Pride is sneaky! We ALL struggle with pride. If you think you don’t, sorry but you are struggling with Pride right now my friend.
It is the easiest, most natural sin. BUT we can fight it by identifying it. I thought at one time I was free from pride, and I was prideful to think that.
Pride is an Easy Trap to Fall Into in Today’s Society
Google defines pride as: either a feeling of deep satisfaction in one’s achievements or self-worth, or an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance.
This is literally the natural state of our world. Pride is an extremely easy trap as we are born into a society that values pride. Society often has us defining ourselves through material things, our education, awards we’ve won, our jobs, etc. Often we are defined by achievements, and many care a lot about recognition. We compete to be the best at things! For many people instead of looking at the things they have achieved and saying, “I have this because God allowed me to, God blessed me,” These things just become rewards that they earned through their own efforts. God is left out of the equation.
Stay with me this is not the only pride trap! There are plenty more!
(Note: when you are saved, it is easier to not let worldly things define who you are and your value)
We Can Fall into PRIDE Not Recognizing God’s Work in Our Lives
OKAY, many people just recite prayers saying they are thankful for their food, their family, friends, etc. Did you thank God when you won that award, got that promotion, when you took that nice vacation, etc.? Do you thank God often for a roof over your head? for clothing on your back, for a cozy bed? for the sun in the morning? the gorgeous sunset at night? Do you thank God for the friend that called out of nowhere when you were hurting? That was likely God intervening, as we blame him for the storm, but not how He helped us in the storm (oh I’m preaching to myself for sure on that note). We might thank him when he answers a prayer, but we should be thanking him for all the small, tiny things and definitely the big things. Most people don’t thank God enough.
Some people think they are just doing life on their own, and they don’t really need much intervention from God. But God has been intervening from the beginning. He is always doing things in your life. God blesses you with many things you don’t pray for or ask for.
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:17
(Can I tell you something? I barely remember this scripture, I just hear in my head “every good and perfect gift is from above” So I searched for these words. That’s the Holy Spirit helping me.)
Pride is Considered the ORIGINAL SIN
Genesis 3:5-6: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Genesis 3:5–6, the temptation offered to Eve included the desire to “be like God,” so many consider this to be “PRIDE” as it was the first sin. I would say this is pride because it is an arrogance that elevates human will above God’s.
Pride in Religion
Pride in religion can look like … You compare your sins to others to determine whether or not you are a saved, their heart vs yours, how they are serving the church, their attendance, how charitable they are, etc.
When you have the Holy Spirit, if you are free from religion, you won’t do this at all because you will realize you are saved, the work is finished, Jesus did the work on the cross. You were never going to earn it. Grace is a free gift. So instead, your heart is focused on pleasing God, and really you are just desiring to become better than your former self. So, it doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing. The fruit happens more naturally: giving tithes, sharing the truth, and desiring to have church with other believers.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. – Ephesians 2:8-9
Pride Shows Up in Day-to-Day Life as… JUDGING Others
Just the thought that you look down on someone with less of an education, clothes that are not as nice, a tiny shack of a home – and think of yourself as better than them, that’s pride my friend. Most people can’t say they haven’t had that thought.
And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. – Mark 12:31
“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.” – Romans 12:16
Perhaps there is a man you know who is addicted to alcohol and keeps screwing up his life, and you have the thought in the back of your mind that you are a better person. You look down on him.
Maybe you are looking at that alcoholic whose turned his life upside, disappointed his whole family, and he is looking to you like a big fat loser. So, you think to yourself “I’m better than him, or I’m definitely saved if I compare myself to that guy,” yes, you have pride, my friend. You didn’t even say it out loud, but God heard you think it.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. – Matthew 7:1-2
HOW DO WE TURN THIS AROUND?? By giving them a back story!
Demons Work Through People’s Trauma
As I mentioned in my last blog Holy Spirit as Your Anti-Virus Security System, demons cause people with trauma to sin more. If you read this, I said trauma can open doors for demons to cause people to sin.
So maybe the guy with the alcoholic problem grew up abused, maybe he was told he was worthless, and then the demons say “okay, this is an easy target!” They guide him toward sin. The flesh is weak. He starts drinking to deal with his pain.
So many people suffer from sinning through judging people as less than. They don’t see that a person may have been unfairly wounded, and no one came to the rescue. Therefore, they went down a dark path and maybe did some questionable stuff.
Are we all still fully responsible for the pain we inflict on others – yes, are we totally responsible for our sins – yes. But God isn’t going to even tell this guy to get it together first to be saved. This guy just needs some Gospel Truth, and then he can repent and be saved. It will then be easier for him to turn his life around.
Separate story…
I don’t know what caused this guy to be an alcoholic, but I follow this pastor on Facebook who has a story like this (alcoholic, made a mess out of his life, and then repented, and didn’t touch alcohol again). And WOW God is definitely using this guy. His posts have helped me so much, as I was working to destroy religious mindsets. Who would have thought that this guy would become some great disciple?
This is the world we live in.
It isn’t fair, but we were never told it would be. Some people grow up in poverty, some people are raised by murderers, some are raised by thieves. We have to understand that this is due to evil forces at work in our world. Instead of looking at someone behind bars, struggling with anger, a person with loads of insecurities, a person who lives in a constant state of negativity, and thinking they are so pathetic, irresponsible, a bad human, “we must ask what wounded them? What open door did the demon walk in?”
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” – Ephesians 6:12
We can’t treat people like broken objects, because they might be called to be one of God’s greatest disciples. We should be finding what makes them special. God loves to use the broken to shame the wise. We just need more love in this world!
