Hey guys! Today we are circling back to “Dealing with conflicts of the heart” …If you haven’t read the earlier posts in this series, check out the links at the bottom of this article)
Today’s conflict of the heart is a little 5 letter word, but one of the most deadly —
namely P-R-I-D-E…
There is one phrase that my pastor said years ago that has stuck with me all this time:
Pride Hides!
We are usually the last person to discover it in our own self but we are always quick to notice it in other people.
The Bible has much to say about pride.
Pride was actually the original sin of all sins; We read that it was pride that caused Satan to rebel against God. (Isaiah 14:14) Pride and wanting to be knowledgeable like God was also the motivating factor behind Eve's disobedience in the Garden of Eden.
It was pride (after his own sacrifice wasn’t accepted) that spiraled into the sins of jealousy, hatred, anger, and ultimately murder that caused Cain to kill his brother, Abel. Pride motivated the building of the tower of Babel.
Throughout history, over and over, countless people have died because of the pride of power-hungry leaders and many more have suffered terrible suffering.
So it’s should be no surprise to us that pride is a sin God abhors!
Yet, pride is a sin we all struggle with at different levels. Some people are more humble than others but pride is something that we all must guard against. By nature, we humans are not humble. A prideful sin nature is ingrained in all of us. We want to be acknowledged, we seek to be greater, we defend our “rights”, and we want to be recognized and praised for our talents and accomplishments.
Pride often hides way down inside our hearts and wraps itself like a snake throughout our thoughts. Pride is subtle. It can creep in sometimes, without us even realizing it. Pride is also something we often misidentify. We seek to justify our actions and to explain away our behavior/attitude. We rarely recognize our own pride as the SIN that it is on our own.
Let’s break it down a little more…Many of us have heard the phrase the "seven deadly sins" since childhood.
This list of "sins" originated from the Bible passage in Proverbs 6:16-19. These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
One of the first things mentioned here is a proud look. God means business. He calls a proud look an abomination to Him... Merriam Webster defines an abomination as:
1: something regarded with disgust or hatred 2: extreme disgust and hatred : LOATHING
God regards pride with extreme disgust or hatred. After all, He created us… He gives us our daily breath.. it’s just by His mercies that we wake up everyday. We do nothing without His hand. Every single blessing in our life can be attributed to the grace and mercy of Almighty God. So, yeah, it must fill God with great distain to see HIS creation puff out our chests and think we are something. We are absolutely nothing without God! We are but dust!! Job 34:15 —All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.
Ecclesiastes 3:20–All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Ecclesiastes 12:7— Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
So, we are essentially just “dust bunnies” lol 😂 except for the mercies of God — we have no “right” to be lifted up in Pride. We aren’t anything without HIM!!
Pride is a "begetting" sin --
In other words, it gives birth to many other sins. As I outlined above, pride is the initial sin that caused Lucifer himself to fall from Heaven, thus, pride is one of his favorite weapons of deception to use on mankind.
The Bible is full of stories and parables about pride. We know that the LORD hates pride (Proverbs 6:16-17) and we are reminded that the Lord looks at proud people from afar (Psalm 138:6). The Bible refers to pride by several names: haughtiness, puffed up, lofty, conceit, arrogance, and boastfulness. Pride can take on different forms, and like I said, we sometimes are completely unaware that it has taken up residence in our own hearts. It is something we all have struggled with at one time or another… Pride has ruined many wonderful things. Pride destroys everything in its path.
And while we may say that we hate pride with our lips, our actions often say otherwise.
Pride is not easy to get rid of and we cannot do it on our own. Because pride often "brings in" many other sins, we become distant in our relationship with God. We need to take this very seriously. We must acknowledge our dependence on Jesus to overcome the pride in our hearts. When we attempt to overcome pride, the only thing we can accomplish in our own flesh is just behavior modification. We may do good for a while but it will never last. True change and victory is found only through and by JESUS CHRIST...
Pride is like a terribly invasive weed with deep roots in our hearts. Only the Lord can uproot it.
Here is what Scripture has to say about pride:
Proverbs 16:5
“Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord...”
Proverbs 16:18-19 “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.”
Psalm 10:4
“The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.”
