“Ask God For Mercy!”

“Ask God For Mercy!”
I took a brief walk down memory lane. I paused at when Evangelist Reinhardt Bonke came to Kumba, Cameroon. As students of theology we were exceptionally given the privilege to daily attend his crusades.
Now I settle on the evening when in his preachingg he asked, “People of Kumba, am I going to see you in heaven?” It was a kind of lamentation for Kumba. When I look back I wonder whether Bonke was full of grace and was so confident of being in heaven, while the Kumba people would not. Or is it that he was among those “who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody.”
When you pray, what do you tell God? When you pray what image of yourself do you present to God?
Jesus in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector wants us to know that prayer is not about boasting in confidence about our righteousness while looking down on others (Lk.18:14). God already knows who you are and the religious rituals you perform.
The Pharisee could boast of fasting twice a week and giving a tenth of all he got, but that is not the kind of fast that God has chosen. The kind of fast he has chosen is to “loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke…to share your food with the hungry…” (Is.58:1ff).
On the other hand the tax collector simply “beat his breast and said, ‘God have mercy on me, a sinner.'” Jesus concludes the parable stating that the tax collector, rather than the Pharisee went home justified before God. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The parable teaches us that we are saved by grace and not by good works. Thus, we should always plead the mercy of God in forgiving our sins.
Paul tells us, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, ‘The righteous will live by faith'”(Rom.1:7).
My friend, each time you pray, thank God for what you are, but do not look down on others. Do not be confident of your own righteousness. Rather, depended on the mercy of God for it is by God’s mercy that you are what you have becone or aspire to become. Knowledge of this will keep you humble before God. We are saved by the bood of the Lamb through whom God has shown us his mercy!
Prayer: Lord thank you for having mercy on me, a sinner. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!