Pride - Pastor’s Heart

Hi Folks!

We've been sharing about God's grace and that it is the humble person who
receives it. From the day of our salvation from sin, all that we have
received from the Lord is by and through His grace. We were even saved this
way... by grace, through faith. It was not because of our goodness nor was
it because of anything we had done, but it was because we turned to Him in
faith. We each had to come to a point of true humility before God to receive
this free gift of salvation through His son Jesus. God's gracious hand of
salvation was extended toward you and I when we humbled ourselves and
believed. I would like repeat what I wrote three messages ago along this
line...

"But do you realize there are multitudes of people around the world that
know and believe Jesus came to die for their sins, but are still not born
again. If they were to die right now they would still be in their sins and
would eternally perish. Why is that? There may be many reasons, but the big
one is pride. They are yet to humble themselves before almighty God and make
the life change through repentance. They, through pride, are resisting the
free Gift of God's grace that can save them.

God is gracious and kind, but each person has to humble themselves through
repentance and believe, for the grace of God to be received. God's grace is
extended to all who will believe. It takes humility to admit that I have
sinned against God and am in need of His forgiveness and mercy. True faith
is always humble and never is it prideful.

For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble James 4:6

It takes both faith and humility for a person to receive the grace of God,
not only for the new birth, but for anything else we need from the Lord."

God's desire is to bless people, but there are spiritual laws in place that
eternally govern what He will or won't do for folks. The scriptures are
clear, God gives His grace only to the humble. The Lord hates pride the
Bible says. It is the nature of His enemy the Devil and He will have nothing
to do with it. He in fact resists or stands off from pride as if it were a
bad smell.

All who fear the Lord will hate evil. Therefore I hate pride and arrogance,
corruption and perverse speech Proverbs 8:17 (NLT)

Strong words from the Lord. Notice the Lord says He hates pride... it is
detestable to Him.

The Lord detests the proud; they will surely be punished Proverbs 16:5 (NLT)

Even the look of pride is on the very top of the seven things the Scriptures
say are an abomination (a strong dislike, hatred or abhorrence) to Him. See
Prov 6:16. The scriptures declare that God resists the proud. I don't know
about you but I don't want the Lord resisting me. I want the Lord's
blessings in my life as I'm sure you do as well. There is an awesome promise
in James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you... so the
invitation is given. If we will draw near in true humility, God by His grace
will draw near to us. When the Lord comes near He always comes with good
things because He is only good, praise the Lord!

This brings me to the point of what I have on my heart to share with you
today - pride. Because a life of humility is so important to the believer,
and pride being its very counterpart, we need to know about the ugly stuff
so that we can recognize it and deal with it in our life. As I mentioned to
you before, pride is in the nature of the flesh, yes that means both yours
and mine! Therefore each of us have to deal with it in our own life if we
desire more of God's grace to flow. I will share some thoughts with you on
what it is and of its nature so that you can see it. Each of us has it in
our life to varying degrees and until we see and recognize it, we won't deal
with it. It's only when we know that it is there that we can then repent of
it and start to put in aside by the grace of god. Here are just a few things
concerning it, and as we go along ask yourself the question... am I like
this? Is this what I do? But remember this exercise is not for the purpose
of judging others who may be yielding to it, this is for you. Remember that
it may be only moments ago that you were yielding to it. Remember that as
you see it and start to make the life changes by yielding to humility,
others will hopefully eventually see it in you as they did in the Lord
Jesus, and desire the change also J

*        Pride always speaks of itself. It speaks of itself as a source and
as a subject - Are you always talking about yourself? Are you unhappy unless
you are the centre of attention? Are you always talking about you and yours?
My life. My family. My interests. My exploits. My revelations. What I've
done. Where I've been. Me me me... my my my. Humility shows genuine interest
in others and doesn't need to talk of itself all the time, pride won't,
pride wants to do all the talking.

*        Pride is always seeking to impress others - Are you always doing
things to be seen of people? Are you always seeking to be noticed? Can you
be happy to walk into a room and not have the attention drawn to yourself?
Does the music have to stop playing just because you walked in? How do you
handle being ignored? Pride gets hurt and offended when it doesn't get seen
and noticed, humility won't. Humility is happy just to be there and doesn't
need the attention directed to itself, because humility is genuinely
interested in others.

*        Pride is not a good listener. Pride is an interrupter - Can you
listen to what others are saying without feeling the need to air your view?
Humility can, pride can't. Pride is always wanting to share its view and
show that it knows more than you do. Pride won't really even be listening to
what the other fella is saying, because as he is talking pride is loading
its pistol behind its back to fire a shot as soon as it gets a chance to,
and much of the time doesn't even wait for the opportunity to speak but just
cuts the other person off in mid sentence. It's very rude and selfish,
because in essence what it is really saying by acting that way is, "will you
just stop and let me talk, because what I have to say is so superior to what
you have to say that I don't even need to listen, so just shut up
basically." It may not say that, but certainly is thinking along that line
which is proven by its interrupting actions. Do you do this? Have you done
it? Its ugly smelly pride.

*        Pride tell lies and believes lies about itself. Pride exaggerates.
This often time is because pride wants to impress and be noticed. Humility
doesn't need to lie because walking in true humility is walking in the
truth, and I am what I am whether people are impressed with me or not.
Humility always tells the truth no matter how it makes them look or feel -
are you truthful with people? Do people really know you? Or are you just
projecting an image of how you would like to be known? Humility can be who
it is because true humility is walking in reality, it is walking truthfully
with itself and with other people.

*        Pride is high and lofty in its opinion of itself. Pride thinks of
itself more highly that it ought to think. Humility thinks of itself
truthfully... I am who I am. I am what the Bible says I am. I can do what
the Bible says I can do. All that I have done that is any good has been done
because of the grace of God. Can you genuinely say that? Or do you want
people to think that you did such a good job or have accomplished such great
things because you are so wonderful? Even if you are naturally good at
something, or have done great things, it is still because the Lord has
allowed you to be that way and has given you the ability. Humility can give
God the glory and the credit. Pride struggles with that. Pride wants to take
the glory and the credit as if it done it by itself.



These are just a few thoughts are in no way an exhaustive list. I will share
more with you along this line next time.

Bye for now and be blessed of the Lord.

David

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