Be Merciful to Me A Sinner!

Luk 18:9  And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 

Luk 18:10  Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 

Luk 18:11  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 

Luk 18:12  I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 

Luk 18:13  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 

Luk 18:14  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. 

Luk 16:15  And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. 

Pro 30:12  There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. 

Rom 10:2  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 

Rom 10:3  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 

Rom 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 

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The parable our Lord gave revealed the truth of people who boast of their own goodness, their upstanding position, their righteousness, their good works, the belief that they are in a good place. Truthfully, our righteousness are filthy rags. All the good works we do mean nothing if they are not to the glory of God. We need the mercy of God always! If we start to believe we are good in and of ourselves without the glory of God, then we are believing in our ability to have our own righteousness. If we believe we can have our own righteousness then our comprehension of the truth, that our goodness is completely dependent upon our God, is lost. Do we WANT to be good outside of God? Do we want to have righteousness of our own? If we do, then why? What would we do with our own righteousness independent of our God? Doesn't the belief in our own righteousness lead to pride? And pride leads to our downfall.  We need to give God all the glory for all goodness, and we need to thank the Lord for all things, because we need to trust that HE will work all things together for our good.

We need to be as the sinner because we are the sinner and we need to ask for mercy, not boast of the good we believe we've done.

Let all our righteousness belong to God, because it is God's righteousness that matters. If our righteousness belongs to us, it is filthy, corrupted by our vanity, our pride, our sin.

Please Father, please bless us, keep us in YOU and YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS all through the mercy of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!