Today as an Staff Area Team we looked at the 10 lepers in Luke and how only one comes back to thank Jesus and to give him proper praise. I've studied this many times but this time I noticed that Jesus says to this man, "Go, your faith has made you well," at the end and it got me thinking. There is another level of healing that this man experiences because of his ability to bring proper gratefulness and praise to Jesus. We're not really sure what happens to the rest of the 10 lepers but Jesus declares that this man has been made well. It makes you consider that something of a deeper healing occurs for him as he comes back to Jesus. I've never considered how gratefulness and proper praise actually has a role in my own healing and deeper experience of God.

What's also interesting about gratefulness is its not really something you can 'train.' I suppose its something you can encourage but it really does have to come from within us. With that said, the only way to probably produce more gratefulness is to actually practice it...so go figure.

The Syrophoenician woman, what a crazy story that challenges how I view God. Am I allowed to believe God and demand God move based on his character? Most of the time we can get caught simply saying "thy will be done" but its really our way of saying "just in case you don't come through." More and more I must become a person that is willing to know who God is and ask Him to move accordingly. As of late I have loved Richard Foster's words about prayer saying if God's will being done has nothing to do with us praying...then why pray. Tonight was a good night in Mark.

In preparing for my Accountability Relationships seminar tomorrow for Catalyst I've realized I'm very grateful for them. Over the course of my time in college and post college, I'm not sure where I'd be without those relationships.

Along with that I've been thinking. I don't touch on it too much in my seminar but Accountability Partners should also spur each other on towards risk taking and obedience, not simply in fighting sin. For me, I need accountability because I'm not going to go talking about my sin here and there to anyone...so confession is crucial. Along with that however one thing I've found really helpful is talking about the ways God is calling me to risk or serve and asking for help in staying accountable to that. Obviously you don't want to use that as an excuse to not spend time on your sin (that'd make things much easier) but just thinking about how to do that more in my times.