“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free, which everyone loathes when he sees it in someone else, and of which hardly anyone imagines that he is guilty. . . I am talking of pride.”

I love this quote which I borrowed from someone’s work which has compelled me to revisit the topic ‘pride’.

The good side of “pride has to do with feeling good about ourselves and rejoicing in the goodness and the accomplishment of others” and acknowledging God. But “a disposition to exalt self, to get above others, to hide our defects, and to pass for more than we are”, is something we need to be concern about.

God wants to bless us but our pride stops him. He knows our hearts. He knows how we disrespect even our spouses. He knows that when he blesses us we will look down upon others. We will taunt others. We will cheat the poor. We will use our positions to abuse and step on people’s toes. He knows how we think whatever we do is right and the other person is always in the wrong.

How we see ourselves better than others. How we imagine or expect people to say about our achievements when he blesses us. How we will forget to acknowledge him.
And when he finds one fine humble person and blesses him then he also becomes arrogant. He thinks he is now out of the world and wants to walk over everyone he meets. Then comes the anger of God.
This tells us that pride is a ‘spirit’ and it is lurking everywhere waiting to take advantage of a situation to turn us against God.

God sees pride as rebellion against him. God sees it in our hearts, our thoughts and even in our imaginations. That is why God resists us when we become proud. He expects us to be more humble when he lifts us. Let the Holy Spirit guard your thoughts, your hearts and your mouth and even your imagination against pride. Immediately you realize that you have entertained pride ask for forgiveness of sins.

A lot of destinies have been truncated because of pride and we keep blaming it on the devil. God himself may be resisting you. People rise and fall due to their pride. When you become proud you become the enemy of God, and it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of God. No one can save you. Prov. 16:5 KJV – “Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.”

Do not change the way you treat or perceive others when God blesses you. Listening to other’s views about how to treat a group of people may cost you your blessings. God will not come and tell you that I am resisting you because of your pride; you will have to figure it out yourself through prayer and humility. It can take you years to realize it.

It took Nebuchadnezzar years to realize that our God is the most High God. And when he confessed him as God he had mercy on him. Stop glorifying yourself. It is God who decided to favor you and not your own connections or hard work that has brought you to this far. He may be taking you to a higher level, but the moment he sees pride in you, it ends there.

We sometimes hear people complain that “I used to have businesses but something happened and it all went down the drain”. God may be resisting you. If you try everything and nothing is working, go back to the God who made you who you are today. Somebody does not even respect their spouse now because he thinks he is not his class. He is shy to introduce his parents or siblings to others because he moves with people of the upper class.

Lucifer became so full of himself because of his beauty, intelligence, and the position God gave him; and he wanted the honor and glory that belonged to God alone. He thought he possessed those qualities by his own might.
Prov. 29:23 KJV – “A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.”

Listen to Isaiah 14:12-15 “How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount `. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. “But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.”

In all things we have to acknowledge that it is God who has made all our achievements possible. Even our salvation is by grace and not by our work so that nobody can boast about it.

Some of us do not want to believe that God punishes anymore because they think everything is by grace and we blame every bad situation on the devil.
Pride comes in so many forms.

Someone is jobless because he rose against authority in his office. He cannot humble himself but the devil is being blamed here. The bible says “for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God”. However, you see the person in authority, it is God who has established him so submit yourself under him. In God’s own time, he will exalt you. When Hagar tried to run away from Sarah, an angel of the Lord met her and asked her to return to her and submit to her and promised her God will bless her. Sometimes we have to submit to be lifted. Let’s check ourselves first and stop blaming the devil for everything that goes wrong in our lives. God may be resisting us.

You hide in your room and cry to God asking him why certain situations don’t go away. It may be your pride and God will resist you until you repent. Something very precious you want to have you cannot have. God may be resisting you.
Some of the difficulties we face may be due to pride but we are not aware. Matthew 11:29 describes Jesus as gentle and humble in heart. That is what we should be emulating.

If we are able to help somebody we want to play God over the person. The person should always glorify us or else. Let’s not forget that God used you to help the person and he can use anybody to do that.

Pride creates frustration in life. It creates enmity for us. Your pride can make someone move heaven and earth just to see you fall. Look at how differently we treat people. How do we perceive others?
If you are proud, God will take you through a situation you don’t like just to humble you. After you have learnt to be humble, then he will exalt you.
We all have traces of these attitudes and more but God has given us power to overcome them. Humility is an antidote to pride.

It is all about how we perceive others. What makes us do what we do to others? Why do we think the way we think about others? Why do we see ourselves higher than others? What makes us disrespect others or look down upon them?

Psalm 138:6 says “Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off”.
Let us be humble in all our doings and we will go far.