Our question today is, “how do you know if you are struggling with pride?”
“How do you know if you’re deceived by pride?
What is your reaction when you’re asked if you’re prideful? It can prompt feeling insulted, indignant, or angry. I hope it prompts peace, and a reminder to ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart for any symptom of pride. You know, we’re all tempted by a spirit of pride. So, how do we recognize it? Is it okay to take pride that job well done?
In Galatians 6:4, we read, “Galatians 6:4 (NIV)
Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else”
That verse seems to give a very good distinction about what is okay and what is that unhealthy, dangerous kind of pride that scripture talks so much about.
In thinking about some of the symptoms that show up in pride, I thought about 1 Corinthians 13. That isn’t often passage that I hear referenced in a discussion about pride, but I just want to read part of it to you to discuss it.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
You may be wondering why that passage came to mind when I started to talk to you about pride, but I realized that pride is kind of the opposite of love, according to 1 Corinthians 13. Pride is not patient, Pride is not kind, pride envies and boasts. It dishonors others, it’s self-seeking, easily angered, and keeps a record of wrongs. It delights in evil and doesn’t rejoice with truth. Pride doesn’t protect (other than itself), it does trust, doesn’t hope, pride doesn’t persevere. Pride fails us, and it causes us to fail others.
Pride comes from a place of self-preservation with the pretense that nobody else will take care of us, including God. Psalm 10:4 says, “in his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.”
We often don’t realize how not taking things to God is truly a symptom of pride. When we try to do it all on our own, or maybe thinking, “I don’t want to bother God with that, He doesn’t care about this little thing, I have to do this on my own.”
That’s pride. Pride is sneaky like that! It comes in ways that you don’t really expect.
If you think there’s any area of pride in your lives, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to that. When you find that, repent. Change that in your heart. Unrepented pride is very destructive. It keeps you from being able to have a good relationship with God. It creates barriers that actually allow evil to interfere in your life.
To have healthy spiritual wellness, the pride HAS to go; but when you turn from that pride and you truly take things to God- when you seek Him, looking hard, you’re going to find Him, and it’s going to be incredible.
I encourage you to pray today and ask God to reveal to you through the Holy Spirit any areas of pride in your life. Ask Him to search your soul.
Try praying, “Search me God, know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24.
Pride is destroyed by humility. We must humble ourselves before the Lord and repent of taking things into our own hands and of the judgment of others, criticizing others, being impatient with others, being boastful, and comparing our successes with others to see how we measure up. When we repent of those things and humble ourselves and take those things to the Lord, letting Him be our Vindicator and defender, the healing and freedom in Christ that come from that can be pretty incredible.
I hope this video has been helpful for you. If pride is something that you struggle with and you want to have some extra support, check out https://diggingdeeper.everydayincredible.net. We have women there who are dedicated to digging deeper into their spiritual learning how to put on our spiritual armor that they may recognize those influences of the enemy that keep us from being able to have the freedom in Christ that God wants us to have.
As always, I want to remind you that there truly are opportunities every day, so make Every Day Incredible.