Pride and Humility
 “Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else.” 

Pride is something that I have struggled with my whole life. It has become an essence of who I am. Studying pride was something that was very difficult for me seeing as how I don’t know how to rid myself of this sin. God repeatedly states throughout the Bible how much he despises the pride that dwells within us, as it can almost separate us from Him. This was hard for me. How am I supposed to rid myself of something that has been a part of me for my whole existence? The only real way to do this is through God. Without Him we are helpless. With Him we can do anything.

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Pride

Pride was the fall of Lucifer, because he felt too much pride in the fact that he was the highest angel and thought he was better then God. Pride was also the fall of Adam and Eve because they listened to Satan and thought they could be like God if they ate the fruit from the tree of good and evil. It was also one of the three roots of all sin that Jesus mentioned in the New Testament.

Pride can show itself in people who are loud and boastful, who always boast about things they can do just to get attention. Some people try to get other people to praise them by saying how poorly their work is, when they know truthfully it's not. It would be better to work for the Lord seeking His approval, quietly letting their actions speak for themselves.

The other side of pride that is less obvious would be with one who is afraid to share their talents and abilities, which they know is good, for fear of insult and rejection. Again focusing on the Lord can take away fear of rejection. 

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Pride and Humility

Not all

What the bible says about pride:

" Proverbs 11:2

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom."

Giving your credit to God when you accomplish something takes a lot of pride and humbles you, but it's all worth it. He'll award you in other ways if you don't take pride in things that you're supposed to give him thanks for.

" Proverbs 29:23
 One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor."

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The Problem With Pride

          People have various definitions of pride. Some think of it as a good thing. Then, others consider it bad. The dictionary.com definition of the word pride is this:

Pride: a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.

         

This definition also showed up:

Pride: a group of lions.

Okay, well, that's different, as well as not important. But I digress.

         That definition of pride was also accompanied with synonyms: conceit, egotism, vanity. Yes, pride is bad. It gives us the idea of being better than others, which is never a way that one should live their life.

Proverbs 16:5 - The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

Well, then. If we are proud and prideful, then we are in big trouble with God, and that's quite a shame. God detests pride. Unfortunately, we are all only human and frequently sin, including being prideful and selfish people.

Proverbs 26:12 - Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Yet again, this is pretty harsh, but it is very true. If we consider ourselves more important and significant than others and treat people so, we have no hope. Someone who is lost and far away from God has more hope than we do if we believe ourselves to be "all that."

1 Corinthians 5:6 - Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?

If we boast even just a little, it works inside of us and eventually you will find yourself very selfish as well as self-obsessed and conceited. That's a problem. A big one.

Philippians 2:3 - Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

This says we should do things out of the kindness of our hearts, not to show that we are awesome or better than others or more spiritual or a number of other circumstances that occur every single day.

Proverbs 22:4 - Humility and the fear of the LORD bring wealth and honor and life.

"Oh, thank goodness. A positive verse." Humility is a quality that everyone should have instead of pride. Humility is a wonderful thing, to be willing to serve others before yourself and to think of others instead of yourself.

Humility: the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's 

own importance, rank, etc.

         Humility doesn't mean, "Oh, I'm worth nothing. I'm not special or important or talented or anything." NO! Don't you do that. That isn't right. I'm sure you, reader, are a wonderful person who deserves all of the wonderful things in life. Humility does not mean beating yourself up. It means being concerned for others than you are for yourself, to be selfless.

         The first step to get rid of pride, or to really get rid of anything negative, is to admit that you are prideful. Then pray. Ask God for guidance because He will certainly provide. He wants to help. All you have to do is ask. 

