Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” ~Proverbs 16:18
Pride keeps us from everything good God has to offer. Many say it’s the “original sin”. It’s the attitude that Satan had that cost him his position in Heaven and pride will costs us our positions as well. We are told in James 4:6-8 “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” (NIV) There are a lot of people out there that seem to be okay with God being opposed to them but they aren’t going to feel that way for eternity. We as believers must avoid even the appearance of pride in our lives to be a witness for Jesus. The bible teaches we have been seated with Christ in heavenly places and we didn’t get there through self-exaltation. We got there by humbly admitting we were sinners and accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. Jesus came to give us an eternal, resurrection life. He called that life “abundant life”. He said that if we put our trust in Him and what He had done on our behalf, that abundant life could be ours. There is an enemy to the abundant life that Jesus wants to give us, and it begins and ends with pride. Selfishness and self-focus are a temptation for us all. We are bent to evil and what we want and what makes us happy is an attitude we are born with. It actually takes work to align our desires with God’s desires for our lives. We go through seasons that we have to choose to follow His leading “in the minute” at times. In those seasons the devil bombards our minds with everything from “I will never be good enough, so I might as well do what I want “ to “I will never have enough, so I might as well get what I can” to “how could God love someone like me, so I might as well go live however it pleases me”. These are all temptations brought to our mind to rob us and we always have to respond to temptation. We are never in a position to let a thought linger. It must be cast down and that is done by refuting that thought that rises in our minds that stands against the knowledge of Christ or what we know is the good and perfect will of God as revealed in His word. If we wallow in words that aren’t the words of our Savior, we are sure to find ourselves in the proverbial animal stall eating pigs food, just as the prodigal son found himself. But we can come to ourselves way before that if we choose wisely, beginning with our thoughts.
We all have this common enemy. The bible calls him the enemy of our souls. The one that is full of pride and tempts us with being prideful by pricking our minds, our wills, and our emotions regularly with thoughts that are given to lead us down paths creating guilt, brokenness, and heartache. If you put it into practice to answer your thoughts more, what would your life look like? Would it bring you closer to walking in the destiny that God has preordained for every person ever born? Of course it would! We have to choose every day to believe that God is committed to our overwhelming victory despite us! Despite our mistakes, failures and brokenness. We can only do that by choosing not to look at ourselves, what we want and our own abilities, but by humbly keeping our eyes on the Lord and our mind on His will. We should not only expect, but to anticipate the goodness of God showing up and overtaking us in every circumstance, because that is what God has promised. We cannot let our expectations fall below “the best is yet to come” and "I will be better" and "I will do better" because God is with me! Get your mind off you today and get your mind on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. He came to give you abundant life and if you aren’t seeing that right now start using your imagination to figure out what abundant life would look like in your world. Get a glimpse with your mind’s eye of what you want your life to look like…not of what you don’t want. Don’t give up and don’t give in! If it doesn’t happen exactly the way you think it should that’s ok. Keep fighting the good fight! God moves in His own way and in His own time and He has committed to move on behalf of the humble. Our only job is just to believe the fundamentals: He loves us more than He loved Himself and He didn’t stop there. That love is flowing to us every minute of every day!
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)
Have you been tempted with pride? Doing life your own way? Where did that get you?
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