The Power of Pride: Part 2

To see Part 1 of this series, CLICK HERE.

In Part 1, we began to look at the power of pride. I asked you to complete a Self Examination to help expose any areas in your life where pride might be hiding. The exam was based on only 5 areas I chose to focus on. Pride can be hiding in many other places in your life. This examination was meant to provide you with food for thought.

As difficult as it is to admit to ourselves that we struggle with pride, I pray you were not too brutal on yourself if you realized it had been neatly camouflaged and quietly thriving under your lower, left rib. Many times we think our heart is in the right place when it is not, and that’s because we aren’t looking at it through the eyes of God.

Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for what humans see is visible, but the Lord sees the heart, (1 Samuel 16:7).

Pride Stunts Spiritual Growth

Let’s further analyze spiritual narcissism by just dealing with the issue of prayer. You will see how the other issues under this question (#5) from the Self Examination fall under the same analysis. To see the Self Examination, CLICK HERE.

Does anyone really think God doesn’t know how busy your life is? But He expects you to pray anyway. He wants you to. He’s waiting for you to Be Still and Know. And what are you telling Him by letting everything else stop you from doing it? You are not only telling God, but everyone in your life, two things:

1. You don’t really need God. You can do it on your own.
2. He isn’t as important as all the dirt and sand you’ve built your life on.

What do you truly believe about God? I’m not asking what you tell other people or even what you say to yourself that you believe. What do you TRULY believe about God?

Your life reflects what you believe about God.

We tend to the things that are important to us. We don’t just talk about it. We actually do it. If your relationship with the Heavenly Father is REALLY important to you, you will tend to it.

At the core of pride is self.

The pursuit of self is exactly the opposite of what Christianity stands for.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, (Galatians 2:20).

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there, (Galatians 5:24).

Brutal honesty with oneself is a vital part of sanctification. It’s not pretty – so don’t expect it to be. It will come as a shock what you are, or have been, capable of. Seeing yourself clearly the way God sees you is the only way to understand total and complete reliance on Him. The greatest explanation of this process that I’ve ever heard came from John Newton. Most of the world has heard Newton’s most famous hymnal, Amazing Grace, but a lesser known song that he wrote holds the key to understanding this issue.

I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and ev’ry grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.

‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer,
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request,
And, by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart,
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in ev’ry part.

Yea, more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe,
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Humbled my heart and laid me low.

“Lord, why is this,” I trembling cried;
“Wilt Thou pursue Thy worm to death?”
“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”

“These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

The Most Dangerous Form of Pride

Vanity.

Vanity is the most dangerous manifestation of pride.

I’ll let Scripture show you why with the fall of Satan. Have you ever wondered why Satan thought he should, or even could, be above God? What caused him to rise up and challenge his Creator? Well…here’s the answer:

Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor, (Ezekiel 28:17).

Straight up vanity!

Satan’s vanity made him believe he was superior to God. He wanted to establish a throne for himself above God, (Isaiah 14:13-14). During his failed coup d’état, he corrupted 1/3 of the angels with his pride and deceit, and they all were cast out of Heaven, (Revelation 12:3-9).

Satan was so consumed with himself, he completely forgot two important details:

1. He was a CREATED being
2. WHO created him

His pride completely erased the basic obligation he had to live in reverence and service to the One who created him. He only existed BECAUSE he had been created by God; his pride made him overlook that fact and created a misplaced sense of self. He forgot his place.

You better believe Satan fuels and preys on vanity in humans. It was the very first thing he ever did when he met a human:

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
“No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, (Genesis 3:1-6).

Satan planted the seed that Eve could be like God. If that isn’t “the pot calling the kettle, black” I don’t know what is. That’s just what Satan had done himself.

Vanity is dangerous and costly.

The good news is humans are not angels or Heavenly beings.

WE can restore our relationship to the Creator.

Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah, (Acts 3:19-20).

In Part 3, we will learn ways to avoid the corruption of pride.

CLICK HERE to see Part 3.

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