Our pride must have winter weather to rot it.
~Samuel Rutherford from The Loveliness of Christ
Pride comes in all shapes and sizes.
It crosses all boundaries.
It is alive and well in the church.
Those who claim to be humble are filled with pride.
How do you slay that dragon?
Realize that you can’t slay that dragon.
As long as we are on Earth, we will battle pride.
Pray for us all.
Love and forgive the prideful, those with false humility,
whose horns are blaring about their good spiritual works.
The best way to combat pride is to humble yourself before God,
not before man, but before God.
This has to be one of the best examples in The Bible of true humility:
Two men went up into the temple to pray;
the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,
God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican, standing afar off,
would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other:
for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased;
and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Luke 19:10-14
We all know people like the Pharisee.
Maybe we are or have been like the Pharisee,
showing God our greatness, our efforts and our righteous accomplishments.
We have no righteous deeds of our own accord.
Even if we follow every single commandment
and give our bodies to be burned,
we cannot be counted worthy by our seemingly righteous works.
Humility comes in by accepting the gift of Salvation,
not our right by entitlement, rooted in pride,
but by God’s Mercy and Grace unto us as a gift.
Once we grab the gift by our righteousness,
we have moved the gift out of the gift realm.
Salvation is a gift.
Let us treat it as such in true humility,
before Jesus, who gave His life for the world.
Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly:
but the proud he knoweth afar off. Psalm 138:6