Read Luke 18:9-14

Read Luke 18:9-14

9 Jesus also told this parable to people who were sure of their own goodness and despised everybody else. ¹⁰“Once there were two men who went up to the Temple to pray: one was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.

11 “The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed,^w ‘I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there. ¹²I fast two days a week, and I give you a tenth of all my income.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his face to heaven, but beat on his breast and said, ‘God, have pity on me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴I tell you,” said Jesus, “the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home. For all who make themselves great will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be made great.”

Think

I suppose this section and yesterday’s should really go together.  From verse 1-8 we learn to pray until something happens.  In verses 9-14 we learn about how to pray and what to pray for.  Of the tax collector who recognised his own brokenness and need for help he says:

“This man went home justified.”

Pray

Lord, as painful as it may be, I ask that you would justify me.