Pride

The path of the righteous is level;

you make level the way of the righteous.

In the path of your judgements, 

O Lord, we wait for you;

your name and remembrance

are the desire of our soul.

My soul yearns for you in the night;

my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.

-Isaiah 26:7-9

Today, I am blown away by the privileges God has given me as His child. Seriously, how can THE perfect, all-knowing, all-powerful God bless me with the privilege to glorify Him. I am so imperfect and yet, He has chosen me to carry His message of Salvation and love to so many people. He has chosen me to reveal Himself through. I am in awe. Any child of God who has repented and expressed belief in their need for Jesus Christ has these privileges as well. So what do we do with them? I can tell you that I do not always take these privileges for what they are worth. The obstacle of pride gets in my way all the time. Pride is like having something lodged in my throat that causes destruction if not taken away. Hear God's warning about pride in Jeremiah 13:16: "Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings the darkness, before your feet stumble on the darkening hills. You hope for light, but he will turn it to thick darkness and change it to deep gloom." Verse 17 goes on to tell us that the Lord's flock WILL be taken captive because of pride. I am in captivity because of pride. The pride in my own life that keeps me in captivity is actually my mindset that God is not big enough to take away my sin or problems. More often than I would like to admit, I find myself thinking that God cannot change the relationship with my sister or my parents or even past friends. I second guess God's power all the time. Pride definitely affects how I love others. I have a hard time loving certain brothers and sisters in Christ when I see immaturity even though I know they know the Word of God but choose to disobey God in such huge ways. It is so hard for me  being around people that need to act out for attention. However, this is my pride setting in that they are not "following the Lord as well as I am at times." Gross, gross, gross. I can't believe I think that--even if it is rarely. I am just as sinful as any other person on this earth. Pride can be so vicious. Proverbs 11:2 actually says, "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." My pride brings God disgrace. Those are piercing words, especially when I think about the relationship with my earthly father. I love my dad and respect him SO MUCH. He is a person in my life that I never, ever want to let down. The few times I have let him down have come with a great deal of sting. It hurts to bring disgrace to someone you love and respect so incredibly much. My heart just hurts right now thinking about letting my dad down. Bringing him disgrace would even be greater than just letting him down slightly. The definition for disgrace is "the lose of respect, honor, or esteem; ignominy; shame." Experiencing the sting and pain of letting my earthly dad down, I can't even imagine bringing disgrace to our Abba Father. Although, my pride brings disgrace to Him all the time. Proverbs tells us that pride brings disgrace...even a hint. We need to view humility as strength, even when our society tells us that being humble is a sign of weakness. Our society just sickens me sometimes. Being filled with pride comes so easy and naturally. Humility takes God's strength alone and this strength is only for those who are strong enough to admit their weakness. We need to humble ourselves before God--bowing down to His majesty. We must choose to humble ourselves by submitting to His plan and power every single day, moment by moment. The thought of what true humbling looks like overwhelms me but in Daniel 4:37 God makes us a promise that is so precious: "Those who walk in pride he is able to humble." God IS able to humble us through His power and His strength! I hope that you are able to walk in that truth today and everyday.