Chapter 14—Self-Centered Prayers
BIBLE GEM
CWG 39.1
QUESTION
CWG 39.2
ANSWER
Prayers from proud and selfish hearts: “Your pride threatens to be your ruin.... Your prayers ... come from hearts filled with pride and selfishness.”—Testimonies For The Church 2:176CWG 39.3
“God cannot approve of the least degree of covetousness or selfishness, and He abhors the prayers and exhortations of those who indulge these evil traits. As Satan sees that his time is short, he leads men on to be more and more selfish and covetous, and then exults as he sees them wrapped up in themselves, close, penurious, and selfish.”—Early Writings, 268CWG 39.4
A selfish prayer: “In the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, the self-sufficient prayer, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not as the rest of men,’ stood out in sharp contrast to the penitent's plea, ‘Be merciful to me the sinner.’ ”—The Desire of Ages, 495CWG 39.5
“They are boastful, and pray and talk in a self-righteousness manner, exalting themselves, recounting their good deeds, and, like the Pharisee, virtually thanking God that they are not as other men.”—Testimonies For The Church 1:416CWG 39.6
“The Pharisee's boastful, self-righteous prayer showed that his heart was closed against the influence of the Holy Spirit.... He felt no need, and he received nothing.”—Steps to Christ, 31CWG 39.7
The hope of winning commendation: “The Pharisee goes up to the temple to worship, not because he feels that he is a sinner in need of pardon, but because he thinks himself righteous and hopes to win commendation. His worship he regards as an act of merit that will recommend him to God.... And he is full of self-praise. He looks it, he walks it, he prays it.”—Christ's Object Lessons, 150CWG 40.1
“We must have a knowledge of ourselves, a knowledge that will result in contrition, before we can find pardon and peace. The Pharisee felt no conviction of sin. The Holy Spirit could not work with him. His soul was encased in a self-righteous armor which the arrows of God, barbed and true-aimed by angel hands, failed to penetrate.”—Christ's Object Lessons, 158CWG 40.2
Behold Christ: “While speaking to God to poverty of spirit, the heart may be swelling with the conceit of its own superior humility and exalted righteousness.... We must behold Christ. It is ignorance of Him that makes men so uplifted in their own righteousness....CWG 40.3
“The prayer of the publican was heard because it showed dependence reaching forth to lay hold upon Omnipotence. Self to the publican appeared nothing but shame. Thus it must be seen by all who seek God. By faith—faith that renounces all self-trust—the needy suppliant is to lay hold upon infinite power.”—Christ's Object Lessons, 159CWG 40.4
The peril of self-sufficiency: “The evil that led to Peter's fall and that shut out the Pharisee from communion with God is proving the ruin of thousands today. There is nothing so offensive to God or so dangerous to the human soul as pride and self-sufficiency.”—Christ's Object Lessons, 154, 155CWG 40.5
SUMMARY AND PRAYER THOUGHT
CWG 40.6
CWG 40.7
CWG 40.8
CWG 41.1