How does pride affect our lives? In the previous blog post, we discussed part of this topic, saying that God will have to work all our lives to teach us about humility. A man becomes humble when he accepts Christ's sacrifice on the cross, but there is still pride in his life. It is not manifested only in the way we behave at times, but it also has to do with attributing God’s glory to ourselves. Jesus showed us a perfect example of humility throughout His entire life and helped us achieve that through faith in Him. We also said that pride is seen not only in people who do not care about faith or do not believe but also in people who already follow Christ. This blog post only gives some examples of how it is manifested as this is a complex topic, and a great part of the scripture talks about it.
The Bible states that pride precedes failure.
“Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)
“Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty,
And before honor is humility.” (Proverbs 18:12)
This is what happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. His pride came before his fall. That was what caused him to fall. There is also another story from the Bible that confirms this truth.
It is a well-known story about a person who fell low by failing God and sinning. That was King David when he committed adultery with Bathsheba. We find this story in 2 Samuel 11. There, the story tells us that at the time when kings went out to battle, King David sent his general and his army to war, and he remained in Jerusalem. As he walked on the roof of his house one evening, he saw a woman taking a bath. He sent messengers to take her and committed adultery with her. Soon, other sins connected to that one followed. The result and the consequences were disastrous. Years after, King David still had to pay the consequences of what he had done. Many people say that the cause of that sin was that David decided to idle and not go to war, and that is true in part. Still, at times, we need to get deeper into the scripture and examine the causes for which some things happen. What actually caused him to act that way? When interpreting the Bible, we always need to take into consideration the previous or the following passages of the verse we are looking at. This way, we look at the whole context of the meaning. It will help us to understand God’s word more effectively.
In chapter eleven of 2 Samuel, we see him remaining in his fortress and being tempted by seeing Bathsheba, but could it be something else besides the fact of remaining there that made him sin that way? In chapter ten, we see a war that arose between the nation of Israel and the people of Ammon. The ambassadors from Israel were disgraced by the rulers of that nation when they were sent to them. A conflict was about to spark, and in response to this, David sent his troops to face theirs. The nation of Israel had success in that war, but this time, we see the battle turn out in a different way than the previous ones. There were times in the past when David was still weak in a way and trusted all-heartedly the Lord for the outcome of his battles. We see him doing that in 2 Samuel 5:19 when he asked the Lord if he would succeed when facing the Philistines. In this and on other occasions, the Lord was with him, guiding him and fighting for him. This is how the believer’s life of faith needs to be. This time, though, when they had to face the people of Ammon, they performed perfectly, coming up with good war tactics and a plan.
9 When Joab saw that the battle line was against him before and behind, he chose some of Israel’s best and put them in battle array against the Syrians. 10 And the rest of the people he put under the command of Abishai his brother, that he might set them in battle array against the people of Ammon. 11 Then he said, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me; but if the people of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. 12 Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what is good in His sight.”
13 So Joab and the people who were with him drew near for the battle against the Syrians, and they fled before him. 14 When the people of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fleeing, they also fled before Abishai, and entered the city. So Joab returned from the people of Ammon and went to Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 10:9-14)
You can read the whole of chapter ten, which speaks of how the situation unfolded, but in this part, we see that the generals sent by David were able to lead their armies and obtain victory. