"But I warn you - unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of the religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!" Matthew 5:20
This alarming statement of Jesus - and the equally alarming demands made in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount - have come up in House Group and in my daily reading this week. The following prayer, which could be alternatively titled "From Pharisee to Follower", is a result of my reflections on the comparison made there between 'perfect' or 'true' righteousness and that which is only skin deep.
Holy God,
I bring you my heart.
I know it is too small, and often tightly clenched.
It is sensitive, its rhythm easily thrown off at jabs from others.
Selfishness and indulgence have clogged its arteries, restricting your life blood from flowing through unhindered.
A fearful heart, plagued with anxiety about this or that.
This heart is committed to holiness yet permanently hampered by its own inadequacy,
Driven to conceal its failure from itself and others by external rules -
Keeping up appearances.
A deceitful heart.
I know this is not a heart of your heart, a righteous heart.
And in my heart of hearts that is not how I want it to be.
So I give you my heart, damaged and blemished as it is.
And by your grace I pray that you replace it with yours.