Psalm 73:6
“Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain”
Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”
It’s very clear by these passages that God not only does Pride disgust God, He does not even tolerate, let alone condone, pride. Pride divides. It builds a towering wall between the proud person and God. Take Adam and Eve, for instance. Satan knew how well the sin of pride would work in the human heart. That sense of autonomy, that sense of importance and carnal worth. “You can be as God,” he told Eve. Her eyes were opened up ( she saw that the tree was good for food) before she even took of the fruit. What was the result? Eviction from their paradise--the Garden of Eden and separation from the Presence of God (Genesis 3:4-6).
Pride will lower you, it will humble you, it will put you to shame.
Job 40:1 “ Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.”
Proverbs 29:23 “A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.”
Isaiah 26:5 “For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.”
Obadiah 4 “Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.”
Pride leads to destruction.
Like all paths of sin,
Pride will ultimately lead to hell.
Malachi 4:1 “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.”
I heard a preacher tell this story a while back that illustrates this perfectly:
A priest, a doctor, a politician, a scientist, and a boy were traveling in an airplane. When suddenly the plane’s engine started to fail. The pilot desperately tried to fix the problem without success. He told his passengers to each grab a parachute and jump off because the plane was going to crash. So the pilot grabbed a parachute and jumped. The problem was that there were only 4 parachutes left. The politician quickly grabbed a parachute and said, “I’m an important man, I work to make important laws, so the people need me,” and jumped off the plane. The doctor grabbed the 2nd parachute and said, “I have an important job, I save people’s lives, so the people need me,” and jumped off the plane. The scientist grabbed the 3rd parachute and said, “I’m among the world’s most intelligent men, the people need intelligent men like me,” and jumped off the plane. The priest then turned to the boy and said, “I’m old, I’ve lived a full life, but you’re young and still have a long life before you. You take the last parachute.” The boy looked at the priest and said, “No, don’t worry. The world’s most intelligent man took my backpack.
While we may laugh at this funny anecdote, we must recognize the fact that pride does indeed blind us. It will not let you see clearly. It is like the scientist in our story who was blinded by his own arrogance and took the wrong parachute. His pride was his downfall (literally!). Pride will stunt your Spiritual AND personal growth. Pride prevents a person from having a teachable spirit which is vital for personal growth. Humility is so necessary for growth as well; we have to admit that we don’t know everything and be willing to be taught and grow. The funny thing is one does not even have to be wise, beautiful, skilled, or accomplished to be "eat up" with pride. Just thinking in our own hearts that we are one or all of those things is enough to cause us to fall prey to this deception. Over the years, I have seen people who seemingly should have no pride--they came from humble upbringings or they have no major, natural, outward talent or beauty, yet they "think" they are "all that...and some!" It is almost comical at times...well, it would be if we all didn't find ourselves in that position from time to time. 🥺
Pride does not allow a person to admit when they are wrong or and even to accept help when they’re struggling. Pride hinders the Christian from learning from his mistakes, he will never admit when he’s wrong. This keeps him from becoming more like Christ and getting closer to God.
We all struggle with pride at different points and in different levels but until we get rid of it, we will never grow in the Lord. Our desire to be more like Christ must be greater than our love for ourselves (pride). We cannot remove the pride from our hearts in our own power. That is something that God has to do supernaturally. Sometimes, it will be a lifelong process. I don’t think we ever reach a place (at least, not on this side!) that we can say we are completely immune to pride. We must put a constant guard up against the sneaky sublimity of pride.
Pride not only affects us but those around us as well. And if not dealt with, it can cause immeasurable damage to relationships. A marriage where both people are too proud to admit their wrongs is like a a smoltering volcano--ready to explode at the slightest annoyance. Pride is selfish and seeks it own. Pride only focuses on us--our rights! our feelings! our way! our opinions and never gives thought to those around us.
The classic response of a proud person when they have done something wrong is “Well, I’m human, no one’s perfect.” They’d rather say that than admit their mistake and apologize. To them, admitting they are wrong is humiliating. Pride cannot distinguish between humility and humiliation. You can be humble without humiliating yourself. Apologizing does not take away your dignity, but rather it actually reveals your character.
