May 19

May 19, 2012

 

Proverbs 16:18  Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

 

There is a story of two ducks and a frog who lived happily together in a farm pond. They were great friends and enjoyed playing together. When the hot days of summer came, however, the pond began to dry up and they soon realized that they had to move. This was not a problem for the ducks because they could just fly to another pond, but the frog was stuck. So they decided to put a stick in the bill of each duck that the frog could hang onto with his mouth as they flew to another pond. The plan worked well. So well, in fact, that as they were flying along a farmer looked up in admiration and said, "Well, isn't that a clever idea! I wonder who thought of that."   To which the frog said, "I did!!" Be careful of pride; ­ it can cause you to fall!

 

Proverbs 16:5  The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

 

It is clear from our reading today that God hates a prideful heart. He doesn't require us to think poorly of ourselves; the point is to think not of ourselves but of others first. Pride elevates self to a place of danger.  Pride indicates self-reliance instead of God-reliance. The number one indicator of pride is how much time we spend in prayer.

C.S. Lewis says, "There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The vice I am talking about is pride or self-conceit."

 

Pride is considered by many to be the greatest sin of all. It leads to every other vice, and it puts a person in an anti-God position. Destroying pride in the heart is one of the hardest and longest battles that we all fight.

I like what Benjamin Franklin had to say in his autobiography concerning his own pride. "There is perhaps not one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."

 

To define sin is to understand the battle we have with it. Pride is defined as "an inordinate amount of self-esteem." The synonyms for the word "pride,"- conceit, arrogance, and boastfulness, are not pretty. Pride is puffed up, stiff-necked and stuck-up. When we think of pride, we think of people that are loud-mouthed, obnoxious, and outlandish.  In reality, most are very meek, mild, calm, cool, and calculated. Pride blinds itself to its own presence. Pride puts the "Me First" attitude in the center of life. Life then focuses on my agenda, my comfort and my needs. This attitude oozes out of our pores at home, at work and even in the church. Pride whispers to the heart, "you can quit, no one understands you." Pride convinces the over-spender "you deserve it," even though they've maxed out credit cards.  Pride whispers to the alcoholic "go ahead you can stop anytime you want." Pride whispers to the control freak, "if you don't orchestrate their lives, who will?"  Pride whispers to the perpetual victim, "it's the other person's fault." In the end, pride repeatedly shouts the word, me, me, me, me!!! 

 

Beware of pride.