Prayerfully Re-Center Around God
Luke 18:9-14
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
The tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
~ Jesus
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Pondering Point
Luke 18 verse 13 (above) contains a simple and oft-quoted prayer of the bible. The parable it comes from teaches acceptable and unacceptable ways to approach God. Having humility and seeking mercy go a long way in the right direction; displaying arrogance and self-importance go a long way in the wrong direction.
Review the Week
In your heart, do you regard yourself highly or lowly? Do you tend to justify your behavior to others? When you approach God in prayer, do you regard yourself highly or lowly? What is your basis for holding such an opinion? What is your self-measurement on the humility-arrogance scale? Do you think others see you the way you see yourself? Ask a few people about your humility/pride. “Confidence” comes from the latin con-fides meaning “with faith.” Are you coming to God with faith in yourself or with faith in Jesus?
Repent (if necessary)
Repent of and pray for removal of any pride or self-confidence in relation to God. For those wanting to maintain the merits of self-confidence, ask yourself, “how and where does God fit into the character trait of self-confidence? Who gets the glory?”
From there determine any need to change your viewpoint.
Return (as necessary)
If wrongfully misplaced, rightfully replace your confidence of good rapport with God into Jesus. If you remove the grace of God that comes in Jesus, all the self-confidence in the world will leave you lacking with our holy God. If you come in the name of Jesus, under the person and work of Jesus on your behalf, you will lack nothing to stand confidently before our holy God.
Prayer
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. In the name of Jesus, be merciful to me. By Your Holy Spirit, show me the depths of my sin that I may appreciate the depths of Your mercy coming to me daily through Jesus, in whose name I pray.
Luke 5:27-32
Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners
The
Great Sending
Word of the Day
Luke 5:27-32
27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”