It’s Just Plain Ugly

Posted on by juniperjen4jesus

It makes your face contorted and unattractive.

It causes you to look down your nose at someone.

It prevents you from wanting the best for others.

It stops you from making amends.

It locks your lips when you need to admit you are wrong.

It controls your tongue when you say those regrettable words.

It continually causes so much heartache, rebellion, and sin.

It is a peace-destroyer.

It prevents you from serving Jesus to the fullest.

It will eat you alive.

It’s PRIDE.

Ugly, sin-causing, life-ruining, God-dishonoring PRIDE.

It’s in all of us. And left unchecked, it can completely ruin our lives.

So what do we do about it? How can we escape its constant, bitter presence and control? Here are just a few practical and Biblical truths to ponder about pride:

PERSPECTIVE

  • See it for what it is – Pride is sin (Prov. 21:4)
  • Recognize that pride is not of the Lord. (I John 2:16)

REMEMBER GOD’S WORDS

  • God considers pride disgusting/an abomination (Prov. 16:5)
  • God resists the proud (James 4:6)
  • To have a proper respect for the God who made us, we must literally hate all sin – including pride. (Prov. 8:13)

IDENTIFY PRIDE WITHIN MYSELF

  • Brains, brawns, beauty, bucks…we shouldn’t take pride in any of this. (Jeremiah 9:23)
  • Let’s not kid ourselves – we are nothing without God. (Galatians 6:3)
  • Think of OTHERS before ourselves (Romans 12:16)
  • Don’t think we “know it all” (Romans 12:16)
  • Don’t waste our time praising ourselves – let others handle that (Prov. 27:2)

DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING

  • Humble YOURSELF: God tells us that he resists the proud, but that He gives grace to the humble. We certainly don’t want the Creator of this world to resist us. By having a proper perspective of the sinners we really are, this helps to keep us in the humble zone.

Any time we’re tempted to think of ourselves as better than we really are, we can pray to the God who made us. We can admit to the Lord and to others that we are wrong and humble ourselves. That’s right. Humble ourselves. “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up.” (James 4:10). By the way, I’m pretty sure we would all rather humble ourselves than have God humble us. Choose now to take that next step towards humility.

EXALT GOD OVER SELF

  • I didn’t create myself, I didn’t save myself from eternal damnation, and I certainly can’t control even my next heartbeat. I am nothing without God. Perhaps reminding ourselves of this will help us the next time we are tempted to give ourselves a little too much credit.
  • “HE MUST INCREASE, BUT I MUST DECREASE.” – JOHN 3:30

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be ugly. I don’t want to ruin my life or ruin the lives of others. I don’t want to speak words I will regret forever. I don’t want to be comfortable in my sin. I don’t want to constantly fight with others. I don’t want to be consumed with myself. I certainly don’t want God to resist me.

Then I must extinguish my pride.

Lord, may I strive daily to resist the pride that creeps up within me, and to instead humble myself under Your Mighty Hand.

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