Over the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring what it means to receive a fresh start — not just a surface-level reset, but a deep, grace-filled reorientation of life.
Week 1: Surrender, Not Control
Fresh starts often begin not with excitement, but with honesty — that moment when we admit we can’t keep going the way we’ve been.
We looked at Jesus’ invitation:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23, NIV).
Real transformation begins with surrender.
Not control, but courage.
Not self-reliance, but trust.
Week 2: Steadfast Purpose
Then we turned to the image of Jesus as a mother hen:
“How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (Luke 13:34).
And we heard Paul say,
“I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12).
Some fresh starts don’t feel dramatic. They look like perseverance — the daily choice to stay in the work, to remain in love, and to trust God even when the path is hard.
Living Sacrifices: A Response to Grace
This week, we turn to Romans 12, where Paul writes:
“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1).
This is not about earning favor. It’s about responding with awe. With worship. With deep gratitude for grace already received.
Paul goes on:
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
A fresh start means refusing the fear-driven rhythms of the world. It means allowing God’s mercy to shape how we live, how we serve, how we love.
Because grace isn’t just something that happens to us — it also invites a response.
And when that response is genuine, it always leads to gratitude.
One Returned: The Gospel of Luke 17:11–19
In Luke 17, we read the story of ten lepers who cry out to Jesus for mercy:
“Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” (Luke 17:13)
“Go, show yourselves to the priests,” he replies. And as they go, they are cleansed (Luke 17:14).
But then something remarkable happens:
“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” (Luke 17:15–16).
Ten people were healed. But only one returned.
And Jesus notices.
“Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” (Luke 17:17)
“Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19).
That word “well” (Greek: sozo) means more than physical healing. It implies being made whole, saved, restored.
Gratitude in Real Life
This story might remind us of the moments in our own lives when healing began — not always all at once, not always how we expected, but still real.
For some, that healing came through recovery communities or spiritual friendships — places where it was finally safe to stop pretending, to name pain, to be honest about struggle.
Healing often comes through the quiet work of grace:
through surrender, through community, and through the slow recognition that we don’t carry our burdens alone.
And when we begin to see that — even imperfectly — something shifts:
Gratitude begins to grow.
More Than a Feeling
Gratitude isn’t just a nice response to help received.
It’s a turning point — a spiritual reorientation.
All ten lepers were changed.
Only one let that change lead to worship.
Jesus doesn’t scold the others — but he honors the one who saw grace clearly.
Because gratitude completes the healing.
It turns a miracle into a relationship.
It moves us from being helped… to being made whole.
When We Miss the Moment
It’s easy to relate to the nine who didn’t return.
Not because they were ungrateful, but because they were overwhelmed.
They were moving forward — eager to be declared clean, eager to re-enter life.
And that’s us, too, sometimes.
Moving from task to task, relief to relief, barely pausing to breathe — let alone to say thank you.
We live in a culture that rewards speed, independence, and performance.
But grace doesn’t always work at that pace.
And unless we pause — to reflect, to name, to praise — we might miss the healing already underway.
We might move forward physically… while staying stuck spiritually.
Communities That Tell the Story
This is something to consider not only personally, but communally.
Wherever people gather — in faith, in friendship, in service — stories of healing and mercy are present.
The question is: Are they being named?
Are we telling the stories of grace out loud?
Are we remembering the hard places we’ve walked through — and the strength that carried us?
Are we becoming the kind of community where gratitude is part of the rhythm?
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
Because when gratitude becomes a shared practice, it changes the tone.
It turns survival into celebration.
It reminds us: we are not the source of our own renewal.
Grace is.
Jesus in the Borderlands
One detail in the story is easy to miss:
“Jesus was going into a village, walking along the border between Samaria and Galilee” (Luke 17:11).
That tells us something deeper.
Jesus moves in the borderlands.
In the places between — where people feel left out, overlooked, or uncertain.
That’s where the lepers were.
That’s where healing began.
And notice: Jesus didn’t instantly heal them. He said,
“Go, show yourselves to the priests” (Luke 17:14).
They had to walk in faith — trusting healing would come as they obeyed.
That’s often how grace works: not a lightning bolt, but a journey.
A series of small steps.
A willingness to walk toward restoration before we fully see it.
The Power of Recognition
One man sees he is healed. He stops.
He turns back. He praises God.
“Your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19).
This wasn’t just physical.
It was spiritual transformation.
It was a new relationship.
It was wholeness.
Gratitude didn’t just mark the healing — it deepened it.
It multiplied it.
Be Transformed: Romans 12
Paul writes in Romans 12:2:
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
This isn’t just about behavior. It’s about vision.
The world says:
Prove yourself. Hide your struggles. Earn your worth.
But the Gospel says:
You are already loved (Romans 5:8).
You are already chosen (Ephesians 1:4).
You are already being made new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Transformation begins when we begin to see differently — through the lens of grace, not fear; through the lens of belovedness, not performance.
And that kind of vision is what turned the healed man into a worshiper.
A Fresh Start Through Gratitude
So what have we seen in this journey of fresh starts?
We began with surrender — letting go of control (Luke 9:23).
Then came perseverance — pressing on when healing is slow (Philippians 3:12–14).
And now we arrive at the practice that holds it all together:
Gratitude (1 Thessalonians 5:18; Colossians 3:15–17).
Because a fresh start isn’t just about moving on.
It’s about recognizing grace — and choosing to respond with awe, with praise, and with purpose.
That’s what the one who returned discovered.
He didn’t just get his life back — he found the One who gave it.
And that changed everything.
The Invitation to Return
Fresh starts are happening all around — in your story, in others’ stories, in ways not yet named.
The invitation is simple but sacred:
Don’t miss the chance to return.
Don’t let healing go unnoticed.
Don’t let the slow work of grace pass by without praise.
Don’t forget to say:
“Give thanks to the Lord, for God is good; God’s love endures forever” (Psalm 107:1).
Because gratitude doesn’t just express what we feel.
It shapes who we become.
So may your life — and your community — be marked not just by healing, but by return.
Not just by movement, but by praise.
Not just by change… but by the recognition that grace has been at work all along.
And may those words be on your lips and in your heart, again and again:
Thank you, God… for this fresh start.
Pieces of the Puzzle 