According to the AI Overview, “In the Bible, pride is defined as an attitude of self-sufficiency, arrogance and self-exaltation that puts oneself above God. It is viewed as a fundamental sin that blinds people to their faults, causes division, and leads to spiritual sin.” This is a very serious part that, if we don’t correct, can slow our progress within the Kingdom of God.
Adversely, when you look up the word pride without the reference to the Bible, the word pride is painted in a somewhat more “innocent” way of looking at it. AI Overview stated it as the following: “The real meaning of pride depends on the context. At it’s core, it is a healthy sense of personal self- respect and satisfaction in who you are. However, it also describes negative arrogance, or a powerful communal movement against shame.” At the core, not so innocent, after all.
So, how is it that having pride can stand in the way of our progress? We have to look at it a little more closely to understand that part of it.
Realize that we can be proud of our accomplishments in this world and during our lifetime. That is completely understandable. After all, the goal of going through this life is to grow in who you are as a person and who you are wanting to become. In other words, it is good to make positive progress through living our lives in a more Godly manner. In order to understand if you are letting pride stand in the way of your progress is to ask yourself the following questions: 1) Am I thinking more of myself than I am thinking of others in the things that I am doing?, and 2) Am I getting closer to God in my journey through life or am I getting further away, instead? (Related post: How is having pride different from being proud?)
The problem occurs when we think more highly of ourselves than the God that we serve. We begin to let our ego rule our emotions and we start to lean on our own thoughts and ideas as being more important than what God wants from us and for us. In addition, we begin to have an inability to admit our faults which keeps us from the progress of being truly successful, as well as, ultimately keeping us from having a relationship with God in the long-term. Let’s look at it in a little bit different way. It’s like when our car breaks down on the side of the road and there is no one around who can help us. This is where we have to realize that God didn’t abandon us, instead, it is us who abandoned Him. (Related post: Beware Of The Ego Trap!)
So, what can we do about our pride so that it doesn’t take us away from God? We need to look within and humble ourselves. We have to admit to ourselves and to others what our faults are. It’s difficult to apologize when we hurt others, but at the core, we also need to see that we have done so and then tell others that we are sorry for hurting them through our actions. We have to change our actions and think about what we want our future to look like, because progress in our spiritual journey stops when we let our pride get in the way.
What did I learn from this? We all tend to let our pride get in the way, at times, especially when we don’t want to hear that we did something wrong. Been there!! Done that! Especially when I was younger. It doesn’t mean that I don’t still have problems with it now, at times. It’s our human nature to make mistakes. I do try to cut myself some slack there, but I know that until I apologize or even correct it, that action that I did will just sit in the back of my mind.
So, to help with that, I am in constant prayer to and with God. Luckily, our God doesn’t hold things over our head like humans do. He forgives us and then forgets it. When we consistently show that we are trying our best, our God knows that. That makes me feel pretty lucky that He loves me that much!
So, what can you gain from this? Take those two questions that I asked you to consider earlier and really think about what I am talking about in this post. If either of those answers come to be that you are thinking of yourself more than you are thinking of God, then you know what you need to do. I’m not going to lie and tell you that taking the Godly approach will be easy because it won’t. The Devil really hates it when you turn away from him and turn yourself toward God, instead. Just remember though that when you seek God and seek what He wants for you, He will send you His Angels in Heaven to watch over you and protect you and then you will become all the more stronger because of it.
A Joyful Mission 