Posts Tagged: Our Daily Bread

“WATCH OUT FOR PRIDE!”

On November 30, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

My wife is not a prideful person.  As evidence of her humility, she gave me permission to tell you this story about her.

And yet, even she has her struggles.  During our prayer time the other day, she was asking for me to pray for her.  She had felt left out recently in regard to a certain matter, and was feeling a bit resentful.  “I guess I’m struggling with pride,” she said.

After we had prayed, she turned to a devotional that we are working our way through (Bread for Each Day), and read it out loud.  It was titled “THE FIRST SIN”).  The Scripture reading at the beginning of the one-page meditation was Proverbs16:18.  My sweetheart read the first word of this verse, her eyes got very large, and she burst out laughing.  The first word was “Pride”!

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18, italics theirs).

We laughed together about the appropriateness of this reading.  I said to God, “Hey!  Lay off!  She already admitted her pride!”

It was a good reading.  The author pointed out that pride was involved in the sin of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:5).  Perhaps there is an element of pride in every sin.

For example, I am frequently guilty of radical frustration.  “Why haven’t I read all the books ever written about the Old Testament?” I ask myself.  Sometimes, frustration boils over, and scalds me and everyone around me with resentment, envy, and self-loathing.

But why on earth do I think that I can or should have read everything written about the Old Testament?  The failure—or refusal—to recognize my own limitations is the essence of pride.

I’m not convinced that any of us can ever be entirely humble.  If we were, we would probably become proud of the fact that we were entirely humble.  We are like dogs chasing our own tails.  Seeking to be completely humble is the most subtle and most serious version of pride.

But, at least, we can be aware.  We can be aware of how many events in life (and mostly our feelings about those events) trigger our pride.  Perhaps such awareness is as close as we can ever come to humility on this side of Heaven.

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