Do you lie when you pray?

HONEST PRAYER

Lk. 18:9-14

Some people are attracted to prayer because it seems like such a good deal.  After all, didn't Jesus say, "Whatever you ask in my name, I will grant it"?  (John 14:13)  We are always looking for ways to get our needs and wants met.  Can you imagine a better way than this?  Ask God in Jesus’ name and you will receive it.  Through all generations prayer has been associated in most people's minds with asking for things, and it sounds like a pretty good deal.  Surely there is more to prayer than just asking?

What is prayer?  Prayer, of course, is not a deal, good or bad.  It is certainly not a matter of trying to manipulate God to get what we want.  True prayer is our wanting to be intimate with the Lord, to bond with Him, to consolidate our friendship, to get to know His will and do it.  If prayer is not understood as part of a growing relationship with God, it will never be understood at all.  When we speak of intimacy with God we are not talking about the kind of intimacy that can exist between two people.  In human relationships intimacy at its best involves equal parties in a mutual commitment of trust and openness.  Intimacy with God, however, will only happen if we realise that God is the supreme Lord of all things and we are entirely dependent on Him.  It is only when we give God His proper place that all other things in our lives fall into their proper places.

In the parable we have read Jesus teaches us how we ought to pray and our relationship with God.  He contrasts two men who went to the temple to pray, a Pharisee and a tax collector.  The Pharisees were dedicated to teaching and observing the law.  This commitment, however, became an unemotional, unspiritual preoccupation because they followed a legalistic religion.  The Pharisee stood in the temple and prayed to himself about himself.  He did not pray to God.  He thanked God he was not like other people and reminded God of his meticulous obedience to the law.  He made the mistake of comparing himself with another.  In prayer if comparisons are made, we must compare ourselves with God and then we find we are all wanting.  His prayer was essentially a monologue of self-congratulation.

In contrast to this self-righteous arrogance, there is the attitude of the tax collector.  Tax collectors in Palestine were despised by their fellow Jews because they collected taxes for Rome.  They also tended to be dishonest in their business and feather their own nest.  This publican did not feel worthy to approach God's presence.  He stayed at the back of the Temple.  He wouldn't even look in the direction of God.  He certainly couldn't compare himself to God for he found himself wanting.  He has nothing with which to justify himself, and his only hope is that God will be merciful to him.  All he could pray were the words, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"  The difference between the two men is honesty.  The Pharisee deceives himself and tries to deceive God.  The tax collector is brutally honest with himself and with God.  Unlike the Pharisee, who went home unchanged, the tax collector goes home "justified," that is, forgiven and renewed in his relationship with God.

Honesty in the tax collector's prayer won him the day.  His genuine honesty didn't lead to pride, but to humility.  Some of us don't like that word humility, because it is such a misunderstood word.  Humility doesn't mean that you put yourself down, or you feel bad about yourself.  It doesn't refer to a lack of self-esteem.  Humility is the spiritual maturity to make a proper estimation of yourself.  It tells you who you are, that you are not God.  That you depend entirely on God.  You did not create yourself and cannot redeem yourself.  You have no business trying to assume God's place.  It tells you that you are of some worth for you are created in the image of God, but sadly through sinning you have tarnished that image.

Lord Jesus, may we learn to pray like the tax collector, to recognise our worth in relationship with God.  To rely not on our own resources but on Him who can give us everything we need.  May our prayer bring about an intimacy and friendship with You, Who is the most wonderful Person in this world.

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