Kissing God's Butt

Yesterday in #SheReadsTruth we read Luke 18:1-14. In the Parable of the Tax Collector and Pharisee, I was pretty convicted. The pharisee had prayed to God thanking him for not being like others. At first, I thought well duh, that is dumb. why would the pharisee even pray like that? 

Then it got real. I can't actually recount a time when I prayed like that. But, I can recount a time when I thought like that. I think if we are all honest we really can relate to the pharisee. It may have been thoughts of jealousy, thinking you're better, or any number of things.

• I would never talk to my husband that way.
• Really, she spanked her child over that?
• Yikes, they live on that street?
• She really wore that out in public?

As superficial as those may sound, I've thought them recently. And if I'm honest, that's just what the pharisees were doing--comparing.  Essentially they were kissing God's butt. While I wasn't kissing God's butt, I was doing the same type of comparing. 

Nothing make me, or you, any better than anyone else-nothing. 

Jesus went on to say, "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

Convicting. Who I am and what I think says everything about who I really am.