Thursday, December 19

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2019

 

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

 

“Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly,

    [but the haughty he knows from afar].” (Psalm 138:6; NIV and ESV)

 

 

In today’s prophecy from Zephaniah and the teaching of Psalm 138:6, we find stark contrasts between God’s initimate knowledge and rejoicing over the humble, but his rejection and distance from the prideful.  While the prophecy may speak in national terms about the Jews, the relevance of this teaching extends to us individually and corporately as Christ-followers today.

 

Pride creates major complications in our walk with Christ.  It obscures the truth and revelation from God because we believe that we know better.  It restricts us from experiencing intimacy in our relationships because we imagine ourselves as being better than others.  It keeps us from considering new ideas because we think better than others.

 

Pride puffs us up momentarily, only to betray us in the long run.  Like many negative emotions -- much like drugs or alcohol -- the initial “high” quickly dissipates into a deeper hole.

 

In his classic, “The Great Divorce,” C. S. Lewis pictured man’s pride as leading to a desire to distance ourselves farther and farther away from others.  That isolation becomes what the prideful deserve:  they wanted it all along.

 

I encourage you to take account of your relational pride.  Whom have you avoided due to your elevated self-opinion?  Have you become less sensitive to God’s voice recently?

 

Encouragingly, we find our Father as eager and completely able to restore us.  With His children, He will “rejoice over you with singing.”  What a beautiful picture of our loving, encouraging Father!

 

 

Lord God, thank You for this wisdom about pride.  Give us strength to face our weaknesses and to approach You and others with true love and humility.  Restore us to wholeness in our relationships, and give us complete joy in experiencing Your presence and loving others.  In Jesus’s mighty Name, amen.

 

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