Lessons from David | Move On

One of them, when he saw that he had been healed, returned and praised God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus' feet and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus replied, "Weren't ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? No one returned to praise God except this foreigner?"

Luke 17:15-18 (CEB)

When we're in trouble, we pray desperately. We cry out to God. We beg for help. We promise we'll be so grateful if God just comes through for us. And when God does come through and answers our prayer, what do we do? We move on. 

We don't stop to thank God. We don't pause to acknowledge what he's done. We just immediately start worrying about the next problem.

And we’re not the only ones who do this. In Luke 17, Jesus healed ten men who had leprosy. But only one came back to thank him. Only one. The other nine just moved on with their lives, probably thinking, "Great, I'm healed. Now what's next?"

Why do we do this? I think we move on too quickly for a few reasons. First, we're so relieved the crisis is over that we just want to forget about it. We don't want to dwell on hard times. We want to move forward.

Second, we're already focused on the next problem. Life doesn't stop just because one issue gets resolved. There's always something else demanding our attention.

And third, we kind of forget that God was the one who came through for us. We tell ourselves we made it through on our own strength, or it was just luck, or things just worked out. We don't connect our answered prayers with God's faithfulness.

But when we move on too quickly, we miss the opportunity to recognize and celebrate what God has done. We miss the chance to let our gratitude deepen our relationship with God. We miss the moment where we acknowledge that God heard us and answered us.

And honestly? We miss out on joy. There's something about pausing to thank God and acknowledging that we made it through because he was with us.

But when we don't stop to thank God, we start to forget about his faithfulness. We start to think we handled everything ourselves. And then, the next time we face a crisis, we don't have a foundation of remembered faithfulness to stand on.

But when we intentionally pause to thank God, we're building that foundation of God's faithfulness in our lives. We're creating memories that we can return to when times get hard again. That's what David did. And that's what we need to learn to do.

So here's my question: What's the crisis that you prayed desperately about, where God came through for you, but you just moved on without really thanking him?

Maybe it was a health scare that turned out okay. Maybe it was a financial crisis that you made it through. Maybe it was a relationship that was restored. Maybe it was a job that came through at just the right time.

Whatever it was, take a moment right now and acknowledge it. Recognize that God heard your desperate prayers. And admit that you moved on too quickly without really thanking him.

Because tomorrow we're going to look at what David did differently. And it's going to challenge us to develop a better pattern, a pattern of being just as intentional about thanking God when things go well as we are about crying out when things go wrong.

Prayer

God, I'm guilty of this. I cry out to you desperately when I need help, but when you come through for me, I just move on. I don't stop to thank you. I don't pause to acknowledge your faithfulness. I just immediately start worrying about the next thing. Forgive me for that. Help me to see how many times you've answered my prayers and provided what I needed. And help me to develop a new pattern of gratitude that matches the intensity of my prayers. Amen.