CURRENT THEME: Let’s be thankful (What in your life are you thankful for? Did you recently receive a breakthrough? Or an answer to your prayers? Share your thoughts with us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

By Benescke Janse van Rensburg

There were ten of them. Ten men who, because of their incurable skin disease, were banned from society. They had to leave behind their homes, loved ones and dreams for the future, while stepping into a life of isolation. This was your life at that time, once diagnosed with leprosy.

The news of Jesus passing their town filled these men with hope. Would He perhaps be able to heal them? Desperately they ran to the road where Jesus and his disciples passed. While stopping at a safe distance from the other people, these men started shouting in a loud voice: “Jesus, Great Teacher, please feel sorry for us!” Some of them even knelt in the dust while pleading with tears running down their cheeks. They knew Jesus was their only hope for a shot at normality in their lives. The question remained: Would He bestow mercy upon them?

Jesus looked at the men, He felt sorry for them and replied, “Go straight to the priest. Let him examine you and give you a certificate as proof that you are healed.” On the way to the priest, the men’s leprosy disappeared. A turning point moment. A moment of healing. A moment of restored hope and joy. All ten men were healed, yet only one turned back to thank Jesus for this miracle.

In Ephesians 5:20 we read: “Thank God the Father always about everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Looking back upon the past year in your life, what are some of your answered prayers? In which area did you experience breakthroughs? Your finances? Did God save your marriage? Are you at last pregnant? Were you healed from a disease? Or did you get a job after months of searching for one? Did you thank God specifically for your breakthrough or did you, like the nine men, blindly move on with life after receiving a miracle?

Living with a thankful attitude makes it easier to live out the words in Ephesians 5:20. We will thank God in the good, as well as the hard times, knowing that He remains in control. And because He knows the future, He can also suddenly establish that turning point moment in your life, a moment of healing and restored hope.

Let us stay thankful and continue to thank God, so that we too can, like the one man, the Samaritan that turned back to Jesus, hear Him say: “Your faith has saved you.” God bless.

Father God, thank you that I can know that you hear my prayer and at the right time and way, you answer me. Forgive me for being at times like the nine men in the above-mentioned story, who blindly move on with my life and forget to say thank you. Help me to be more thankful. I ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

• What are you thankful for? Please share your thoughts with us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Here is what three readers are grateful for:

• Marjorie Bosman: “My children. My lovely husband. My piece of heaven called my home. I'm just thankful that I am alive and remind myself regularly that we all have only one opportunity to travel around to the sun. Let's make it count!”
• Willie Beukes: “I am thankful for our unborn child on its way. I am very excited!
• Adele Foster: “For my health, my family, my beautiful baby girl, but most of all I pray to God and talk to Him about anything.”