“Pride and arrogance and the way of
evil and perverted speech I hate.” (Proverbs 8:13b) “Everyone
who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Be assured, he
will not go unpunished.” (Proverbs 16:5) These verses really gripped
me. God hates it when we are proud. Why does God hate pride ? God hates it because it
comes from inside of the heart. A proud man thinks of himself as higher
than someone else. Are you too busy to hold the door for someone?
Is your circle of friends too classy to go and help feed the homeless? Is
your car too clean to give someone a ride somewhere? Do you avoid people
that you don’t want to associate with? Believers in Christ are called to
be servants (Mark 9:35 ) and if our lifestyle
prevents us from serving in any capacity then repentance must be made with
God. You may have to give up some things in order to really fight the
temptation of pride. Jonathan Edwards identified 7 sneaky symptoms of the
infection of pride. They are Fault Finding, A Harsh Spirit, Superficiality,
Defensiveness, and Presumptions before God, Desperation for Attention, and
Neglecting Others. Do we suffer from these symptoms? I would think at
some time we may suffer from one or two of these, but if they are present in
our lives every day, then perhaps we suffer from too much Pride.
Proverbs 16:18 reminds us that “Pride
goeth before Destruction”. We are called to be servants; in this role we
can be assured that we will never suffer destruction.
Application: Find the essay online by
Jonathan Edwards titled “Undetected Pride” and test ourselves for excessive
Pride.