I’ve always
considered myself to be kind, sweet, giving, and humble. I’ve always been the
type to shy away from receiving praise from people because I recognized
arrogance as a characteristic that I hated in other people. I was comfortable thinking,
“I have many areas where I need God's transformative power and molding but pride
is NOT one. Recently, I was slapped in the face with the truth (God has a way of illuminating in your heart the truth of who you are and who He wants you to be); I DO have an
issue with pride and I DO need God to transform my heart further in that area.
We always think of pride as
arrogance, conceit, or bragging but another form of pride that often goes unchecked
among Christians is self-dependence. Pride is also putting confidence in yourself to run your life. I know
this may sound crazy because we live in a culture that constantly tell us that independence
is respectable, it should be desired, and it’s the best way to prove that you
have what it takes.
I enjoy acting (though it's not something that I have the opportunity to do often) and my favorite part of the process is hearing the director's vision for the play. What's the story line?, what message does the director want to send to the audience?, what will my role add to the big picture?, etc. But can you imagine if I walked into rehearsal with no lines and no defined role and started doing whatever I wanted to do? What if I made up the parts myself and expected everyone else to get on my page. I mean, what's the big deal? I'm have a vision for my role too, why can't I just do what I want to do?
The sad reality is that many people approach life in this way. We have a director (God) who has written the story of our lives, who has given us a role (purpose), and has personally agreed to help us learn how to play our role but yet we hit the stage and do what we want to do instead of yielding to the vision that was already set (in God's case, it was set before the foundation of the earth).
One thing that I’m learning more and more in my
Christian walk is this; anything that we attempt to do outside of God is a path
to destruction. We did not create ourselves, we don’t know what the plans for
our lives are (outside of what God clearly tells us is His plan for all of His children), but far too often we set our hands to making decisions about our
lives and playing our own director. Let's look at a scripture in James 4 and see what we can take from this:
6 But He gives us more and more
grace ([a]power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil
tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against
the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who
are humble enough to receive it).
7 So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand
firm against him], and he will flee from you.
8 Come close to God and He will come close to
you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize
that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and
purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].
9 [As you draw near to God] be deeply penitent
and grieve, even weep [over your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to
grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins].
10 Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the
presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your
lives significant].
So, it would take me several post to completely dig into this scripture but I'll share my key takeaways with you all.
1. Pride is our natural inclination: Our default is to trust ourselves to run our lives. I mean, most Christians that I know have a regular saying, "God knows best", but few Christians live life in a way that proves that they truly believe that. If we truly believed that, we would study His word and through His strength, do all of the things that He has instructed us to do therein. We would also depend on Him for leading our paths, decision making, and teaching us how to love like Him. We can only eliminate pride through allowing God to do the work IN our hearts.
2. God gives believers the Holy Spirit to overcome our pride with humility: God has given His children the Holy Spirit to rest in our hearts to liberate us from slavery to sin and pride. When we approach God with a sincere heart, desiring for Him to make us more like Christ, He promises that He will do the work within our lives. That's the whole point of the Holy Spirit (to be our helper, counseling, advocate, standby, and strengthener)
3. God explicitly HATES pride: Ummm how many times can I express that God absolutely hates pride. I dare you to do a many study on "How God feels about pride" and see just how serious He is about His disdain for it.
4. Recognize your need for cleansing: In order for God to transform you, you must: acknowledge your sin, recognize that you need saving, and recognize God as the source for the transformation (God is the solution). You must realize that there is nothing that you can do in your own strength. We can decide to have the life that is offered to us in Christ by submitted and allowing God to transform our hearts or we can continue to be self-dependent and always grasp at the life but never achieve it.
5. Get desperate for Him and draw near to Him: We spoke about the need for cleansing right?! Ok, this step is critical! We have to be desperate for it! Don't merely want it, but approach God in a "Look, I want to be like you, I want the character of your son Jesus Christ, and I will not stop pursing you until you change me". That may mean that you'll lose some sleep, you may miss some meals, you may be unavailable to family and friends during this process, but THAT desperation will move the hand of God and just as He promised, "As we pursue Him, He WILL pursue us".
6. God WILL exalt you and make your life significant: This is where it gets GOOD! This is when we are truly experiencing the "abundant life" that God is offering His children. We see a shedding of our sinful nature and we start to look like Christ. We start to grow in the fruit of the spirit, we love better, we handle adversity better, we see visions of our future, we are walking in our purpose, we are living our life as an act of worship unto God, and because of that, he gives us His joy and peace. It's just SO good!
God is the perfect director, His vision is clear, His desire is to bring us to an expected end and give us abundant life in Him (John 10:10, Jeremiah 29:11). I hope that today you will renew your commitment to giving God full director responsibility and submitted to His vision for the role that you are to play. He won't give you a bad role but I promise, you'll create a bad role for yourself (even if it seems great initially). He loves you and he wants to constantly move you to a place where you are experiencing His love in a deeper way.
Prayer:
Lord, thank you for shedding a light on our hearts through Your word. Please forgive us of our sin and help us to turn away from them for they are many. Thank you for an understanding of how You feel about pride. We submit to your molding! Please remove pride from our hearts, remove our self-dependence and help us to trust You more. We trust that you know what is best for our lives, we trust that you will NOT let us down, and we trust that life in You is better than anything that we can do on our own. Have your way in our lives Lord, press your word upon our hearts, and make us more like your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for the promise that you will exalt us and make our lives significant. We believe you and we Love you! In Your Son Jesus name, Amen.
I love you all, but Jesus loves you SO much more!
XO,
Kristin Sarai
