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Prayer you will not despise
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
Luke 18:13
The tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
Bartimaeus cried out from the roadside, “Lord Jesus Christ, son of David, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Jesus heard him. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked. “I want to see again.” Jesus healed his sight, and Bartimaeus followed him down the road, his life completely changed.
In Jesus’ story, the Pharisee assumed “the position” and prayed the prayer of the righteous. But what good is that, Jesus asks? Gratitude is beautiful, but the demands and self-praise of entitlement are ugly.
David began his life in humility, became corrupted by his kingship, and returned to humility. Ashamed in his exposed guilt, David turned back to God and acknowledged, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”
Jesus describes what happened to these broken men. In their humility they were exalted. Quietly, out of the sight of others, prayer was reshaping them into the children God made. That’s what I want too.
Teach me to pray, Lord, in the darkness, in the silence of the night and the light of dawn. Open up my ears more than my mouth; I want to know you and receive your love rather than the love of the world.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1358
