A few weeks ago, our brother Tyrone exhorted us to become like Jesus, and to perform the miracles He did and even do greater than these.This is like an outward manifestation of God in our lives.
Last week, Pete exhorted us to fill up with more of God’s love and we were challenged to think about the 16 attributes of love as out-lined in 1Cor 13.
Kind of like an inner manifestation of God in our lives.
Gen 1:1-3, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the seas. And God said, ‘Let there be light...’
This week let us shine the light on pride and it’s twin sister arrogance and think of it as something that blocks God in our lives.
The world teaches us that pride is a good thing. We become proud of our achievements from an early age. We are proud of our families, our country etc and rightly so. These are all things to take pride in. But, the problem comes when we take the credit or glory for all these things – this is the kind of pride that God hates!
The dictionary defines pride as the state or quality of being proud. It is too high an opinion of oneself, worthy self-esteem, and to be proud is to be haughty and self-respecting.
Pride in this sense, puts itself above the need for God. Pride seeks to take the glory from God and place it on human ability. For example, I might succeed in gaining a university qualification and think how great I am, how intelligent, how clever and pride fills me up. But I have forgotten just how much God helped me to study, to find peace, to remember and understand. So that in the finish I can say, I am nothing, God is everything.
In Romans 1:21 it says, ‘For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened’ Pride puffs up, making us believe we don’t need God and then we will sink further and further into depravity. We know that pride was the undoing of Lucifer the archangel of God who was in the highest place but still wanted more – and to be worshipped as God was, as if he was the Creator.
God hates pride, it is detestable to Him!
Proverbs 6:17 says, ‘ There are 6 things the Lord hates, 7 that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue....’ etc. Haughty eyes reflect a proud heart.
Both James 4:6 and and 1Peter5:5 quote Proverbs 3:34 when they say, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’
And I know that at times I have struggled against God because my basic motivation has been pride and in His love and desire to change me, He has humiliated me. Hallelujah. I know I have shared this before but I remember wanting to be a servant of God, but when people treated me like a servant, up jumped pride and I would become angry and annoyed.
Do things for God and don’t expect any rewards from people – in this way we are free from the need for praise and adoration which pride feeds on.
Take the lowliest jobs and do them with all joy and to the best of your ability and God, our Father in heaven will see our good works and reward us..AMEN!
To me, a good simple definition of pride is when I say, ‘I am important!’
Don’t get me wrong, in Christ we are very important people, children of God no less. To God we are important and we must learn this as well, the riches we have in Christ, ‘...every spiritual; blessing in Christ Jesus, our Lord!’
We will require healing and prayer to come to this point of blessed assurance.
We are important in Christ and to Christ, but I’m talking about being important in my own eyes, glorying in my own achievements and position in life, taking all the credit and not acknowledging God at all. This is the pride and arrogance that God hates and it is a broad road that leads to destruction. The best example of proud people in the Bible were the kings of Judah and Israel, who not only turned away from God, but turned the people of Israel away from God. Ahab, Jeroboam etc
Arrogance is similar to pride but it is directed more towards others. Arrogance is intolerable presumption, an over-bearing manner and haughtiness and pride according to the dictionary.
Pride says, ‘I am very important’, Arrogance says, ‘You are here to serve me’
The antidote to pride and arrogance is humiliation which can lead to humility.
Humiliation comes when we fail, when we suffer, when friends let us down, when our children go astray and embarrass us. In fact life very quickly humiliates us, but we can go to extraordinary lengths to protect ourselves from exposure to humiliation – we avoid certain situations and people, we deny our weaknesses, blame others when things go wrong. But God said, ‘Let there be light’ and at these times of humiliation we can bow before Almighty God and humble ourselves or we can shake our fist and stubbornly refuse to repent. This is a cross-road where we have a choice.
When people come to these cross-roads, we people of God must carefully point out the right way to go, the narrow road, by our words and by the example of the lives we lead.
One of the best ways to grow as a Christian is to humiliate ourselves and confess our sin to each other. This is such a powerful way to grow in Christ. A few weeks ago I confessed that I had not been reading the Bible much and I had not been spending quality time with God, I was on a bit of a holiday, but praise God for pushing me to confess and feel the humiliation because it was as if a stronghold had been broken and I felt freer than I had in a long time.
So, the goal is humility if we want to be near God. Our Lord Jesus describes Himself in Matt 11:29 ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’ Amen
God uses various ways to transform us. I thought of at least five, there are probably more that you can think of.
Firstly, through the preaching & reading of His word, we receive teaching, correcting and training in righteousness. (2Tim 3:16)
Secondly, the Holy Spirit convicts us of ‘guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement.’ (John 16:8)
Thirdly, our friends can tell us where we are going wrong. (Prov 17:17)
Fourthly, we can learn from other’s example. If you know a particularly proud and arrogant person, are you drawn to that person? Do you want to be around them?...No, then don’t be proud either.
Fifthly, God can transform us through pain and suffering, because at that time when things are out of our control we realise how much we need Him. (Heb 12:6)
Someone once said that God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our joy, but shouts to us in our pain.
One question I asked myself was, ‘Should we pray therefore for pain and suffering to come into a person’s life so that they will be transformed?’
........ I pray for suffering for you and it’s for your own good! Would we do that? No, God forbid. There was only one instance in Scripture where Jesus cursed something and that was a fig tree. We are even commanded to bless our enemies and not to curse them.
Instead we must pray for people’s lives to be transformed but it is up to Almighty God as to how that happens. Some people are transformed by the grace and kindness of God alone.
Humility – being humble does not mean we sit in a corner and do nothing. Being meek does not mean being weak!
I think it’s fair to say there is probably a mix of pride and arrogance and humility in all of us to different degrees and at different times.
We can’t change the past, nor the damage we have done to people, but we can be responsible for the present. We can learn from the past, become aware of what makes us act this way, resist the temptation to be proud and arrogant.
We must confess our sins to each other and ask for prayer. But most importantly we must cry out to God to help us to change. He won’t miraculously change us, but He will empower us as we sincerely and earnestly seek His face and His will for our lives. AMEN!
To conclude, I have compared and contrasted pride and arrogance and humility:
Pride and arrogance says:................... Humility says:
I don’t need your help.......................................Please help me
My way is the only way.....................................What do you think?
I have done this, this and this...........................God helped me...
Follow me.............................................................Lead us Lord
I won’t forgive.....................................................I forgive
I am right, you are wrong..................................I am sorry
Let’s talk about me.............................................Let’s talk about you
I don’t care...........................................................I care
Children are annoying........................................Let the children come
Not so, Lord.........................................................Yes, Lord
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light! Genesis 1: 1-3
No comments:
Post a Comment