Giving Praise Back

Luke 9:10
(10)  On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida.

(10)  Καὶ ὑποστρέψαντες οἱ ἀπόστολοι διηγήσαντο αὐτῷ ὅσα ἐποίησαν. καὶ παραλαβὼν αὐτοὺς ὑπεχώρησεν κατ' ἰδίαν εἰς πόλιν καλουμένην Βηθσαϊδά.

Every time I read about this I have a sense of the apostles coming back with a mixture of righteous pride and surprise.  The righteous pride is being proud of what God has done.  It is not pride in themselves, but in their God.  Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but that's kind of how I picture it.

I also imagine a little bit of surprise.  They had to have been at least a little bit amazed the first time they were able to cast out a demon or heal someone who was sick.  They had seen Jesus do it, but now they had that authority too as delegated to them by Jesus.

I also think of them like proud children coming to their dad when they do something big.  It could be like riding your bike without training wheels.  Or maybe it's swimming around the pool.  The point is that it is something that dad had encouraged you to do and you were able to do it for the first time.

I take this as something of an imperative for us to offer back praise to God when He answers prayers.  It's so easy to get caught up in what we want next that we may forget that He is the source.  I think that He must appreciate it when we give Him the glory for what He has done in our lives.