I have struggled with having pride for a while now. Whenever I notice I am being prideful, I all of a sudden feel absolutely terrible, as everyone should, and I try to think myself out of the situation to thoughts of thinking of others. This does not always work. It can get frustrating. We all have our prideful moments. I don’t want to become a prideful, pretentious, pompous, stuck-up person with an I-am-better-than-everybody outlook on life. I fight. I pray. I forget. I mess up. It’s a cycle that happens over and over again, and I can tell you that it is exhausting and absolutely frustrating when all you are doing is thinking of yourself and how great you are. But it isn't worth it. When you have other people in your life that you love to help any you care about so much, being selfless just becomes so much easier because you love to make the people you love smile. And that is a wonderful thing.

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The Epitome of "Win-Win"

As humans, especially nowadays, we are so consumed with our own virtue and our own lives. We desire the best job, the best family, the best look, even the way our coffees are made are so incredibly important to us. We desire a life full of joy and happiness with no problems. Though, many miss what will truly satisfy them and bring them joy. Being completely honest, who am I to be talking about this subject? I struggle with pride all the time. I, too, want a life full of constant joy and good, and I, too, have missed the mark on where to seek that joy.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?’” – Matthew 16:24-26

In this verse, Jesus states this idea that if a man desires to live, he must oppose himself and follow Jesus with his life. Now, when I hear this, my heart is not quick to say, “Oh yeah, I’ll totally lose all of myself and give my life to You!” The idea of completely sacrificing who I am is scary! But, looking past my own pride, I believe there is something beautiful in the sacrificial giving of myself.

First of all, as a sinner, I know I have done an uncountable amount of things that are very displeasing to God. As humans, that is our nature. I also have innumerable problems that I know I cannot fix on my own. Catch that? I CANNOT FIX THEM ON MY OWN. From the emotions raging within, to the simple everyday annoyances, as a fallen human, I cannot bring myself to throw off all the feelings that come upon people every day. Not by my own strength. But you know who can? Jesus Christ, who gave himself completely and sacrificially, so He could take away those sins that we face every day and give us a life both here on this earth and in heaven that is way more than we could ever imagine.

Yes, I say both in heaven AND on earth. Why?

To give an example, I’ll tell a little story. About three years ago, I had a surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. While this sounds scary, God actually has used it for so much good and his glory. Ever since, I have had to have regular MRI scans to keep an eye on the part of my brain that was worked on to make sure everything is back to normal. This past summer, I went in to have another scan done in July and ended up needing to schedule an appointment to meet with my surgeon to talk about the possibility of operating on an area that could potentially be dangerous. Hearing this was very hard and I went through a time of mourning. One day between the time of hearing the news and the time of the actual appointment, I went out to lunch with my parents before church. We ate at a super adorable French restaurant and were served by a very sweet, spunky lady. She seemed fine throughout the time we were eating. In the middle of the meal, she came by and asked if she could get us anything else. All of a sudden, she noticed a henna tattoo that I gave my dad on his wrist that read: “G>^ᵛ” meaning “God is greater than the ups and the downs”. I had given my dad and my mom this tattoo the night before and had one on my wrist as well. Curious, she asked the meaning of the symbols. When we told her, she broke into tears. She explained how she was going through some personal problems with her family. This opened up opportunity for us to explain what was going on in my situation. Stunned, she was impacted by our story. God totally spoke to her and used us to impact her life and give her exactly what she needed. Being used unexpectedly by God like that was an unforgettable and truly joyful experience.

All that to say, when we are living our lives for God, we receive joy that is like no other. We feel purpose and satisfaction and pure joy, something that can only come from God, and HE gets the glory. This is the life on earth I was talking about. Now, heaven! Take a life with God on earth and amplify it by infinity and that is what heaven is like!

Notice something, when God received so much glory, we were most satisfied and joyful. This is my point, that a life full of giving glory to God and living for Him is the best life we could possibly imagine. It is our purpose to bring Him glory. How beautiful that God created us to be most joyful and satisfied when He is given the most glory! This is the epitome of a win-win situation.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

So that no one can boast. This verse demonstrates that God is the only one who gets the glory, while we are saved and full of unending joy. How beautiful!

