August 6 – Humility and Pride (1 Peter 5:5)

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”(Proverbs 11:2)

IN WORD:
God hates pride. He opposes it at every turn. Scripture hints that pride is what led to Satan’s fall, and it leads to our fall as well. This proverb and its familiar companion verse in 16:18 — “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” — are only two of the many biblical references to God’s hatred of this root of sin. 1 Peter 5:5 is explicit: “God opposes the proud.”
For every seeker who has wanted to know how to get on God’s good side, here’s a clue: God embraces the humble. True humility and an understanding of sins will lead us to Jesus, and that’s God’s only path for us. But that path can only be traveled by the humble. Human pride is its biggest roadblock. No one who puts too much stock in himself can enter the Kingdom of God.
When we became Christians, we humbled ourselves. It was a prerequisite. No one can accept the sacrifice of Jesus without realizing that he or she needs it, and that acceptance does violence to the ego. But after our salvation, we have an all-too-human tendency to let pride creep back in. We strive in our own strength to do the work of the Spirit. We start thinking that our righteousness is actually ours and not Christ’s. We think our loyalty to God is praiseworthy rather than the product of pure grace. In other words, our God-centered lives can become self-centered quickly and subtly. Our pride must then be uprooted.

IN DEED:
Has God let you fall? If so, it was because of His grace. He undermines our pride because He loves us. He wants us to have the key to His heart. He divulges the secret to His pleasure. It is humility. Humility allows for confession and repentance, it allows for service and fellowship, and it allows for worship. It also allows for His blessing. Pride obstructs all of the above. At all costs, forsake it.

“It is our self-importance, not our misery, that gets in His way.”
-Daniel Considine-