This past week I was asked what I wanted to set as my spiritual goals for the semester. What I wanted to get out of it. I wasn't sure. I didn't know what God was calling me to examine in my life. I thought I was doing OK spiritually. I had been memorizing scripture and I did know that I needed to work on discipline but besides that I just had no idea. Then of course God let me know.
While reading the Old Testament this year, I have noticed a lot of patterns and themes. But the one that sticks out the most is PRIDE. Pride has continually been a reoccurring sin through out the Israelites history that I noticed. I thought why can't they just figure out that there is no way they are better or even close to being as awesome as the Creator. Stay humble. But then when I really thought about it, I realized that was something that I struggled with. Just the other day I thought I was doing OK spiritually. I mean... WHAT?! How could I have even thought that I was anywhere close to being perfect or into the masterpiece God continually has to reform me to reach?
Pride is not just when you think you are the best person at everything but also when you are just always thinking of yourself. When you are thinking about how you are so awful or you just can't measure up, guess who you are still thinking about? YOURSELF!! Not saying that you can't be proud of your accomplishments but it is the easiest way for Satan to get a foothold and squeeze in between us and God.
For example, lets take a look at the Kings of the Old Testament. They most always failed when it came to pride. I can understand too. Being one of the most powerful people in your region and having people fawn over you and tell you how great you are would make pride a huge stumbling block. Take Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 32. He was a great kind and did awesome things for the LORD. But even he had issues.... pride. That caused some of the problems that occurred in that time period. Another king before him, Uzziah, had the same problem. 2 Chronicles 26:16 says "But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall." This king thought that he could enter into the Lord's temple when he was not a priest. I went back and in 2 Chronicles alone, I counted at least 7 kinds that had issues with pride.
Pride is so sneaky. It creeps and crawls into little crevices of our souls and just expands without our realization. In Proverbs 3:34 it says what God thinks about pride, " God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." I would never want the creator of the universe against me. But when we humble ourselves grace is given. That is shown in Chapter 27 of 2 Chronicles in Kind Jotham but also in myself. Only when I bring myself and humble myself before God do I admit that I can't do everything on my own. Humility hurts but having God break your pride hurts more.
I think that pride is at the heart of all sin. It was the first sin to be committed. Adam and Eve thought that they knew better than God. They thought that they could do it better, not realizing what disobeying God would do. Pride is clearly the weakness of humans. They say that pain is weakness leaving the body and I definitely think that when you are humbled it is painful. So I would say this saying is legit.
I think God has been teaching so much to me about this recently. The different places I have had pride in my life. It is in more places than I thought. Even in the "I'm such a good Christian" spot. I was listening to Lecrae recently and something in one of his songs really struck me. It says something along the lines of :
If God is so good then why do all these bad things happen in the world and to me. Your
asking the wrong question. The real question you should ask yourself is with all the bad
things in the world and the bad things I have done, why haven't I felt the full wrath of the
Lord?
I think that this is really powerful and so much about pride. We don't think our faults are so bad because we always compare to people or actions that are "worse". Its all bad and we need to look at ourselves with humility.
We are sinners who have been redeemed by the Son and made into Saints in the eyes of the Lord.
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