The Dangers of Pride
God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.
1 Peter 5:5
We are all in a spiritual battle against pride, because pride can be seen as choosing my desires instead of what God desires for me. Pride is putting me first instead of putting God first. In fact, it is possible that we put ourselves first and then justify our position with God as pleasing to him. This is the danger of pride because Satan uses our pride to blind us from the truth, causing us to avoid hearing or reading the truth. Pride can harden our hearts, possibly causing us to never live in a way that is pleasing to God.
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Timothy 2:3). This time has arrived, because Satan is strongly tempting many souls to be prideful, to be their own god and live by his lies. He fills us with the lie that if we walk with the Lord we lose control of our lives, but the truth is that we only have control when we walk with the Lord. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1).
Prideful people choose not to believe God’s truth, but instead choose to believe their own truth. This was the case with the prideful Pharisee’s: You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). This is what Jesus said to the prideful Pharisees, and he speaks the same words to prideful people today.
From these scriptures we can understand the dangers of pride. It can be difficult to minister to prideful people because they can’t understand what it means to be humble and to put their pride in the Lord. When we are prideful we are slaves to the world, but when we are truly humble and secure in Christ, we overcome the world. Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith (1 John 5:4). If we are humble we put our faith in the Lord, while prideful people put their faith in themselves.
Today walk with the Lord recognizing Satan’s temptations of lies. He often feeds his lies through our emotions, so remember to live in Godly wisdom. Recognize others living in pride and treat them with love and patience, because they will defend their own truth. The truth will take them out of their comfort zone and they will usually fight to defend their beliefs. Just as we fight for God’s truth, they fight for Satan’s lies.
Let’s Pray: Lord, help me to live humbly and securely in Christ, and to show love and wisdom to those who are prideful. Help me to overcome Satan’s temptations that point me to being prideful. Guide me to be free in Christ and to overcome the world by being humble and placing my pride in you. In Jesus name, Amen