Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Is Jesus associating praise, giving God glory, with faith? The ex-leper who returns to praise God is ultimately honored by Jesus for his faith. Faith and glory are very closely connected in this passage. The truth is that a person’s response to the work of God in his or her life illustrates faith or the lack thereof. When we glorify God, praising Him, for what He has done and is doing in our lives we profess faith. We must believe in order to give God glory for what has happened. As Jesus said in John 11, “If you believe you will see the glory of God”. If we don’t believe then we will find some other earthly explanation for the good we have experienced. It’s that simple. The skeptic will never see the glory of God and praise Him for he has no faith to see it. He is not open to even considering that the work might be of God. The faithful believer knows that every “good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights” and thus expresses his faith by glorifying Father God and praising Him for all of it.
Keep this in mind the next time you realize a clear work that God has done in your life or the next time you are simply gathered with believers in corporate worship: your praise, how you glorify God, illustrates your faith.
How well are you praising Him? Do you truly believe?
Ventanas 