shock, the exuberance, the joy, the disbelief – the only thing that they genuinely wanted in life had been given to them.
They were made whole, restored, able to resume their lives.
Jesus had given them everything, brought them back from a state of utter despair and destitution.
But…this is when the story gets really interesting.
Because the way that the ten men reacted after receiving their miracle speaks directly to our hearts, gratitude, and the true value of thankfulness and love for what God is doing in our lives.
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In v. 15, it states, “One of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks”.
You’ll recall that when the ten men first approached Jesus, the Scripture stated that they together had “lifted up their voices” to cry out for Jesus to have pity on them. However, after receiving the miracle they so desperately wanted, there’s now only one person remaining with a “loud voice.”
In fact, this man didn’t even make it all the way to the priest! When he saw his disease had left him, he immediately returned to the source of the miracle, to praise and thank God and Jesus.
Initially, all ten were overcome with the powerful emotion of need, desire, and drive, to be healed, which led them to boldly cry out to Jesus as He entered the town.
But after receiving their miracle, the profound need for Jesus, the ambition to see God work the impossible in their lives, had died down so that only one was left crying out in praise.
Of course, this fact was not lost on Jesus at all. Looking down at the healed
Samaritan at His feet in v.17, “Jesus asked, ‘Weren’t the ten cleansed? But where are the nine?”
Oh…what a great question, “Where are the other nine?” Ten men received their entire lives back, but only one returned to Jesus’ feet to worship God.
Where did the other nine go?
Luke doesn’t share the details in the story of what happened to the other nine, so we can only speculate about where they ended up on that day.
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They likely went to the priests, showed them that their disease had left them. They were no doubt eager to be restored to full rights in society by being declared clean again by the priests. The approval of the priests was the key to being made whole again in society and socially accepted again in their community.
The nine other men probably then sought out their friends and family, to likewise show off their new health and regain their acceptance and place in life again.
It was undoubtedly a joyful day for many people in this village, to see such unexpected healing occur. There were probably many parties and celebrations.
The nine other men might have slept in their old beds again that night, ate dinner with their children and wives, who too had no doubt suffered tremendously because of the men’s disease. And yes, they were all probably very thankful personally that Jesus had healed them.
But despite all of this, Jesus was unimpressed by their response after being healed.
Commenting on the situation, Jesus says in v. 18, “Were there none found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?”
You see, despite all the joy and glee that these men felt about their restoration, they were clearly confused about what their response should look like.
Again, we can only speculate from the story about what they did, but the fact that they never returned to Jesus, the one who made them whole, shows that gratitude and thankfulness were not the center of their emotions and heart after their miracle.
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The nine other men were exuberant about what they had received, but not about the person who blessed them.
The nine men were excited about the return of their lives, not that God was with them and had worked unbelievably amazing acts in their world.
They were shocked at all the good that they received, not the goodness of the One who bestowed it upon them.
There’s no doubt these men had never received something so profoundly valuable and important in their entire lives as this miracle, and yet they were likely so consumed with the excitement of what they now had that it didn’t occur to them to be even more impacted by the truth and reality that God loves them, wants the best for them, is with them, and had moved mountains in their lives.
This is such an important lesson about gratitude.
We’re often instructed and advised to examine the things that we should be thankful for, listing out the blessings that God has given us. But the overall Biblical message is that we should be thankful in all circumstances.
Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:
“Always rejoice. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.”
Paul also writes, in Ephesians 5:20:
“giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father.”
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When we’re able to see the blessings of our lives as the result of God’s work and movement, and not simply, “What God has given us,” then we’re likewise able to step more fully into a life where we see all things – positive and negative – as opportunities for gratitude, knowing God can work in all circumstances.
James writes in 1:2-3:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
This is such an important lesson, because God can work through anything that we face, and having gratitude for even our most difficult circumstances means that our faith has the opportunity to grow and prosper.
This is the ultimate goal of gratitude – it is an attribute that symbolizes our maturity and growth as followers of Jesus
Thankfulness for all things in a Christian’s life shows that they recognize God is the one deserving of the praise and honor, and our faith will grow as a result.
And with that thought in mind, let’s return to the final scene in Luke 17:19, as Jesus stands over the former leper who had returned to praise God. Looking down at this man who was so overwhelmed with thankfulness to God, Jesus said to him, “Get up, and go your way. Your faith has healed you.”
This is the ultimate lesson of this story about ten healed lepers, because while Jesus had physically healed all ten of the men, it is only the one who returned in gratitude and praise that Jesus said, “Your faith has healed you.”
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This is the ultimate lesson of this story about ten healed lepers, because while Jesus had physically healed all ten of the men, it is only the one who returned in gratitude and praise that Jesus said, “Your faith has healed you.”
What did Jesus mean by this? Again, all ten were healed of leprosy, and so Jesus isn’t saying that it is only because of this man’s faith that the disease is now gone.
Instead, what Jesus tells this man is that he’s received a blessing even greater than being healed of an incurable disease.
The former leper’s thankfulness is now seen by Jesus as evidence of his strong faith, and that is the blessing Jesus encourages this man to venture forth into the world with.
In fact, Jesus doesn’t seem to be particularly concerned with what an awesome thing that He’s done for this previously sick man. Instead, Jesus is impressed by his rightful recognition that God has worked in a powerful way in his life.
