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.” ^[1]

Think

Hold on to Jesus words about the tax collector.  God answered his prayer.  If you pray for God to help you to be more like Jesus he will answer that prayer.

Pray

God, have pity on me a sinner!

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^w stood apart by himself and prayed; some manuscripts have stood up and prayed to himself.

¹⁴ 18.14: Mt 23:12; Lk 14:11

^[1] American Bible Society. (1992). The Holy Bible: The Good news Translation (2nd ed.). New York: American Bible Society.