That Stinky Thing Called PRIDE
// January 30th, 2008 // Christian Living
Don’t you hate those areas in life that are a constant struggle? You feel like you have gotten to the place that you have dealt with it enough for it not to trip you up and then something comes up out of the blue and you find your self stumbling again. A big one for me is trusting God.
I find myself thinking that things depend on me more then they really do. I have come to realize that part of me feels like if I don’t do something just right everything will be pulled out from under me. So, it is a vicious cycle of feeling like I have my trust in God, something happening to shake things up again, I feel let down and then immediately feel like it must be because I am not doing something right. I know this sounds backwards and it really is. I am making myself more important then I really am. When you boil it down plain and simple it is PRIDE. That nasty ugly word that encompasses so many of life’s problems.
In my devotions this morning, I was learning that there is something that God does in calling us together as Christians to form a community. There is a place in community that when one person is effected it effects others in the community and it should (good and bad). The other part of that is that in II Corinthians 1:4 it says: “who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
What God was showing me is there is a place in the community of believers that God expects us to be there for one another. He provides comfort so that we can then comfort others. It also means that when I am putting the weight of everything on myself I am not believing God. He says that we are supposed to help each other. Our lives are supposed to effect other peoples. When I try to isolate myself and be “strong” I am cutting myself off from what God has provided.
So, what I am praying today is that God would bring me to a place of humility. That I would not so depend on myself that I cut myself off from God’s provision. It doesn’t mean that I have to put on a happy face when I am not ok and it doesn’t mean that I share every little thing with someone just because they are in the community of believers, but it does mean that God has provided for me people in my life that will walk through times of weakness and times of strength…times of sorrow and joy. I praise God for those people and the people to come!
Ouch…wish I could say that your words were wonderful ones for me to share with clients who face the same problem, but they spoke to my heart this morning. I, too, have a tough time trusting God at times. I know, at an intellectual level, that He is in control, that He knows what is best for me, but I keep taking charge and trying to fix things on my own. As a counselor comforting others is usually not a problem, but letting people see my problems and comforting them by sharing my weaknesses is difficult. Thanks for the reminder that community means allowing others to come along side me…not just me coming along side them!
Wow, Heather. You’re so right about pride. Sometimes it seems like everything I do is tainted by it. Sometimes pride keeps me from both giving and receiving correction, so it seems that the biggest hinderance to Community is pride itself! Wouldn’t it be awesome if we were all humble enough to have our pride exposed and dealt with? Ha! What a paradox!
Amen, Heather! I am dealing with the pride issue right now, too. Namely, thinking my actions have anything to do with God’s grace or His love toward me. When I try to worship Jesus in my own strength with things I think I should do, then I cease to actually worship HIM! I’m actually worshiping my own actions. Does that make sense?
I keep coming back to Paul’s statement to the Corinthians:
“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 1 Cor. 2:2
thanks for this post! it’s a blessing to know we’re not alone in th journey.
Wow Heather, you really hit the nail on the head here. Thanks for sharing your heart. The verse I keep coming back to with regard to pride is again from Paul in Romans 7:15: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” And I HATE living out of pride. The kicker is, when I’m that deep into it, I don’t even know it! It takes getting my feelings hurt or something equally difficult for me to realize that I’m not so humble as I think!
These are all such encouraging comments. It helps to know I am not the only one dealing with these issues. It is so true too that so many times what gets in the way of overcoming pride is pride itself. I loved what Sarah said about when we try to worship God in our own strength we end up worshipping ourselves..OUCH. Thanks for all the comments. Very encouraging!!
Thank you, Heather, for being so transparent. I think pride is a vicious cycle that many of us fall into. We want to appear like we have it all together, everything’s under control and hope we look like we know what we’re doing because we don’t want anyone to ‘peek under the rug’ and see the ‘real us’ and appear weak or incapable. But in those beliefs we forfeit and unknowingly push away not only the comfort that God wants to grace us with, but those He has given us to support us as well. It’s a cycle that I don’t think we can break in our own strength (pride there again), but need to be very honest with God, and ask Him to begin that work in our souls.