Proverbs 11:2 Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Proverbs 13:10 Pride leads to conflict.
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.
Proverbs 29:23 Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor.
Daniel 4:37 He is able to humble the proud.
Pride--it is the great equalizer. It is what makes the murderer and thief the same as the person who tells little white lies or the person who harbors bitterness and anger in their heart. It causes jealousy and arguments and breaks relationships and hurts parents and children and husbands and wives alike. And yet few recognize it for what it is. Not many people take time to examine the motives of their heart. Most want to play the victim and blame everything wrong in their lives on someone else.
You have most likely identified those times when pride in someone else's life has wounded you. Every sin committed has an element of pride in it. And the wounds given to you are not acceptable in God's sight. Those who have wounded you will one day be judged if they don't repent and accept Jesus' payment for their sin.
But I am asking you to examine your own heart and motives today. What part have you played in wounding, how has pride prevented you from restoring relationships? What has kept you from stretching out your hand to help another in need? I don't know that you can identify pride without asking yourself if you have a need for Jesus' forgiveness in your life today. And you can only discover that when you line yourself up against the holiness of God.
When you read Isaiah 6:1-8 you get a little glimpse into the holiness of God when Isaiah, a prophet of God, says, "It's all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven's Armies."
When Isaiah was allowed to see God in all his glory he was shaken to the core. He realized he deserved to be destroyed forever because he was so far from being sinless.
How is it that we get so cocky? What gives us any confidence at all that we deserve anything from God? We deserve nothing! The Bible says all our good works are as filthy rags to Him. And yet we turn around to our siblings and friends and parents and children and co-workers and even people within the church and want to act like we are better than them. How dare we look at ourselves as righteous! It is only if I have faith that Jesus' blood paid for my sin that God says He can look on me as righteous. He let His Son trade His perfection for my sinfulness.
Knowing this requires a humility that can only come from God as well. In our human flesh, pride continually tries to sneak back in and make us think we deserve something. Only in humility will God ever be able to use us for His glory. Only in humility can we forgive and work out differences. Only in humility can we extend love to another sinner that needs to be saved by this amazing grace.
Please, today, don't forget where you came from. Don't forget what you could have been had you not met grace in the face of Jesus Christ. Don't let pride prevent you from experiencing all the blessings God wants to shower on you.
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Philippians 2:3-11
Don't be selfish: don't try to impress others. Be humble, THINKING OF OTHERS AS BETTER THAN YOURSELVES. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had:
Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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