Pride kills friendships. Many friendships have ended simply because of pride. No one likes to hang around, much less fellowship with someone who is too prideful. It’s unpleasant being around a person who never admits wrongs, never apologizes, is arrogant, brags, among other things. That person is often clueless to their own attitude. They even become a laughingstock or their attitude becomes a running joke to all those who see this character deficit in them.
Prideful people also tend to get offended very easily. They think that people are always out to attack them. Even a small innocent joke or comment can trigger an angry response. This kind of spirit causes rifts in relationships and in the end, the prideful person ends up bitter and lonely. Arrogance makes a person think too highly of themselves. It causes people to rely on their own abilities, strengths and intelligence. Independence is good but when it leads us to forsake God completely (or even leave Him out) then it’s not good. What’s more, prideful arrogance reveals our foolishness and showcases it for the whole world to see.
Romans 1:22 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools”
Success is good but when it goes to our heads and all the glory goes to the Creature and not the Creator, then we have a problem. Pride then "begets" (self)idolatry.
Galatians 6:3 “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”
Proverbs 3:7 “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.”
Isaiah 5:21 “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”
Proverbs 21:4 “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.”
The surprising thing about pride is that a lot of times, pride is actually a response to deep insecurities. I know this sounds crazy but think about it. Pride is the defense against feeling insecure. I believe deep down, we all know that we have many shortcomings so we have 2 options: 1. We can acknowledge them and do something about it (repent and depart from it), or 2. We can deceive ourselves and use pride to cover it up... and Pride won’t let you admit your weaknesses.
Nursing pride takes a lot of effort. Pride tells God, ” Leave me alone, I can do this on my own. Give me my burden back, I want to carry it even if it’s too heavy for me.” Humility says “God, here are my faults, here are my troubles. I give them to you. Take away this burden, I can't do this on my own. I NEED YOU!”
Guess who has more peace and freedom?
In trying to be free and independent, a prideful person does the opposite and shackles himself as a slave to sin, shame, and self loathing.
There is much to lose with pride and much to gain from humility. Pride is the world’s oldest sin. As I stated at the beginning of this post, Satan rebelled because of pride. But there are many other stories in the Bible about pride and its consequences...
Here are just a few examples... but this is by no means a comprehensive list...
Just do your own study on it... It is surprising how many times “pride” pops up throughout the Bible.
Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) The people who constructed the Babel Tower did so out of pride. Blinded like Eve, they thought they could reach the Heavens and be like God. This was a huge assertion on their part! Here were these pitiful human beings who tried to place themselves at the same level as God! God could have easily wiped out humanity once again. But instead, in His mercy, He just confused their languages which stopped their prideful progress. The lingual barriers then caused the people to disperse and to dwell together according to their languages.
Pharaoh (Exodus 5:2) Pharaoh's pride and stubbornness in refusing to let the Jews go brought the 10 plagues upon his nation, Egypt, and caused the death of his own son.
There’s so much that pride will cause you to lose!
Naaman (2 Kings 5:1-14) We read about Naaman, the captain of the king’s guard, who had that terrible disease of leprosy. We know the story --how the little maid from Israel told him where healing could be found. He goes to the prophet but the prophet sent out his servant instead. The servant replays the message from Elisha-- that he would be healed if he dipped himself 7 times in the Jordan. But his pride told him that that command was humiliating, that he deserved something better--at least, a face to face meeting with the prophet himself. After all, he was the CAPTAIN! His pride was insulted. He almost missed out on a healing. But he finally obeyed and was instantly healed after that 7th dip. Naaman lost two things that day, his leprosy AND his pride.
Sometimes losing stuff is not a bad thing.
King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:30-35) King Nebuchadnezzar was a very arrogant and prideful man. One day, he looked at his kingdom and admired all the work he had done. God wasn’t happy with his pride so God caused madness to overcome his mind. For 7 years, we read where he lived in the wilderness like an animal. Eating wild grass like a beast and crawling on all fours. In the end, the old proud king learned his lesson. We read that God restored his kingdom back to him and this time, he was much more humble and praised God for it. Nebuchadnezzar paid a bitter price, living seven years as an animal. God apparently left just enough mind in him that he could repent, but it still took him seven years of suffering the consequence.
