Soil must possess certain qualities to grow great plants, just like a heart that grows great faith must possess certain attributes.  In the last two devotions I shared two of these; “forgiveness and servant hood”. Today we will explore another quality, the quality of thanksgiving.  Let’s review Luke 17 and examine Jesus’ perspective on this attribute.

¹¹ Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. ¹² Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. ¹³ And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴ So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. ¹⁵ And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, ¹⁶ and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? ¹⁸ Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

Luke 17:11-19

In this story we see Jesus making the correlation between this man’s gratitude and his faith; a faith that released the healing power of God into his life.  It was interesting to note that this grateful man was a Samaritan, not even one of the Jews, for whom Jesus came and ministered too!   Sometimes we with whom Christ came to deliver can be the most ungrateful bunch of people.  At times God answers prayers and we say in our hearts, but what about this?  Or we find ourselves looking at what is not yet accomplished instead of what has been done.  Our lack of expressed gratitude creates a caustic environment in our heart and stunts the growth of our faith.

An attitude of gratitude is a demonstration of a “generous spirit”.  This generosity is demonstrated by our words of praise, coming from a heart that is filled with gratitude.

• Do you live in an attitude of gratitude with a heart that is full of thanksgiving?
• Do you generously offer up words of adoration and praise for the amazing things He has done?

 As you explore the scriptures, you see a common denominator amongst those who were touched by God.  They openly praised God, unashamed of their expression of thanksgiving. 

The quality of a heart that grows great faith can be summed up in one word; “Generosity.”  The ground of a heart that possesses generosity is seen by a giving spirit. A giving spirit expresses itself through “generously forgiving; “generously serving and generously offering up thanksgiving unto God.”

As you are Forging Ahead In Trustful Hope, be sure to cultivate a heart of generosity and grow great faith that is demonstrated through a spirit of generosity.