The Attitude of Pride

There’s an old saying that, “God pickles the proud and preserves the foolish.”

Tancredo Neves ran for the presidency of Brazil in the 1980s. He boldly declared that if he got 500,000 votes from his own party, not even God could keep him from being president. Well, he won the election, but one day later he got sick and died. There is no way to know if God accepted his challenge, but what we can know for sure is that human beings ought not to make such bold, arrogant pronouncements. Remember the Titanic. People said God couldn't sink it, but it sank on its maiden voyage.

The world may see pride as a sign of respect and dignity, a sign that our worth as human beings is supreme, that we deserve respect and even worship for ourselves. The world may take pleasure and satisfaction with pride as it represents achievements that we have accomplished. But, our conceit is the source of pride. When we are filled with conceit, we have a vastly exaggerated opinion of ourselves.

Our self-esteem must come from who we are in Christ and what Christ has done for us. This should give us an enormous satisfaction and sense of worth. The King and Creator of the universe cares for us and loves us. He is living within, guiding, loving, and holding us. There is no adequate substitution for that! But, it is sad that we try so hard to substitute the wonders of the truth of what Christ did for us with senseless, insignificant lies.

Christ is calling us from an over-exaggerated opinion of ourselves, calling us from our vanity and from our delusions of conceit. Christ calls us out of conceit, which is faith in ourselves, and into Himself.

Let’s not fall into the trap of putting on a performance, of acting out the Christian life. Let’s not play a Christian, but let us be a Christian. Let our actions be in response to the transformation of Christ's grace by living honest lives. We must allow Christ’s amazing grace to root out all the evil within us, especially the hypocrisy that causes so much destruction. Those who won’t listen to advice cannot be helped. More souls are ruined by pride than by any other sin whatever.

God wisely designed the human body so that we can neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily. Here are a few things that we can we do to avoid entertaining the attitude of sinful pride in our lives. They are:

1. Avoid the attitude of pride in our lives. (Because of its consequences) Proverbs 13:10; Proverbs 11:12; Proverbs 15:25; Proverbs 16:5

2. Avoid the attitude of pride in our lives. (By practicing its alternative) Proverbs 16:19; Proverbs 25:6-7; Proverbs 26:12; Proverbs 27:1; Proverbs 18:12

Scripture readings:

Proverbs 21:24; Isaiah 16:6; Isaiah 25:11; Jeremiah 48: 29-30; Amos 2:1; Obadiah 1:3; Zephaniah 2: 8,10

Let’s pray:

Father, Your love is pure, and Your motives are for our good. We ask forgiveness for walking in pride and letting this false strength and reliance on our flesh guide us, defend us, and sustain us. We turn over to Jesus this pride, its causes and effects, and all its inordinate desires. Father, we ask You to renew and create in us a clean heart, and to purge us of all pride that blocks us from being like Jesus. Help us to set our will on You, Father that Your will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Help us defeat pride and all its roots by Your love. And Father, help us to be at one with You in Jesus. For this we pray and give thanks, in Jesus’ name. Amen

May God bless you,

Myree