Pride precedes a fall. Pride makes a person hard, whether against God, or people. Rather than being tenderhearted, kind, and forgiving, and sensitive to God and man, a proud person becomes combatant, easily offended, and unforgiving-- insistent that their way is the only way.
Pride brings us into contention with God. It will cause us to deny what the Bible clearly says in order to defend our own opinion or feelings. It will cause us to rebel against our God-given authority. We will second guess or flat-out fight against our pastor, other preachers, and their anointed preaching, despite the fact that the Bible tells us that ministers were given us as a gift of God to watch for our souls. (Jeremiah 43:1-2).
Pride will set us against our sisters and brothers in the church. We will become haughty and high minded and think of ourselves more highly than those we labor among. By submitting to this type of attitude, our love cools for our fellow believers. (We gossip about them, accuse them over the slightest thing, cut them down [even jokingly], and soon, we stop fellowshipping with them.)
It is no wonder Proverbs 28:25 says, “He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat.”
Whenever we see contention/bickering that disrupts the unity of the Spirit, we can be sure that pride is at the root of the problem. We need to take and evaluation right then and there and re-examine ourselves to see if we may need to repent.
Romans 14:17-19 says as clearly and concisely as any place in the Bible what fellowship with God, each other, and Christianity are all about.
Pride seeks to replace God and arrogantly takes its place on the throne of our hearts. Unless we deal with pride daily and allow God to remove all traces of it from our heart and life, we will never walk with God and bear fruit for His glory. Pride is all about the glory of man instead of the glory of God. Pride is a subtle enemy of the heart and can be very deceptive. It is hard to detect in our lives. Pride always exalts self above God.
Pride is at the heart of all evil and drives a person farther and farther from the heart of God. It is shuddering to see what pride can do to the human heart. Pride corrupts the heart and is like a terminal disease that spreads into the heart and brings death. Pride kills our love for God and kills our desire for God. We must guard our heart against pride or relationship with God will wither away.
Pride will destroy that selfless love FOR GOD (with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength!)
II Timothy calls them lovers of self more than lovers of God, proud, boasters, and covetous only having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof .
Nothing we do should be done out of strife or vain glory or to exalt our own selves. (Philippians 2:3 -Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.)
We can see in this why God has such a strong issue with pride: because pride results in self-sufficiency, and self-sufficient people will not seek what they do not think they need and therefore do not want.
God resists this type of arrogant, prideful Christian and it only leads to destruction. Pride will also destroy our witness for Jesus. If we do not allow God to destroy pride in our heart, it will destroy us! We must kill pride first! We were born with a sin nature that embraces pride, that loves pride, and that worships pride.
The Bible tells us that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6 —…God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.)
So... If pride has indeed taken up residence in our hearts, What do we do about it?
The first step on the path to victory is to acknowledge the problem.
* Admit the problem!! Pride often keeps us in denial to our own spiritual state and we will refuse to "take" any of the sermons preached for our own souls. Admitting we have a "pride issue" is one of the hardest things to do.
But the good thing is that if we can acknowledge the presence of pride in our heart, it is much easier to accept the Lord’s help.
* Once we identify the issue, we must repent AND depart from it completely (John 8:11).
* Put a guard up to keep Pride out of our hearts in the future!! Deflect any praise— pass it on!!
* Draw nigh to God! Seek to be humble.
We must look at Jesus as our example. Jesus was the SON OF GOD! Yet, he was born in a manger, was a carpenter by trade, possessed little earthy goods, did not defend himself when accused falsely, and died in a very humiliating way (in order to purchase our Redemption.) If He being God incarnate can humble Himself in such a way, how much more should we?
Remember: We really have nothing to lose but pride itself.
I came across this little “diagnosis” check list and thought it was very helpful…
Is there Pride Inside?
Ask yourself these questions—
Are you??
Resentful when corrected
Hurt when disappointed
Impatient when hindered
Greedy when choosing
Critical when speaking of rivals
Jealous when seeing others advancing
Untruthful when confronted
Distant when slighted
From my heart to yours...
-Tiphanie ❤️
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