So don’t fear losing yourself. In reality, it’s the best thing you can do for yourself.

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PRIDE AND HUMILITY


The main difference between this subject matter is that Pride is self pleasing and selfish where as Humility is pleasing others and selfless. Serving others is a way to express humility where as Pride is thinking you are too worthy to serve people.
It is hard to be humble at times when we realize we are exceptional at something, we are all guilty of rubbing in another person's face that we are better then them at a given activity. We are so Prideful at times that we won't even give a person that seems different then us a chance, because they like different things or because they have lived a different life.
Humility is usually something we all work on and through time we become better at being humble before others, and therefore putting them first.
Now, in this season of my life God has been teaching me that I, myself, cannot take away my own Pride. That He ultimately is the only one who can take away my selfish human nature. That I, myself, have no say and no strength to change. But through God, and as I become more like him, My self-seeking prideful and satisfying ways will be gone. That is my greatest hope, for I realize I cannot accomplish anything anymore without giving God all the glory and praise.

I believe God can work in you to make you more humble but I don't think he can completely take away all of your pride.

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On Pride

Pride is something that we struggle with almost daily... whether or not we recognize it, it can be there, lingering...*insert creepy crawly emoji
            Now, the pride we're talking about now is not the "wow I did really well with that!", we are talking about the "Every body look at what i did, Look at how awesome I am" puff up your own feathers kind of pride. The "WORSHIP ME"  kind of pride.
     Our society nowadays is riddled with contradictions to the Bible, to name a few,the purity deal, gender equality, gossip, cheating in school, porn, modesty and where our priorities lie (just to name a few). There is no difference with pride. When you look at the world, you will see one answer, and in the bible you will see a completely different answer!

Lets look at the contrast between the two!

The world
   Pride is good, it gives you self confidence, and it makes you comfortable

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Pride and Humility

           As C.S. Lewis said in his book, "Mere Christianity" pride is a completely anti-God state of mind. For someone like me that is extremely harsh, like a hard slap in the face from the Lord convicting me of my prideful state of mind. 
           God absolutely despises pride, but pride is something that is not easy at all to get rid of. Once it comes it pretty much never goes away. For me it is pretty discouraging to hear that. However through the great power of God that can overcome every obstacle. If we continually devote our time to prayer and meditation on the Lord our pride will become something of a speck. Yes, it sounds impossible, and yes it will be really hard to devote our time to this, but the Lord is patient and generous.

              "Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord."
                                                              Proverbs 16:5

               Through devotion and trusting that the Lord will bring you through wholeheartedly we can become humble. Humility is such a beautiful attribute and the Lord is the definition of humble. Humbly he came down from his throne in heaven to save us lowly prideful people.  The Bible says, 
                                          "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."
                                                    James 1:5

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PRIDE AND HUMILITY

                              PRIDE AND HUMILITY

            We often don't see that we are being prideful. Pride is our greatest enemy; humility is our greatest friend. Humility is our greatest way to give complements. In God's word it says over and over again to humble ourselves.
           This gives us great hope and encouragement that God is with us and forgives us. God takes pleasure in us trying to be humble and not prideful. Pride is the root of sin; humility is the root of the foundation of ourselves. Now, as we say, our world today sees everything unhappy. We are never happy with what we see or do.
           We often take pride in the little things we do better that other people; we struggle with letting others be good at something we are. We always want to be better that someone at something, and when we are, we take pride in that. What God tells us not to do, is to take pride in what we do, but to be humble about our actions.
             We all struggle with this, not only is it just you its me as well. I think that society has made this a big problem for us. We don't even realize all the time when we are being pridefully, We can't even admit our own sin cause we don't see it anymore. We need to pray that God will help us find our way and help open our eyes to the sin we are making. As soon as we become aware of what we are doing, God will be happy that be made the effort to be humility.

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