Pride

The title of today's devotional is "Pride: Enemy of God." Those of you who go to Fellowship will remember Steve Kessler's recent message on pride, and Ray's about the temptation of Jesus. It's beginning to seem like the whole point of this fasting thing is a search for humbleness and humility. Oh yeah, that's because it is.

The scripture for today's message is James 4:6 - "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." I am immediately reminded of the Beatitudes.

Matthew 5:3-11
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

This has always been a difficult passage for me to work through because it is so tempting to associate many of these qualities with weakness. However, as I have grown in my faith I have begun to recognize that these qualities are not signs of weakness, but of humble submission to God's will. The way Jesus concludes this teaching is one of my favorite encouragements he offers in his ministry.

Matthew 5:12 - Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

I like how the New Living translation translates the beginning of the verse: "Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven." Our reward does not come from our works or our "holiness." It is the direct gift of Jesus to us as a result of his sacrifice. So how does this relate to pride?

We have to push aside not only our earthly desires, but also the pride that is easily hidden or even unnoticed by us. We have a problem and try to solve it without pausing to pray. We don't even think to pray because of our subconscious pride!

This reminds me of something that just happened. Our neighbor Colleen was driving to Oklahoma, but her car broke down just outside of Waco. She texted us and asked us to pray about the situation. Everyone in the house immediately began thinking about how to remedy the situation, should we drive up there, should we have her car towed, etc. After a few hours we finally realized that we hadn't ever prayed about it. We finally did and just a few moments later got texts/calls that the car was running again. It should not have been running, it showed no signs of life, but suddenly it was up and running again.

I want to eliminate the hidden pride from my life. I don't even know how to do it, but I want to. Oh, and the regular pride can go too....