THE
INSIDIOUS NATURE OF PRIDE
BREAD
34 He
mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble. 35 The wise inherit honor, but
fools he holds up to shame. Proverbs
3:34-35 (NIV)
2 When
pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 11:2 (NIV)
10 Pride
only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice. Proverbs 13:10 (NIV)
18 Pride
goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18 (NIV)
12 Before
his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor. Proverbs 18:12 (NIV)
23 A
man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor. Proverbs 29:23 (NIV)
37 Now I,
Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because
everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in
pride he is able to humble. Daniel 4:37
(NIV)
15 Do not
love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of
the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful
man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not
from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who
does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:15-17 (NIV)
8 He has
showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to
walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
(NIV)
All
of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God
opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand,
that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1
Peter 5:5-7 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Pride
alienates man from heaven; humility leads to heaven.” Bridget
of Sweden
“Don’t
slack off seeking, striving, and praying for the very same things that we
exhort unconverted people to strive for, and a degree of which you have had in
conversion. Thus pray that your eyes may be opened, that you may receive sight,
that you may know yourself and be brought to God’s feet, and that you may see
the glory of God and Christ, may be raised from the dead, and have the love of
Christ shed abroad in your heart. Those that have most of these things still
need to pray for them; for there so much blindness and hardness and pride and
death remaining that they still need to have that work of God upon them,
further to enlighten and enliven them. This will be a further bringing out of
darkness into God’s marvelous light, and a kind of new conversion…” Jonathan
Edwards
“Pride is utter
poverty of soul disguised as riches.”
John Climacus
“We make our
choices and then our choices make us. Our everyday choices reveal what we
really desire. The
essence of
sin is pride.
The heart of sin is independence
and the core of sin
is demanding
my own way instead of
God’s.” Pat Singleterry
“Pride not only withdraws the heart from God, but lifts it up against God.” Thomas Manton
“Pride not only withdraws the heart from God, but lifts it up against God.” Thomas Manton
“A
spirit of pride in one’s own righteousness, morality, holiness, affection,
experience, faith, humiliation or any other goodness, is a legal spirit…It is
even possible to have a self-righteous spirit about one’s own humility and to
be self-confident about one’s own abasement…But he whose heart is subject to
Christian humility has a very different attitude…Christians who are real saints
and the greatest in the Kingdom…humble themselves as a little child…They look
upon themselves as children in grace..” Jonathan Edwards
“Pride is the devil’s
dragnet in which he takes more fish than in any other, except procrastination.” Charles
H. Spurgeon
“Before you can
(know you are right with God) you must not only be troubled for your sins of
your life, but also for the sins of your best duties and performances...before
you can be at peace with God, there must be a deep conviction before you can be
brought out of your self-righteousness; it is the last idol taken out of your
heart. The pride of our heart will not let us submit to the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. But if you never felt that you had no righteousness of your own
or if you never felt the deficiency of your own righteousness, you cannot come
to Jesus Christ.” George
Whitefield
“All the commandments of God are commandments
of love tending to our real good and great happiness; far from being grievous
to those who have faith and love, the practice thereof is life and peace. The world may think it a grievous burden;
but this is a great mistake indeed. Sin
is grievous. In hatred, envy, anger,
revenge, pride, there is nothing but torment and slavery; but in love there is
a sweet rest and pleasure. Thus a sinner
always punishes himself, and is robbed of great peace and blessing, by
transgressing the commandments of God.” K. H.
Von Bogatzky
“And
if you don’t lie prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen
it: if you are not humbled in the
presence of Jesus, you don’t know Him.
You were so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God’s
only begotten. Think of that, and as
Jesus lowered Himself for you, bow yourself in lowliness at His feet. A sense of Christ’s amazing love to us has a
greater tendency to humble us than even the conscious awareness of our own
guilt……Pride cannot live beneath the cross.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
HEART
SAVOR
- · God hates a prideful heart and haughty eyes.
- · Pride can quickly take hold of us and bring us down flat – we are to be aware of the condition of our hearts and thoughts. Humility is key here.
- · God lifts the humble but lays low the proud in heart.
