Unworthy to Pray?

The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!’

Luke 18:13 

 

I have a confession to make....there are times (most of them) when I feel completely unworthy to pray.  That might sound odd, because conversations with God should flow freely.  Yet when I think about all the things I have thought, said, the way I've acted when I was irritated, the things I have wished on others because they hurt me, I feel so ashamed!  After all, as horrible as I can be, and am, who am I to consider myself worthy to talk with God?

 

In today's verse, the word translated as "sinner" quite literally means "the worst of the worst."  This tax collector begged God for mercy because of all the evil in his life.  He felt unworthy!

 

Just when I was beginning to feel hopeless, God pointed me to a quote by Martin Luther: "Prayer must not be based on, or depend on, your personal worthiness or the quality of the prayer itself; rather, it MUST BE based on the unchanging truth of God's promise.  We pray BECAUSE we are unworthy to pray. Our prayers are heard precisely because we believe that we are unworthy.  We BECOME worthy to pray when we RISK EVERYTHING on God's faithfulness alone."

 

When I read this, prayer made so much more sense!  If I waited until I "felt" worthy, there would never be a prayer I could utter.  But because of God's love, mercy, grace, and truth, He not only hears, He listens and He answers!