Open Heart
Tuesday, November 1
Open Heart
The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector. Luke 18:11
Jesus often used parables to bring across a message. These gems, the wisdom of God is also for us today. But we need the Holy Spirit to reveal these truths to us. When we depend on our own interpretations, we often ‘miss the mark’. Consider the account written in Luke 18. When reading the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, we look at the Pharisee and some of us easily judge his pride and arrogance. We choose between the two parties and can easily see ourselves as praying the tax collector’s prayer – ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like the other people’. Often, we proceed by thinking about ‘other people’. But aren’t we doing the same as the Pharisee did, when we judge the tax collector and others for being prideful?
The Pharisee wasn’t really speaking to God. He was acknowledging himself and his own efforts. In the process he was judging and belittling the tax collector in order to feel better about himself and his own efforts at righteousness. Today let us not judge, instead use our words to speak to God, thanking Him for sending His Son to save us all from sin.
Jesus says in Luke 6:41: “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice or consider the log that is in your own eye?”. Maybe the most important lesson in this parable is not to decide which one of the two we are, but to ask the Lord to show us our hearts. Maybe it’s to make us stop and think about how we are towards others who are different to us. It’s not about what others do or don’t do, or about what I ‘do better’, but about who I am to others in His Kingdom.
Prayer for today: Father God, thank You for Your faithful love that never ends and that Your mercies begin afresh each morning. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (Psalm 51:10). Amen.