*‘Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the
lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.’
*Merriam Webster defines pride as the quality or state of being proud:
such as conceit, or delight arising from some act, possession or
relationship.
*Pride is an
attitude that declares I, or you, are better than anyone else, superior,
arrogant and pompous!
*Our lives influence others through our actions and attitudes and words. We can raise up another person to great expectations and hope, or cast
them down to the point where they are willing to kill themselves.
*When we talk of pride, there is one powerful antidote. The love of Christ! The love of Christ powerfully compels us to love and view people as He
loves and see them.
*Pride is behind hateful, condemning thoughts. It
says, “I’m glad I’m not like that person.”
Oh wait a minute! This sounds
terrifyingly like Jesus’s parable in Luke 18:
10 “Two men went up
to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not
like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax
collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven,
but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ Luke 18: 10-13 NKJV*Mercy brings forth
life because in that, we know the love of Christ for ourselves and for
others. And that brings us to Mark 6:
And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and
was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a
shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. Mark 6:34
NKJV
*Humility helps us
to see others as Jesus sees and loves them!
*Going from pride to humility requires a heart transformation, change
that only Jesus can give through the power of the Holy Spirit.
*That heart
transformation comes at a dear price for us.
The Apostle John wrote of this in 1st John 2:
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all
that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 1 John 2: 15, 16 NKJV
*This world entices,
seduces our attentions and lusts and prides.
But hear what John writes to finish that paragraph:
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it;
but he who does the will of God abides forever.
1st John 2: 17 NKJV
*When we have our
hearts and minds set on God’s kingdom and will, we have moved from pride to
humility. We have moved from prejudice
to true Godly compassion for others because we have begun seeing the world
through God’s eyes.
*John writes, “he
who does the will of God abides forever.”
This is where we enjoin ourselves with God and eternity. This is where we can look at others with
compassion and love.
*There will always be those who love you and those who hate and despise
you. The only opinion that matters is what God thinks.
*When your only
concern is what God thinks, and you are not concerned about what others may
think or say, you have reached a point where you have laid down your life for
God. And THAT is exactly where Christ calls
you and I to go. To die to ourselves!
*Your only care is
to do the will of God. That is your
focus and desire. That is the
transformation that Christ calls for each and every one of us as believers in
Christ!
*This is where pride and prejudice are completely dissolved and humility
and love and compassion take over in our lives.
*When you know
this, you have complete freedom to live and do as He wills, not as anyone else
demands or coerces you!
*John D. Rockefeller said: "nothing that can
satisfy but Christ.”
*When we have given our lives and wills to God and sought His will in our
life, we step into an eternal relationship.
*We deceive
ourselves when we think that we understand and have all the knowledge we need
for our existence. After King Solomon
spells out all the dichotomies of life, the incongruities and the
contradictions, he ends Ecclesiastes chapter 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.
14 For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.
Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14 NKJV
*As Job lays on his bed suffering and grieving from all
that has happened, his friend Eliphaz accuses Job of folly:
2“Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge,
And fill himself with the east wind?
3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
Or by speeches with which he can do no good?
------------
8 Have you heard the counsel of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we do not know?
What do you
understand that is not in us? Job 15: 2,
3 & 8, 9 NKJV *Our lives have
tremendous influence in other people’s lives.
This is so important that Jesus warns us that how we judge others is how
we too will be judged.
*‘what do we have to be proud about?
We have only discovered that which God has already created! He’s done the work.
*Until we lay our
own lives down and follow Jesus, we continue to ignore the Holy Spirit’s
leading and work in our lives.
*We should not care
what others think, but only what God thinks.
God, lead us to that humble spirit that you want to create in us that
your will is the only thing that truly matters to us.
*This is a time for our faith to become real! Trust Him. Hear Him!
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