Daily Reading for Personal Growth, 40 Days with God

¹⁰ Jesus said, ‘One day, two men went into the temple to pray. One man was a Pharisee. The other man took taxes from people. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood there by himself. He prayed like this: “Thank you, God, that I am different from all these other people. They are bad people. They rob other people. They have sex with women who are not their wife. Thank you, God, that I am not like this man who takes taxes on behalf of the government. ¹² I fast for two days of each week. I give to you one tenth of all the things and money that I receive.”

¹³ But the other man stood far away. He would not even look up towards heaven. He was hitting his body with his hands to show how sorry he was. He prayed like this: “Please, God, be kind to me. I have done many bad things.” ’

¹⁴ Jesus then said, ‘Let me tell you about these men when they went home. The man that took taxes from people was now right with God. But the Pharisee was still guilty. Some people lift themselves up to be important. But God will bring all of them down low. Other people are humble. God will lift up those people to a good place.’