July 31, 2022

Bob Maas
“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The 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. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get’. 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’.”
Luke 18:9-11

There are times when I compare myself to other people. No matter what my situation or condition is, I can always find someone who, in my carnal way of thinking, is less spiritual than I am.

I am grateful that, in those moments of delusional preoccupation with myself, God reminds me that there is only one person to whom He wants me to compare. Jesus Christ is the one, solitary role model God wants me to have. When I contrast my life with His, the light of His holiness exposes some area of darkness in me.

I never cease discovering new areas of my life for which I can repent and be transformed in my thinking. Left to myself, I am insignificant and incapable of doing anything that would overcome the corrupt and irrational way I think and reason.

It is my earnest prayer that God will help me to have the same attitude that Jesus had when He lived on the earth as a man.