So many times I have let my pride get in my way. We all do at some point in our lives, and many times we struggle with it daily, asking Christ for strength. While my husband has been layed off now for almost a year, pride can raise up easily when struggles face us daily. We can have pride in many ways. We can all carry it different ways. There is the pride of the star athlete, thinking he is the best in the state.There is the pride of the mother, who doesn't want to admit she made a mistake. There is the pride of the woman who thinks her high paying job makes her better than the bead worker. There is the pride of the man trying to care for his family, and not wanting to ask for help. Pride rears up, takes hold of us, and satan uses it to bring us down. There is a difference in these, and the pride you have in your child who brought home the A she had been studying for, and working hard for. God tells us about pride in His word. He warns us against pride, and just how it can make us fall. "By pride comes nothing but strife, But with the well-advised is wisdom." Proverbs 13:10 "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." Proverbs 16:18-19 "A man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor." Proverbs 29:23 "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. 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. And the world is passing away and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." 1 John 2:15-17 "Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away." Psalm 36:11 There are many passages on pride. I believe God knew we were going to struggle with pride in our lives, and He gives us many passages to warn us against its harm. We don't have to give in to pride. We can let it go, and be humble before the Lord. Could it be that is exactly what He is teaching us to do? Before we come to Him, we have to come humbly, with hearts that our pure and lowly. If we are full of pride, is there any room for Christ to live through us? Pride comes in and tries to destroy all we have, and sets our minds in a place of we are not good enough. Isn't that exactly where satan wants us to be? Its not popularity, its not the riches of the world, its not the job, its not the money, its not the gifts, its Christ in the man, and living through the man with a humble heart before all. We can overcome our pride, with laying it at the Lord's feet, and asking Him for strength and wisdom. Don't allow pride to take over who are you. Whatever we have and whoever we are, is all because of Christ and His love for us. He doesn't love one child over the other. He has a whole different view of what success is, and its not the things we achieve in this world, its what we are for His kingdom and who we are in Him...
