One cannot study pride versus humilty without paying a visit to the Proverbs.
"When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." -11:2
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." -16:18
"Before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor." -18:12
Pride leads to disgrace, destruction and downfall. While humilty leads to wisdom and honor. Pride versus humility. These are two very different conditions of the heart. But each path is a choice. Pride is a choice. And humilty is a choice. These are not external or imposed on us. Another person does not make me choose pride or humilty. I choose one or the other on my own. But I cannot choose humilty without God's help.
Pride is of the flesh and humilty is of the Spirit. Since the flesh is weak pride exists to some degree in all people. So the Spirit is needed to break down pride. The choice we must make is to reject pride by inviting the Spirit to destroy the work of pride in our hearts. This invitation is the first and most important act of humilty. A person growing more humble is the one who has requested this work of the Spirit with great repetition and urgency. While a person growing more proud has given into the flesh with repetition and does not see the urgent need of the Spirit. In fact ones pride often fools them into thinking they are walking in the Spirit. This is where we need outside attention from trusted friends.
One prerequisite to pride is blindness to it. The one who is proud does not know it. If we did know we would repent. Pride keeps us in the dark so that more and more pride can be added on and we can move further and further away from humilty. This is Satan's aim, to destroy us by making us blind to our pride. Sometimes only a trusted friend can tell us we have become proud. Where we may be blind another can see for us. In my life the person most often pointing out my pride is my wife. I gave her permission to be honest with me and that has saved me from downfall more times than I can count. But what if downfall does come?
If the Spirit and our friends cannot get through to us, and pride does lead to downfall and destruction, what then? Fortunately, God is a God of forgiveness. Downfall may break us but brokenness can lead to humilty and to a rebirth. With God it's never over. We don't have to look very hard to find examples. Paul, Peter, and Jonah were all proud. They reached brokenness and then God remade them. It's never over for our heart unless we decide it is over.
God showed himself to the world through Christ to be a God of humilty. Jesus did not grasp for greatness but instead he humbled himself on the cross (Phillipians 2). As a result he was honored by the Father. Jesus heeded the wisdom of the Proverbs and so should we.
"A man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor." -29:23
No comments:
Post a Comment