And by proclaiming that “Your faith has healed you,” Jesus tells him that the faith that he’s discovered has done more than cure his disease; he’s now also been made whole spiritually. The gratefulness has led him to a strong, deep faith.
This former leper, his response, and the fact that Jesus sees and declares a strong faith in him, is a model for how we should think about gratitude and what it should mean for our lives.
Because, yes, it’s important to be grateful for all the things that we’ve been given. But that’s “level one,” that’s a good start. That is an attitude that will help carry us forward, but it won’t take us fully in the direction where God intends us to be.
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God always wants us to be in recognition of Him – grateful to Him, thankful to Him. Not for what He can do for us, but because He is good, loving, merciful, and most importantly, worth of our praise.
In the overall spectrum of God’s intention for us, He doesn’t want us to just be happy about blessings. Although it’s a marker of more maturity to likewise be grateful for trials and the perseverance and wisdom that can come from them – that’s not the end goal either!
The hallmark of a person of faith is to live in a stance of gratitude and thankfulness for God, who is moving and working each day and moment of our lives. God is the ultimate object of our gratitude and thankfulness.
The more that we can step into this life of gratitude for God, the more clearly aligned and focused our hearts become in all areas.
We start to see the world around us as the result of God’s love and purpose for us. We naturally become more grateful for the things that we have, and willing to accept and be thankful for the challenges that we have to overcome.
When God becomes the center and motivation of our thankfulness, we are able to follow in the steps of Jesus, who was thankful to God in all circumstances, even during His most intense suffering on the cross.
Can you imagine having literal nails being driven through your skin, being pierced in the side, spat upon, mocked and all the while remaining in God’s presence filled with compassion and gratitude?
Of course, you can imagine, at least an emotional level. You have been there before, we all have had those dark days or periods of life, when the world repeatedly threw its ugliness on us.
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Juxtapose those periods of your life with Christ on the cross. How do you measure up?
This isn’t supposed to be a humiliating or shameful question! Rather it is a mirror, a looking glass into the road of becoming more like Christ, to becoming free from the hold of brokenness.
Jesus shows us what a life living closely tethered to God looks like, both outwardly and internally. Anyone can fool the world with an outward appearance that looks like Jesus, but you can’t fool the internal thoughts and connection to God.
Jesus lived a life of quiet gratitude, of internal gratitude.
The Creator of the world, the Word, left perfection and came into this very flawed and broken world. All the meanwhile His identity was challenged, His life was threatened, and He was eventually murdered.
And in it all He chose gratitude.
It’s incredibly important for us Christ-followers to keep our eyes on Jesus. He shows us the way to think, act, and He also shows us all of the internal Fruit that is grown by staying close to Him.
If you think you have seen pain, remember Jesus experienced more and in it all He was resilient because He was so deeply rooted in God’s love and truth and from that He was thankful.
So when Jesus heals the ten lepers and only one returns, this isn’t a story that should be left unnoticed. Jesus is projecting what the future will look like when people follow Him, people like you and I, 2,000 years later.
As with most of Jesus’ teachings, stories, interactions, there is much to glean. We ourselves can easily become one of the nine that ran off enjoying our “healing.” This story isn’t just referring to conversion, but to all the times when God heals, for our God is the God of health and restoration.
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God answers our prayers all the time, but without paying close enough attention we can easily get caught up and forget to return to our Maker and give thanks and praise.
The way to alleviate this probable outcome is to choose to live a life of seeking God’s presence throughout each day, moment by moment and to choose a lens in life of gratitude, which again is countercultural.
The reward for this is beyond measure. It is a steady assurance that God is good, loving, and always working. It’s flipping the script on what evil tries to rob from you. As you become more thankful to God, the enemy loses turf.
Old things that used to trip you up, become unnoticeable. Keep your eyes on Jesus and remain in a stance of looking for the “silver lining.” You’ll be shocked at how much that silver lining becomes bigger and bigger the more you cultivate a thankful lifestyle.
To live a life filled with gratitude for God is to have a deep faith, knowing and trusting the goodness and work of God in our lives.
So as we step further into this season of gratitude, my encouragement to you is to actively seek out in praise, prayer, and your proclamation to others your thankfulness for who God is and what He is doing.
That kind of gratitude is a powerful platform to build our lives around, centering ourselves on the truth of our amazing God and our eternal thankfulness for the love and mercy He shows to us every single day.
Making It Stick
Optional Extended Reading: Read John 17, Jesus’ final prayer before His impending arrest. As you do, note the stance of gratitude that He exhibits throughout, even with His final moments approaching.
- Questions Below – Answer In Your Own Words
- What is the natural human position, in regards to wanting and desire vs. gratitude? P.3
- We need to shift our desires from self-interest to what instead? P.4
- What is the primary thing we should desire? P. 5
- What were the ten lepers hopes upon realizing Jesus was visiting their village? P.8
- How would you describe the value of Jesus’ healing for the ten lepers? P.9
- How did the response of the one leper compare to that of the other ten? P. 10
- What were some of the ways the nine other lepers were incomplete or lacking in their response to healing? P. 10-11
- How does gratitude enable us to respond to trials and problems? P. 13
- What was Jesus most impressed with about the one leper that returned? P. 14
- In your own words, how would you characterize Jesus’ attitude of gratitude and thanksgiving, even during His final moments?