"I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed" (Dan. 9:4).
In Luke 18 Jesus told a parable to people who were trusting in their own self-righteousness. He said, "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, 'God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'
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"But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'
"I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted" (vv. 10-14).
Apart from God's mercy we cannot enter into God's presence. The tax-gatherer knew that and pled for forgiveness. The Pharisee missed the point and went away without forgiveness.
