9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
14"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 18:9-14
Knowing that we should pray, that it is essential to our growth and well being, sometimes leaves me feeling inadequate: focussing either on the prayerless person I have been or the prayerful person I long to be. While I am sure that it is not God’s intention to leave me further burdened, the idea of prayer as a task or function to be performed, and often not performed well enough or often enough, can lead me into a spiritual paralysis induced by guilt or hopelessness.
At such times, when I am so aware of my own shortcomings, I try to remind myself that God welcomes us into His presence just as we are. The simple prayer of “here I am Lord” or the prayer of “beginning again” is often the starting point for fruitfulness in our relationship with God.
The Tax Collector in Jesus’ parable is such a penitent. With nothing to commend himself he is the one whom Jesus said will be exalted. God loves to raise up the humble; we have nothing worthy of giving God in any case – why should seek to earn His favour in any fashion? Richard Foster in his book Prayer – Finding The Heart’s True Home, says that, “Simple Prayer is the most common form of prayer in the Bible. Simple Prayer involves ordinary people bringing ordinary concerns to a loving and compassionate Father. There is no pretence in Simple Prayer. We do not pretend to be more holy, more pure, or more saintly than we actually are. We do not try to conceal our conflicting and contradictory motives from God – or ourselves. And in this posture we pour out our heart to the God who is greater than our heart and who knows all things (1 John 3:20).”
As we begin this journey further into a prayer life with God, can I suggest to you that the first step may well be just that – being: being in God’s presence with awareness. This might be in the quiet of a remote beach, an alcove in the library or the end of a dock – or it might be stuck on traffic on 278. It doesn’t matter. Let us begin our prayer with the “warts and all” humility of seeking to spend time in God presence without pretensions or pride of accomplishment. Let us use our lack of prayer as an encouragement to take our desire for more to God as prayer, and to let him satisfy that hunger.
Mike Clarkson
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