“More praise for relief.” (“More Holiness Give Me”, Phillip Paul Bliss). There’s a scene in a sitcom where a man is praying aloud in a church and while he’s in the middle of his prayer he gets a call telling him exactly the news he wanted to hear and he turns back to God and says something like, “Never mind, I guess I didn’t need you after all.” How often does our Heavenly Father give us precisely what we ask for and we just take it as a matter of course? When Jesus cleansed the ten lepers, nine of them discovered that they had been healed, that they had been given their deepest desire for which they had been waiting years and years, and they just kept on walking. They were so caught up in the joy of relief, of their plans to visit family and friends to celebrate this great gift - all good and noble things - but only one out of the ten decided to go back and give praise to the one who had granted him such relief. Christ does not help us for the fame or the glory. He loves us so much that if we never thanked Him, even after He helped us seventy times seven times and more, yet He would still do it anyway. But we are depriving ourselves when we neglect to give thanks and praise to God for our relief. Ten lepers were cleansed, but only the one who turned back to give thanks was made whole. When Nephi had been tied up and starved for four days to the mast of a ship that was in very real danger of plunging into the depths of the sea, the very first thing he did after being released was not pleading with the Lord to not let them all drown. “Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions.” (1 Nephi 18:16). Singing praises unto the Lord helps that relief to sink deep into our soul, so that we can be so filled up with our Savior’s grace that by the time that the next trial comes around, we can face it with greater strength, patience, and peace and with an even greater inclination to give thanks and praise when the relief comes again. I have witnessed relief come unlooked for more times than I can count and I will try a little harder to offer up praise and thanksgiving each time it does.
