Do you struggle with pride? Please read even if you don’t!

In my battle with pride I have found a more dangerous foe that lurks behind the scene, false humility.

Scripture says, “For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself,” (Galatians 6:3).

William Law said, “You can have no greater sign of confirmed pride than when you think you are humble enough.”

False humility is very destructive. False humility allows you to live in pride without ever acknowledging it, without acknowledging that there is an issue with pride. If you have false humility you’re living in sin without even recognizing it. It is very dangerous, and it is nondiscriminatory, it does not matter who you are or who you think you are it latches ahold and takes you down.

I can see my pride when it rears its ugly head and I hate it, but what scares me the most is the pride I cannot see, the pride that tells me I am fine, that my pride is under control.

I am in constant battle with pride, I am constantly at war with this and if I get lax…. BOOM…

I have always been an independent man, I can do it myself, I don’t need help… I am a man… God has humbled me more than once for this attitude, He has helped me in more ways than one to see I need Him, that I can do nothing without Him.

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:10). If we pray that God will help us to follow what this verse says, it would have a life-changing impact.

Augustine wrote, “For those who would learn God’s ways, humility is the first thing, humility is the second, and humility is the third.”

Pride can and does lead to excusing or justifying other sins, it is dangerous, it is deceitful, and pride is the root of every sin, and it wreaks havoc on your spiritual life.

I truly desire to be humble, I desire to be a godly example, I desire to live a life pleasing to God so that others will see less of me and more of Christ in me.

I desire to be able to say without pride or shame, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Something all leaders should keep close to their hearts as something that can be said of them is, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” (Hebrews 13:7)

Can we honestly say we want others to imitate our way of life? This is some very sobering questions to ask ourselves, is our lives pleasing to God? Would He be ok with His children imitating us? With a sad heart I must say, I don’t think He would with me.

This does not mean that I condemn myself, it means I look to Christ all the more and strive to be more like Him, it means I must kill the things in my life that does not build up, edify, and could cause others to stumble and bring a reproach to His Holy name.

Therefore, I must all the more diligently pray for humility, I must pray for God to help me to war against the things He hates and to delight in the things that builds up, edifies, and draws me closer to Him.

We all must examine ourselves daily, we must follow scripture which tells us to exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is deceitful, and it hardens our hearts towards it, it does as satan did, it whispers in our ears, “It’s not really sin”, or, “everyone else is doing it”, or “hath scripture said”.

Let us resort to only doing things that builds us and others up, that edifies the body, that draws us closer to God, remember, we’re only here for a little while…