God judges less harshly than the world!
The Love
Instead of telling you get it together, God shows us that He paid for our sins before we committed them, “I loved you before you sinned, while you were sinning, and you can’t escape my love for you.” Right? Jesus died on the cross before we were even born. But the world says things like… “you are broken, you are horrible, get your act together, you smell bad, you look bad, you are uneducated, you are unworthy.”
But God doesn’t say “get it together and maybe I will save you,” he calls us to stop trying to do everything on our own! He wants to help us navigate this world. He wants to have a relationship with us! The biggest gift you get from God is your salvation, but there are many more gifts.
Repent to Be Sealed with the Promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13)
If you haven’t repented, start with what prideful thoughts are getting in the way.
The thought that you have tried so hard to be morally good, so you don’t have to take responsibility for your sins, you thinking you don’t sin, or that you are not that big of a sinner – so you don’t have to repent – PRIDE!
Repenting doesn’t have to be hard. You just have to decide to destroy all your pride and have faith in God! You can start by asking for your heart to change, but that’s only step one. Step 2: you have to repent!
I CRUSHED MY PRIDE. I humbled myself before God and chose to plead guilty for ALL my sins. I decided I’m making no excuses. I’m not blaming anyone for any sin I’ve committed. I’m feeling the shame of it all (even that small jealous thought, even that small lie I told, even that or those dumb thing(s) I did as a teenager, ALL of it!). I’m done apologizing like it’s no big deal when I sin.
“Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the Lord our God, both we and our ancestors; from our youth till this day we have not obeyed the Lord our God.” – Jeremiah 3:25
I chose to turn away from sinning completely. I chose to hate sin aligning myself with how God feels about sin. AND my heart changed. AND sin became no longer a habit – it became easier to avoid as doors that caused me to sin closed. I started realizing who I was created to be and learning about my greater purpose. My whole reality shifted BECAUSE I was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Sure you feel all the shame at once, but then you get to free yourself from it.
“In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” – Luke 15:10
Heaven celebrates when you repent! How SPECIAL is that??!!!
Being Watchful for Prideful Thoughts
JOURNALING
I stomped all over my pride when I repented. But even after I repented, I spent some time journaling and un-programming worldly thoughts that were connected to pride. It helped me a lot! I continue to watch myself to make sure I’m not falling victim to pride. But I still catch myself having little prideful thoughts here and there.
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. – Proverbs 16:18
SCRIPTURE
If I stop reading scripture and spending time with God, but I still go out and share the Gospel truth, I will likely fall into a big pride trap. I then may take glory from God and start giving it to myself. Yikes! God wants a relationship with me more than he wants me to go out and share the truth and do incredible works.
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ – Matthew 7:22-23
Okay, you might be saying now, “I can’t imagine reading scripture regularly, it is just too hard.”
So, God isn’t saying you have to read the bible in a year, society pushes that. What if you read just one page a day? Or even one chapter and just tried to understand it (start with Matthew 1 right now). God wants you to not just read, He wants you to understand. So, you can go as slow as you need to. Certain chapters in the Old Testament like the descriptions for the temple, or genealogies you might read a bit faster. Just have a goal to absorb something when you read (I need to absorb more). BUT as I’ve stated before, in case no one ever told you: when you have the Holy Spirit, the bible unlocks (scripture says so too: 2 Corinthians 3:16), it will be easier to read.
How Else Do We Walk Without Pride? We Try to Model Jesus.
God gives you a new heart when you receive the Holy Spirit, that helps.
I have been given a heart not to judge people for anything, of course I can mess up. However, I try to walk as Jesus with just love and truth, not to condemn, and be the judge. For it is prideful to judge one’s sins against another’s sins, it is prideful to judge one’s past over another’s past, it is prideful to judge one’s understanding against another persons. For the very person I think to judge brutally could be one of God’s greatest disciples. I’ve been given a heart of love and mercy. Although I may stumble, I am aware of pride. I am working toward finding a community to strengthen me and call me out if I fall into pride or another sin.
All my strength, my wisdom, my discernment, my ability to remember so much scripture comes from having the Holy Spirit, from receiving grace and mercy. God gets ALL the glory!
If I think I know enough, I have pride too. I have so much to learn, and will be learning my whole life.
To Summarize Overcoming Pride:
- Recognize what pride looks like
- Start recognizing God is a part of everything you do. All good things are because we have a God who loves us.
- We thank God more for all things big and small
- We recognize God loves everyone, so instead of judging we consider what story they might have.
- REPENT of course!
- Read scripture and pray
- Study and mirror the way Jesus approached people with love
- Write down current prideful thoughts, and choose the thoughts you want to replace them with. Add scripture.
MORE on Repentance on My Blog
View my blog: Recipe for Repentance – God gave me this idea around 4:40 am when I was trying to sleep as I prayed the day before for something to help people receive the truth who have been blinded by religion.
And if you haven’t, read my church blog “Church in Biblical Times vs Church Now & WHAT Church Really IS! The RIGHT kind of church is VERY BENEFICIAL, but we lost “the definition of church.” I define it with scripture!
I have a Wellness Coach Certificate, I'm an entrepreneur, an innovator, writer, and artist. My expertise includes over 7 years of marketing, research, and developing content for holistic health businesses. Plus, my own personal journey of becoming chronically sick: understanding what went wrong, and finding a way to heal and live a healthier life. I have a passion for wellness with a wealth of knowledge surrounding: wellness, flaws in healthcare, root causes for chronic illnesses, and alternative treatments.