"Count Your Blessings" is a Christian hymn by Johnson Oatman, that reminds us to give thanks to God for His loving grace in our life. God truly gives us so many blessings each and every single day. This classic hymn 'Count Your Blessings' truly reminds us to stop and give thanks for all God has done in our lives-as we do that, we will be surprised to see what the Lord has done. Kindly find time and sing it!

As our tradition had been here at LUC, today we encourage all of us to pause and reflect on how the year has been, and then find time to thank the Lord our God. We will not be the first ones to do so; giving thanks to God has taken place since the creation. As you read through scripture, you will find a unique repetitive term that runs through much of the Old Testament: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever’. There are several other portions of scripture that reminds us to be thankful, despite the circumstances we go through in life. Here are a few:

I will give thanks to you, Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds (Psalm 9:1)

To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you… (Daniel 2:23)

… speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:19-20)

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name (Psalm 100:4)

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. (Colossians 4:2)

From our scripture passage today, Jesus makes it clear, that thanksgiving is a way we show love and devotion to Almighty God. One day he witnessed this gratitude when he healed a group of 10 lepers.

Luke writes: “And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him — and he was a Samaritan” (Luke 17 :14-16). Jesus made note of his humility in thanksgiving, but also of the lack of thanks on the part of the Jews.

Then Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:17-19). “Your faith has made you well.” The Samaritan’s act of giving thanks and praise had made him well.

May it be so with us today as we purpose to thank God for all He has been to us this year. We are all like the lepers of the time. May we be like this one leper who was healed and then came back to give thanks.