Recently, I’ve taken interest in the severity of different types of sin. I know many would say that some sins are worse than others, while more would say, “sin is sin.” Leaving that topic for another day, one sin often displayed throughout the Bible that I find most interesting is that of Pride. Easily recognizable then, it is still very prevalent in today’s world as well.
Proverbs 6:16-19 states, "These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren."
This passage caught me a bit off-guard. Considering every offense that God detests and endures from His creation, the first on the list is pride.
As I’ve continued my daily Bible reading, the Old Testament refers to numerous kings who suffered from their inability to be humble. King Hezekiah (2 Kings), who I read about today, even after faithfully serving the Lord throughout his life fell prey to the consequences of pride. After showing the Babylonian visitors his abundance in wealth, his kingdom was eventually “ran-sacked” by the Babylonian Empire.
In the New Testament, pride is the sin that caused the Pharisees to reject Jesus, choosing rather to follow personal interests instead of Old Testament prophesies.
Think about this. How often does pride rear its ugly face during the course of our day? More often than not, I would bet we put ourselves in situations where pride controls what could be a promising situation.
Take some time to examine yourself, especially your heart. Take some notice as to how you react when criticized. Is your initial reaction anger and/or resentment or a willingness of acceptance and a desire to improve?
Truth is, we have influence over our reactions. Perhaps more so than we’d like to believe. With God’s help, our ability to control prideful behavior and actions becomes more promising. As God humbled himself for us, perhaps we should humble ourselves to His word(s).
* Some thoughts found within this post were shared by Sovereign Grace Bible Church.
About Me
- Jonathan Hornkohl
- Circumstances for Clapping Hands is a blog about reasons to give praise to God, despite my circumstances. As Henry David Thoreau once addressed, “There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.” The challenges: 1) Find value in everything you do and 2) Find joy in doing it.
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I must admit that I continually have to battle with my pride. I am a very stubborn person, and whenever I have conflicts in my life, they are usually derived from my own pride - my failure to want to take responsibility for what I've done wrong, and pointing the finger instead. It's something that God is totally working on in me though, but yup - there's plenty of room for improvement, and God is totally awesome for giving me grace and helping me with this!
ReplyDeleteI think when it comes down to it, all sin is derived from pride. It is, after all, what caused Lucifer to fall.
ReplyDeletePride can be the root of murder, deceit, defiance, stealing, impatience, lust.
If we can allow God to work on our pride, lots of other things will fall into line.