Crossing The Line (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and welcome to Living Supernaturally. Thank you so much once again for joining us to spend a few moments in the word and in prayer. Luke chapter 17, verses 15 through 19, ‘And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So, Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”’ This is not the first time Jesus travelled across the border of Samaria. He often crossed this border and many times His critics might call it crossing the line. The Samaritans were half breed cousins of the people of Judah and Galilee. Borders were not only geographical; they were also dividing lines set up to avoid the spread of disease. Jewish law prohibited anyone with such a disease from associating with the general community. They had to be isolated and many times live as outcasts until they died. This was necessary in order to keep infectious diseases from becoming a pandemic, but for those afflicted, it could be a life sentence. The lepers in today’s story knew how to maintain their distance. Leprosy was dangerous, they were forced to stay outside of communities so that others wouldn’t get their disease. The lepers begged Jesus to heal them and He did so. Cleansing them as they went to the priest who were authorized to declare them clean again. The bible doesn’t record how far they walked before they were healed. However, only one man returned to thank Jesus for the healing. Luke makes special mention of the fact that the one who returned was a Samaritan, a person despised by the Jews. Jesus expressed disappointed on all the other nine who had received their healing but didn’t think it right to praise God for it. From this, we learn that God desires for us to express our thankfulness to Him for all that He does in our lives. Even though Jesus didn’t withhold the healing from the nine who did not thank Him, He made it a point of noting their lack of gratefulness. Because they had faith, all ten were physically healed but Jesus’ final words to the grateful Samaritan implied that this man received healing in addition to cleansing of sins. Jesus said, rise and go, your faith has made you well. This man who returned to Jesus’ feet received spiritual wholeness in addition to physical wholeness. Are we willing to do the same? When we take time to thank Jesus for everything that He has done for us, we receive His complete healing. Let’s pray, Father, we thank you for your word which is so powerful. Thank you for teaching us to walk by faith and not by sight. We declare your word and your promises over our lives. We ask that we will continue to trust you, to be grateful for everything that you have blessed us with. We give you all the praise and glory, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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