NEEDY IN PRAYER

In Luke 13 Jesus told a parable that may not have been exactly a parable. Luke calls this a parable. But the story Jesus tells sounds like something that must have happened. 

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“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.’”

Jesus concluded for us that the tax collector went up to his house right with God.

The attitude that Jesus calls us to here is not simply humility. It is awareness of need. We desperately need Him in every area of our lives. We need His mercy in our prayer lives. “Lord give me the hunger and discipline to pray more than I do.” “Lord, show me what to pray.” We need mercy in our morality. “Lord, if you do not intervene in my heart, I will not resist this sin.” “Lord give me Your vision, Your love, Your devotion, Your faithfulness.”