Posted on 03/07/2023 6:05:11 AM PST by metmom
"I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed" (Dan. 9:4).
God will not respond to self-righteous prayers.
In Luke 18 Jesus told a parable to people who were trusting in their own self-righteousness. He said, "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, 'God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'
"But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'
"I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted" (vv. 10-14).
Apart from God's mercy we cannot enter into God's presence. The tax-gatherer knew that and pled for forgiveness. The Pharisee missed the point and went away without forgiveness.
Like the tax-gatherer, Daniel approached God with an attitude of confession and self-denial. He could have reminded God of his years of faithful service while in Babylon, but that didn't enter his mind. He knew that in himself there was nothing to commend him to God. His only thought was for mercy for himself and his people, that God's purposes could be realized through them.
As a Christian, you have the wonderful privilege of boldly entering into God's presence "with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:22). That privilege is rooted in God's grace through Christ's sacrifice and leaves no room for presumption or self-righteousness. Always guard your attitude in prayer so that you don't unwittingly slip into a Pharisaic mentality.
Suggestions for Prayer
Memorize Psalm 117:1-118:1 and recite it often as a hymn of praise to the Lord.
For Further Study
Jesus had much to say about the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees of His day. Read Matthew 23, noting His scathing denunciations of their hypocritical attitudes and practices.
From Drawing Near by John MacArthur Copyright © 1993. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.
Studying God’s Word ping
Yes, humility is tricky. A wise man once said, “If you think you’re humble, you ain’t.”
Exactly.
A truly humble person would not focus enough attention on themselves to even address the question.
Realizing that compared to God, there is little difference in terms of sin between yourself and people like Hitler or Mao is the start of salvation. Only through the belief in the redemptive power of Christ do you even have a chance of being saved.
Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.
James 2:10-11 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
People have a tendency to compare ourselves with ourselves and pass judgment on ourselves by that standard. Thus we categorize in into different categories based on how bad we just the sin to be.
What seems to escape most people’s notice is that the issue with sin is not so much what sin we commit, but that any and all sin is an offense to the same holy God. That’s why breaking one of His commandments is essentially equivalent to breaking any other or even all of them.
It’s WHOSE Law we have violated, not what law.
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