Pride

“He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:6)

We live in a culture that screams self-love from the top of its lungs. We actually love ourselves so much; our egos have built their own grand standing platforms. In this type of thinking, we no longer glorify God; rather, we glorify ourselves.

We have forsaken God’s footstool, selfishly ascending to beautifully deceptive pedestals. But our God divinely declared in Isaiah, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool…” (Isaiah 66:1)

The truth is, we are no different from Eden’s First Couple. We are just as easily deceived by the same cunning voice who slithered into the garden, whispering, “Did God really say…?” Only three chapters into Creation, and Satan is tempting human beings to challenge God’s authority. Since Lucifer himself shamefully traded heaven for hell, it’s no surprise he is hell bent on taking God’s chosen with him. The fall of humanity can be summed up in one pestilent word: pride. God’s design was perfect from the beginning, thriving under His control, but the enemy has been planting seeds of discontentment in man’s heart, every chance he gets. And just like Adam and Eve, we painfully trade the Truth for a lie, scoffing at submission, despite the Everlasting Father creating us from dust. We’ve arrogantly become like clay arguing with the Potter, “Don’t mold me this way, you’re doing it wrong, I want to mold myself.”

And just like heavens fallen couple reached for a fig leaf to cover their shame, we grasp for our own cheap coverings, hoping to conceal our own blinding depravity.

Theenemy’s goal has always been toblind us with a thin veneer of obscure beliefs… “God wants you to be happy. God wants you to do whatever you feel like doing. If God really loved you, then He would want you to do whatever you want.”Everything Satan stands for is a counterfeit version of God’s promises. He tweaks them. His lies are rooted in partial truths, not absolutes.

But Jesus is the way, the Truth, and the life. (John 14:6)

Because Jesus is our covering, we don’t need a fig leaf.

A holy God must be wholly served, in order for our souls to flourish.

We must see pride for what it really is, spiritual poison. A slow withering of the Promise Land. A fading peace from the garden of Eden. A wilting of our soul, right before our very eyes. It permeates every facet of our culture, it’s oozing from every inch of our society, it creeps into our homes, and it settles into our unguarded hearts.

Pride is deadly.

Pride robs us of our destiny.

Pride keeps us from our purpose.

Pride proceeds the fall. Every. Single. Time. 

“Before a downfall, the heart is haughty…” (Proverbs 18:12) “When pride comes, disgraces follows.” (Proverbs 11:2) “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)

Spurgeon was right, “Depend on it, you will either serve Satan or Christ, either self or the Savior.”

Forgive us for Lord for forsaking Your Truth, and arrogantly exchanging it for “our truth.”

Have mercy on us we pray, knock us down from our platforms of pride.

The bruise of repentance is worth the grace of eternity.