From the cliff you fall–the crashing of pride
Deuteronomy 31:8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
Psalm 10: 4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Proverbs 16:5, 8 The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: they will not go unpunished. . . . Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 29:23 Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor.
Isaiah 23:9 The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring down her pride in all her splendor and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
James 4:6, 10 But He gives more grace. Therefore, it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. . . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.
1 Peter 5:5-6 . . . Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud by gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
1 John 2:16 for all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
Pride is such a sneaky thing slinking into our beings when we are trying to not be arrogant, and full of ourselves and believing we are so good, so talented, so . . . whatever. But we quickly take credit for things that we have been blessed with, instead of thanking acknowledging God’s goodness and help in attaining anything. We deserve nothing.
I recently heard an inspirational talk by former football star, Tim Tebow, who deeply believes in God and worship and acknowledges his success playing football; and while having that career was hard work, it was not his hard work alone, but God’s path for him. He admitted there were times, too many, when he had the fleeting thought ‘I am really something, I’m special for this team.’ But then he’d fairly quickly check himself and remember it was God’s path for him, and not all his ability. However, it was a persistent fight he had—feeling his shining star vs God’s path for him. It was easy for him to take credit for all he had.
We all deal with prideful events in our lives. Somehow, we think we do a good job most of the time—but could we do more? We think that our successes are our own. Each day, each moment could change our circumstances; a fractured limb, an emergency with your family, a sudden death of family or friend, a severe illness, ANYTHING. Life can change in a moment and affect your circumstances . . . and sometimes be a mirror showing you how proud you were—and the sudden realization that you were not alone in the ability to win or succeed.
Suddenly, there is nothing between you and the truth.
Your pride can show up in several different ways; as worry, fear, anxiety, not trusting God, and believing everything is under your control. It is believing you alone are responsible for your life, for your path, your successes. The belief that all is under your control is a lie and it is prideful. God is there, He is there with each and everything that happens in our lives.
We all are arrogant and feel our demands should be met within our first cry for food or diaper change, and then generally learn that our fretting brings some attention to fulfill our needs. It fills the urge to have what we want—and need.
There are so many things we do in our normal days that feed our own arrogance, adding to the belief we are in charge of our lives, all our choices and successes belong to us, and only us. That is not at all true. We are held in God’s hands. He holds each of us. Our limited human minds cannot even fathom how He can hold each of us at any and every time/moment.
“Pride is self-worship and self-preservation.” Jaquelle Crowe “7 symptoms of a Prideful Heart” Oct 16, 2017. We only turn to God when we are at wits end, at the bottom of our own attempts to fix the details of what is going on in life. Things build up, compound, and grow, and we realize we cannot choose a way to go. Only then, we may cry out for help from a God we are at most unsure of. Being so sure of our own power, our own abilities, and our control of life. It is our choices and decisions that get us through life and let us climb whatever challenges and succeed. So often some do not even believe in God, never mind turn to Him with any regularity.
Our cockiness ensures us we are responsible for everything in our lives, all our choices, decisions, and moves we believe we are responsible for all the good in our lives. God hates our arrogance and pride. It is so self-oriented. It leaves no credit or thanks to our loving Father and Creator.
We are far more productive and giving if we humble ourselves, stop thinking of self, and start looking at the needs of others. God does not want us proud and arrogant. He wants us to see the needs of others and help when we can, He wants us to realize He gives life, He will supply our needs—and He did with all the years of the Israelites traveling through the desert from Egypt—water, manna, the path and laws, protection and guidance. He supplied and wanted them to only honor Him and thank Him and follow His rules and Law always recognizing that He is God, Creator and the guidance for all. He devised a way for each of us prideful people to be freed from sin with the death of His Son—God and man in one. Jesus had no pride or arrogance—He was humble and loving and full of peace and chose to give up His sin free life for our prideful sinful lives—for each of us as long as we choose Him as our Savior, believing fully.
And we can be saved and know our eternity is heaven if we accept Jesus, recognize He gave His life for us, and begin to break down our sinful nature still with its pride, arrogance, gossip, and worldly following. It’s a process, and we follow to reach the goal of being more Christ-like in the end.
Thank You for all You have done to help me break free as we work to overcome my sinful nature and thank You for all the blessings You have granted to me and ‘mybellaviews.’
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