Pride

Today’s Passage – Proverbs 11 – 14

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. (Proverbs 8:13)

When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom. (Proverbs 11:2)

Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom. (Proverbs 13:10)

In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them. (Proverbs 14:3)

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. (Proverbs 29:23)

He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat. (Proverbs 28:25)

There are six more verses in Proverbs using the word proud. It is used a total of 47 times in the Bible. The word pride is used a total of 46 times in the Bible. The word haughty is used 10 times.  That makes a total of 103 verses in the Bible (at least) that deal with one of man’s biggest problems -pride. As I was reading this morning, the Holy Spirit of God drew my attention to three of the verses.  I thought at first that they caught my attention because of the frequency of their use, but after reflecting a little bit, I realized that God was trying to show me that pride is not just an issue for everyone else, but for me as well. How does pride affect me? Let me be a little transparent and publicly reveal some of the things that the Spirit of God brought to my attention:

1  I want to be successful. Now don’t misunderstand, success in the ministry is a good thing. It is wonderful when people are reached with the gospel, and trained to serve God. It is great when lots of people come to hear the Word of God being preached. But it’s my motivation that is the concern. In my heart I want to think that it is all for God’s glory; but I know that sometimes I want to steal a little bit of that glory for me. Now, I am going to keep trying to be successful, but I am also going to ask God to throughly examine my heart and my motives; and when I sense the root of pride growing within, I will try to bring it to Him for removal.

2  I want to be right all of the time. I have noticed that some of the folks around me have this problem as well. I like to win arguments. I even get angry easily, when someone is in disagreement with me.

3  I don’t like to be criticized. This goes along with the point 2. I find myself desiring to defend myself, justify myself and I really don’t need to.

4  I find that I am concerned more with the opinion and approval of men, more that the approval of God.

These are just a few of my sins. I feel better: confession is very therapeutic. I probably could have gone on and made the list larger; but I think you get the idea. Now, how about you? How is pride affecting your life? Maybe you ought to come up with your own list. Ask God to point out some ways that pride is affecting your relationship with Him and with others. You might have too much pride to even consider the thought.