Someone once said, “Blowing out someone else’s candle doesn’t make your own shine any brighter.” In fact, it’s just the opposite. There is nothing uglier to see than someone badmouthing another, belittling them just to make themselves look better. Putting others down is not a sign of strength, but rather a sign of weakness. One of the first things mentioned in the “love chapter” in 1 Corinthians 13 is that love is never boastful or proud.
Bragging about your accomplishments, talents, good looks, or how wealthy you are is not acting in a Christlike way.
Pride has a way of not only destroying the lives of friends and loved ones, but your own as well.
It also promotes loneliness and isolation, and it’s difficult to have loving relationships if you are dominated by pride.
Hurt feelings cannot be mended if you refuse to come down from the self-righteous tower of pride.
Harsh words cause trouble, but it is pride that gets in the way of healing disagreements.
God wants you to show love, meekness, and humility. The Bible provides plenty of guidance to help you get rid of your exaggerated sense of self and keep your ego in check. Romans 12:3 warns: “Don’t think you’re better than you really are.” And Proverbs 20:9 says, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin?” No one is perfect, and to think that you are is not only foolish but lethal, for pride will keep you out of heaven. Neither are you better than anyone else, for God created all His children to be equal.
So the next time you receive a compliment, are recognized with an award, or bragged about by a colleague–before getting all puffed up and full of yourself, stop a moment, pray a quick prayer for humility, then check your ego at the door!
Text:
1 Peter 5:5 NIV
In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
Proverbs 29:23 NLT
Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 NLT
23 This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches.24 But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!
Mark 7:20-23 NLT
20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”
© Brenda Walsh Ministries www.brendawalsh.com