A Devotional: Lord, Have Mercy
Luke 18:9-14
Today, we begin a new phase in our Journey with Jesus. We begin the Season of Lent, a time of preparation for the week of ultimate giving--Holy Week.
In today's Gospel Lesson, Jesus tells a simple story about two people praying. One was a Pharisee; the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee was proud of his accomplishments, and it is hard to blame him.
The tax collector, on the other hand, kept repeating over and over, "God be merciful to me, a sinner!" (verse 13).
Of course we praise the prayer of the tax collector and we point to the overtly prideful conduct of the Pharisee. But in our everyday living, who do we pattern our lives after? Humility is not a virtue that our culture celebrates.
The call to the Season of Lent is not a call to show off our piety. It is a call to grace--but our ability to appreciate that grace depends upon our recognition of our own sinfulness. We do not receive grace because we deserve it; God offers us grace, even though we don't deserve it.
I invite you to a season of discovery. Six and a half weeks of discovering how much we don't deserve God's love. In the process, we will discover just how much God loves us anyway!
God, be merciful to me, a sinner!
No comments:
Post a Comment