“Pride”

 


“Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” (Proverbs 8:13b)  “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord.  Be assured, he will not go unpunished.” (Proverbs 16:5)  These verses really gripped me.  God hates it when we are proud.  Why does God hate pride?  God hates it because it comes from inside of the heart.  A proud man thinks of himself as higher than someone else.  Are you too busy to hold the door for someone?  Is your circle of friends too classy to go and help feed the homeless?  Is your car too clean to give someone a ride somewhere?  Do you avoid people that you don’t want to associate with?  Believers in Christ are called to be servants (Mark 9:35) and if our lifestyle prevents us from serving in any capacity then repentance must be made with God.  You may have to give up some things in order to really fight the temptation of pride. Jonathan Edwards identified 7 sneaky symptoms of the infection of pride. They are Fault Finding, A Harsh Spirit, Superficiality, Defensiveness, and Presumptions before God, Desperation for Attention, and Neglecting Others.  Do we suffer from these symptoms? I would think at some time we may suffer from one or two of these, but if they are present in our lives every day, then perhaps we suffer from too much Pride.  Proverbs 16:18 reminds us that "Pride goeth before Destruction". We are called to be servants; in this role we can be assured that we will never suffer destruction.

Application:  Find the essay online by Jonathan Edwards titled “Undetected Pride” and test ourselves for excessive Pride.

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