Prides Destruction and Antidote
Proverbs 16:5 says
Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.
Proverbs 16:18-19
Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.
Proverbs 16:18-19
The Holy Word of God has much to say about pride.
The definition of pride is having a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements.
Pride has many masks. It shows itself in many different ways.
It can be in our attitude. How we treat people. How we can look down on people.
We can think of ourselves better than others.
We can hide our self assurance through any type of justification we can think up in our minds as long as we are the ones that are right. We start to depend on our own self-righteousness rather than the Righteousness of God.
When we start depending on our own Righteousness we quickly forget about the Lord.That’s when the destruction begins.
Being prideful turns into boasting.
Boasting is bragging and giving a high opinion of oneself.
Instead of saying ” look at what the Lord has done” we say ” look at what I have done”.
This mind set has been so ingrained in fallen human nature that even if we don’t have much to be proud about we will still exalt ourselves,even if it’s in lies!
This also reminds us that we don’t have to be rich or powerful to be filled with sin. Sometimes those who have the least reason be proud have the most of it because they have nothing else of substance in their lives to speak of like the Gospel of Jesus!
Scripture says pride will always lead to destruction! When the Lord does bring this destruction it is for a purpose. He does it to bring you back in alignment with Him and His Word. Sometimes it can be very painful.
It is so much better to willfully submit everything at the Cross of Christ. But we are sometime too prideful to even do that!
The truth is God can bring us down for our own self proclaimed throne. He can do it anytime He chooses. He can shatter the world around us with our proud deception and bring us low. He does it to bring us back to Himself if we choose to hear and respond.
There is a big price of pride. It will keep you out of heaven if we don’t repent if it. What was it that expelled Lucifer from the presence of God?
So if it was pride that expelled him, who do you choose to mimic and follow?
It is in our self-righteousness that we tell a Holy Righteous God to His face we know better than He! We can truly believe wholeheartedly that our ways are higher and better than His ways! Oh the arrogance pride can quickly bring. With the same quickness the Lord will judge.
If we can’t submit ourselves to the Father through His Son, then how can we expect Him to forgive us of our sins?
There is an antidote to the sin of pride. The cure for pride is humility.
James 4
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
We have to walk on a humble path continuously if we want to follow Christ! If we ask Him to be our Redeemer we must come to the Throne of Grace and ask Him humbly forgive us of our sins. Be specific of which sin you want forgiveness for, especially your pride. Even when we think that we are confessing all, we can still hide sin in our pride and miss to confess them. If we can first ask for forgiveness of this one sin then everything else will be open and exposed for the Lord to heal and cleanse.
Use humility to get you to the healing!
It’s in that humility we are Spiritually exposing our hearts and open up the gates of our concealed minds and give Him full permission to restore us to how He has designed and desires us to be.
We have to look at life as Jesus as our example. He was confident in God’s purpose for His life. He knew what He was sent to accomplish. Jesus didn’t brag and boast about who He was and why He was sent.
Not one drop of pride was in Him but showed the Father’s power in His humility!
Not one word came out of His Precious mouth to complain about the circumstances, Jesus chose humility. Through this humility it showed the Fathers mercy.
Mercy for all of humanity because His Son chose to be the vessel that would take God’s wrath for every soul that can leave the pride behind and humble themselves to live a life honoring as Jesus has!
There is a big price to pay for pride.
We cannot forget that pride of heart, and pride of mind will keep you out of heaven!
But praise God the price for all sins has been paid through the Cross of Christ and His shed Blood!
Search today. Look for any masked pride in your hearts and mind. Look for it in your speech, how you act.
Then remember that the antidote for pride will be dependent on your ability to humble yourself before the Throne of Mercy!
See and experience what the Lord can do through a humble heart!
Pastor Ed