Pride

The LORD despises pride; be assured that the proud will be punished (Proverbs 16:5).

When you have a decision to make, do you first pray to the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom? If not, you are guilty of pride. Do you believe that everything God teaches in the Bible applies to you? If not, you are guilty of pride. Do you pray to Jesus to forgive you for being sinner? If not, you are guilty of pride.

Pride is when you put yourself on the same level as God. What do I mean by that? Consider this: the Bible is God’s word, dictated to human writers by the Holy Spirit. But what if you don’t believe that everything in the Bible applies to you? What if you believe that some of it is out of touch with your situation? If you start deciding what parts of the Bible you accept and what you do not, you are acting as an editor of God’s Book—you have set yourself up to have the final say over God’s words. That’s pride.

Or consider this: God designed the universe in all its wonderful complexity. God designed you down to the tiniest detail. But what if you don’t pray to Him for help in making decisions? It would suggest that you don’t hold His wisdom as superior to your own, otherwise you would be quick to seek it. When you live as if you don’t need His leadership, you are acting as if you are God’s equal. That’s pride.

Let us also consider the issue of forgiveness. Jesus came to earth to suffer and die so that you could be forgiven for angering God; He did this for everyone, because everyone is a sinner. But what if you don’t ask for forgiveness? If you don’t feel the need to apologize, then you are telling God that you are not accountable to Him. You don’t believe that He can or will make good on His promise to punish the unrepentant in hell forever. When you decide for yourself what behavior is morally acceptable and what is not, you have announced to God that you believe you are His equal. That’s pride.

God hates all sin, but He hates pride most of all. Pride breaks the very First Commandment: You will have no other gods (Exodus 20:3). When pride rules you, you declare yourself to be your own god, answerable to no one else. And if you tell God that you don’t want to live under His authority, when death comes you will find yourself excluded forever from the only place where peace and happiness can still be found.