Are You The One?

Many years ago the Lord convicted me to my very core with the following passage of scripture:

Luke 17:11-19
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” 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. 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.”

After reading this I began to wonder which of these people I was more like. Did I receive answers from the Lord and return to acknowledge His goodness and faithfulness or had I become someone who expected and waited for answers but rarely revisited the situation to praise Him for the answer? Obviously, I was so convicted by this passage because I was one of the nine and not “the one.” I had a sincere faith (as sincere as I knew how to be at the time.) I prayed earnestly. I expected and believed God would answer me. But, I had become negligent in my attitude of praise towards God.

I knew the Lord wanted me to do something about this; something that would change my walk with Him forever. I went to a store that sold journals and purchased one. I immediately began to chronicle my prayer requests and their answers. Up until this point, I had always kept a journal; one that contained my thoughts and many times my written prayers. However, I had never kept a journal specifically for capturing the responses of the requests I made. I had only two rules for this journal: the prayers I wrote down had to be short (not wordy) and most importantly, measurable. So, writing something vague like “Lord, I pray for You to make me and instrument of Your peace” would not go in the journal. Instead, I might write: “Lord, I pray You make me an instrument of Your peace by going to my friend "so and so" to ask for their forgiveness.” I wrote down the date, the request and then left two or three blank lines on which to record the date and answer to that prayer. I also started using a little symbol system in addition to writing the answer. If the answer was affirmative, I would give it a smiley face :-), if the answer was a wait, I would give it a slash face :-|, if the answer was a no, I would give it a sad face :-(. If the answer broke my heart, it would get a sad face with tears flowing down.

You cannot imagine the things I’ve seen the Lord do over the past twelve years that I have been doing this. Even when the answer was “no” or “wait” I could see the Lord’s hand and know that He was faithfully presiding over my requests and orchestrating the answers that would eventually be rendered. Sometimes I would even have to look back through 3 or more years of requests to write an answer that had finally come. It was those long awaited answers that made me especially grateful for my new found attitude of praise. I could know without a doubt that my God was faithful. He heard and answered my requests according to my needs, not my wants, and in His timeframe.

How about you dear one? How is your praise life? Do you have requests that you are pouring out to the Father and don’t feel like He’s listening and can’t see any answers on the horizon? Do you pray earnestly and with all sincerity and yet wonder “Where are You, Lord? What are You waiting on? Don’t You hear my cries for answers?” Do you have an ache and burden in your heart to see God move and to be a part of His plan? Then, I encourage you to become “the one.” Return to Him and praise Him for the things He is doing in your life. Do you want to find a godly mate? Write it down! Do you need the Lord's help with finances, relationships, purity, self-image, job decisions, etc.? Write those down too. Be specific. Pray expecting an answer and when it arrives, "come back, praise God in a loud voice. Throw yourself at Jesus’ feet and thank him!" You will be utterly amazed at His faithfulness when you remember what He's done.

Isaiah 65:24
Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

Hosea 6:3
“Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”