A Prayer
Dear Lord,
Thank you so much for this ministry that you’ve given me. Thank you for the opportunities you’ve given me to serve.
But Lord, today I was talking again to that friend I’ve been praying about. My heart was just broken. Sin has trapped him, Lord.
He’s trapped in a job, Lord, where he’s doing things that just aren’t honest. And now he tells me that he has a relationship with another woman – Lord, his family is just being torn apart!
And all I could think was – there, but for Your grace, go I!
But Lord, I thank you for all the things you’re teaching me. Learning these spiritual disciplines has been such a blessing. It’s been a wonderful experience seeking your face in fasting, Lord. And even learning to give, Lord – you’ve blessed me through that, too.
Thank you so much, Lord, for being there for me.
Yours truly, the Pharisee
Luke 18:10-14 (read it again for the very first time)
18 November 2010 @ 12:47 am
Jim: Powerful prayer to ponder, with the Luke passage in mind.
21 November 2010 @ 6:34 pm
Yes, it’s basically a very loose paraphrase of the Pharisee’s prayer in Luke 18. I think we’ve read it so many times, we forget that, in its day, it really had a surprise ending. People did not expect the Pharisee to be the “bad guy”. His prayer sounds so good. But in the end, the prayer is futile. The Pharisee misses the point.
22 November 2010 @ 11:55 pm
Jim: The Pharisee is really full of pride probably thinking he could never be like this scoundrel he talks about. But, the tax collecter humbles himself and confesses his sins to God, begging for His mercy.
Pride is a sin that the Lord hates. Proverbs makes that perfectly clear. And I think most, if not all of us, yes, Christians, have to wrestle with it. We say we’re “sinners saved by grace”, which we are, but we are often blind to our still active sinful hearts.