Daily Reading for Personal Growth, 40 Days with God

¹⁰ Two men went up into the temple [^[a]enclosure] to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

¹¹ The Pharisee ^[b]took his stand ostentatiously and began to pray thus before and with himself: God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men—extortioners (robbers), swindlers [unrighteous in heart and life], adulterers—or even like this tax collector here.

¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I gain.

¹³ But the tax collector, [merely] standing at a distance, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his breast, saying, O God, be favorable (be gracious, be merciful) to me, the ^[c]especially wicked sinner that I am!

¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified (forgiven and made upright and in right standing with God), rather than the other man; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.