Pride of Life Archives

October 16, 2023October 16, 2023

The Weight of Humility

⁴ For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation. ~ Psalms 149:4

Humility is a difficult thing for most of us to grasp. It’s much more than just humbling ourselves before God and admitting that we’ve sinned and can’t save ourselves. It’s more than just saying we need God’s help in our everyday lives. Humility is also about how we interact with those around us. That’s why pride is probably one of the strongest strongholds gripping the Church today.

Rarely does the Church today try to crucify our flesh. Here’s what I mean: we’re quick to be offended but not quick to apologize. We want to get even. We want to be petty. And believe you me, I’m not excluded from this. I’m right there in that group of the Church that struggle with this. The other night, a simple conversation got heated between me and a friend for literally no reason. I said something truthful, and she was more than offended and then proceeded to say something hurtful. But I bit my tongue. I even apologized for the thing I said, even though I wasn’t the one in the wrong. But let me tell you, that humble pie kept me up all night.

I didn’t sleep that entire night because I was so upset that I had to apologize (conviction of the Holy Spirit, Matthew 5:23-24). In fact, I can’t even lie; I was kinda happy that she called me the next day at a time when I couldn’t answer the phone. Why? Because my flesh wasn’t happy with what my spirit did.

It’s extremely hard to be a Christian. I don’t understand the idea of telling people that serving God makes things easier. Because it doesn’t. Serving God means that you now have to pick up your cross and follow Him. You have to crucify your flesh daily. That’s not an easy task. It’s in our human nature to want to get even. It’s in our human nature to want to be petty, but we have to remember that we aren’t our own. We’ve been bought by a price. We belong to Christ. And if we belong to Christ, then vengeance, getting even, and putting people in check is no longer our right. It now belongs to Him.

Dear LORD, please help me to continue to crucify my flesh. Help me to grow my spirit man, so that when I force my flesh into submission, it will be obedient. Please continue to humble me and remove the spirit of pride from gripping me. Teach me to not return reviling with reviling, or anger with anger, or hurt with hurt, but help me to overcome all of these things with love. Teach me to turn the other cheek so that I might be a light in this dark world and point others back to You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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The Uncorrectable

¹¹But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. ¹²When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. ¹³As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?” ~ Galatians 2:11-14^NLT

Peter was one of the Twelve who walked and talked with Jesus Himself. He was arguably Jesus’ best friend. He preached the first message on the Day of Pentecost and brought in 5,000 souls. He was a well-respected leader in the Church; nevertheless, not even he was above correction. When Paul corrected him, he didn’t condemn Paul. He didn’t pull up Paul’s past. He didn’t point out how long he was saved compared to Paul. He didn’t try to drag Paul’s name through the dirt and get him ostracized. Why? Because no one is above correction, but today that’s not a common belief.

Today, the Church has become unable to take correction. I’ve noticed that when someone doesn’t agree with one of my beliefs, they’ll start very friendly and kind, but as soon as I use Scripture they can’t defend against, they point out three things to me: I’m older than you, therefore wiser than you. I’ve been a Christian longer than you, therefore, I know and understand the Bible better than you. If they’re a man, they bring up that I’m female and, therefore, can’t possibly know better than a man. They never use Scripture. In fact, I was recently condemned and called all sorts of things in the comment section because I wouldn’t accept the beliefs of a man who believes he’s older than me (his age was never said, so I can’t say for sure). His biggest problem with me was that I used Scripture for why I didn’t believe his beliefs. He wanted to discuss the Scripture without quoting it. That is the temperature of the majority of “Christians” today. We want to push our ideology, our narrative, our truth, and when they contradict the Word of God, and someone points it out, we get angry. We get defensive. We get aggressive. Why? Pride.

Pride will blind us, keeping us from seeing the Truth. It will force us to create our own truth and disregard whether or not it agrees or disagrees with the only Truth, the Word of God. It will cause us to lash out when asked for Biblical evidence and see anyone who shows us the Truth in the Word of God as a bigoted hypocrite. This isn’t how the Church is to react. We are to use the Bible for correction so that we can grow. No one is perfect. Not me. Not you. Not even Peter, arguably Jesus’ best friend. Pride will keep us from God, for He humbles the proud but elevates the humble.

If your beliefs are challenged, defend them with Scripture. If they are weighed, measured, and found wanting, then change those beliefs. No one is above correction because no one is perfect.

Dear LORD, please search me. Convict me of any false beliefs, practices, or stances that I have within me. Show me any sin that has made a home in my life. Help me to root my beliefs in You and Your Truth and not in myself or another’s truth. Help me to strive to better myself each day. Teach me to take correction, and humble me so that pride may not build up in my life. Help me to always seek You and Your Kingdom. Guide me in all of my ways so that I may not be led astray by another shepherd. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Humbly Present Yourself

¹⁰ On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, ¹¹ to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at. ¹² But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command delivered by the eunuchs. At this the king became enraged, and his anger burned within him. ~ Esther 1:10-12

Queen Vashti was a beautiful woman, so much so that her husband, King Ahasuerus, wanted to show her off to all of his guests, but Queen Vashti refused because of her pride. Many of us look at what Queen Vashti did as something great for women everywhere because King Ahasuerus was being sexist, but what if it wasn’t a positive thing?

See, Queen Vashti could have humbled herself before the king and shown her beauty before his guests, and continued to build a strong relationship with him so that when she brought something to his attention that could possibly hurt her, he would do everything in his power to fix it, as he did with Esther. Instead, Queen Vashti stood rebelliously with pride and lost her position as Queen as well as her opportunity to ever truly change things for women in their culture.

Sometimes standing in pride and refusing to do something we deem to be demeaning can cause us to miss out on so much in life. God says that He elevates the humble and humbles the proud. Just because man tries to demean you and bring you down, that doesn’t mean that God has brought you down. You may not be elevated in this life, but you will be elevated in the next if you humble yourself.

Peace. Love. Go Love Forth and Humbly Present Yourself.

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What’s The Anointing Worth?

¹⁵ A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. ~ Proverbs 15:1

When I was young, my mother would always tell me, “it’s the answer that brings the row (argument).” I suppose it was her way of quoting this proverb. A soft answer turns away wrath. She would tell me that it takes 2 to argue.

You see, it is not the answer but how we answer. The other day a man came into my office, but I was unable to help as he didn’t have the minimum requirements necessary. I tried to explain, but he became irate and began to cuss me out. I simply told him to have a nice and genuinely hoped that his day would get better.

The scene could’ve easily escalated if I had returned railing for railing. Cussing for cussing. But instead, a soft answer turns away wrath.

As Christians, we ought to always strive to live in peace and in harmony with our fellow individuals. Sometimes tempers will rise, and sometimes it may be difficult to keep control. It would probably feel really good to return some of their own medicine, but it’s not worth the anointing. God has called us to live in peace. Therefore, nothing is worth the anointing, not even our own pride.

Father, help us to live in peace and harmony and to take the wrong even when we are not in the wrong. We desire Your anointing. We desire Your presence, and we know that arguments and strife will not cultivate a close relationship with Your Holy Spirit. Thank You, LORD Jesus, for giving us the ability to turn the other cheek. Amen.

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