We don't think about pride that strongly because it isn't as well defined in physical form as other sin. Pride is very subtle, and because we don't think about it, its very dangerous. A man can live his life perfect and sinless and yet be engaged in pride at this very moment. This is why Jesus calls us to be humble and meek, why Peter stresses it so. We at some points in our lives feel like we can do anything through out own strength and believe that all the days of our lives. That it was I who did it, it was I who conquered, who won the game, who saved that person, who preached the gospel, who showed his love and strength in his endurance of persecution.
But it wasn't me, in fact I strongly doubt that good we do is actually by our own ways and mind. We are such wretched creatures that I am starting to believe alone we are utterly incapable of even a sliver of the love that the Godhead has created and so graciously bestowed upon us. God is the one who saves, He is the one who conquered, who dominants sin, who gives us the strength to serve and survive persecution and to declare that HE IS LORD OVER ALL. It's not by our strength that we can recognize his sovereignty, it's not by our strength that we can even realize that there is a God who loves and who cares for us. It's God working in us, its God convicting us of our beliefs, and God who gives us our families, our friends, and most importantly the opportunity for salvation.
How dare we think for even a moment that these works are done through our hands. As wretched creatures we are incapable of good, incapable of conquering the sin that so defines and underlines our lives. God freed us from sin. God works in us to good deeds. We can't fall into this idea of thinking that its half God and half us, its ALL GOD. So how can we have pride? Why do we even need pride? The devil suggests that pride will justify us, that our own accomplishments will define our greatness and our future worth. But what is worldly worth compared to the greatness of heaven and the rewards God has promised, that we have received through no action of our own. How can we seek self worth when the greatest thing of all is impossible to reach and so close at hand.
Today I studied 1 Peter5 , where Peter urges the young generation to be humble under the mighty hand of God. And I wondered what this exactly means, what it means to be humble under Christ and how this would work in my life. I learned the lesson much faster than I expected. In my obsession to have some societal gain I put the words of man as my priority, rather then through pray and supposition make my wishes known to God. And everything fell apart, I don't even know what happened but nothing I did seemed to work out in respect to my goals. And then the passage I had just learned came into mind.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5: 6-7
What was I even thinking? When the answer was so clearly in front of me, why would I go anywhere else? God will take in my worries, he'll remove them from me, because he LOVES me and CARES for me. I have not been abandoned. God is watching out for me, and I should stop running from him, I should stop believing that I can in any way by myself influence the path that God has seen for me to walk in. I let my pride get in the way of my walk and try to force by humanly means what should have been left to God from the start. He cares. He loves. And as I walk and learn to humble myself to him, to trust in God instead of men, I know that my worries will leave me, and that it will be good. And how will I humble myself? God will provide the lessons and the strength to endure through and take them in. He will carry me on the path to him, and teach me to trust in him. IT'S ALL GOD. It was never me. God is the remedy, He is the one who has saved us. He forgive us. He's coming again.
All is well with my soul.
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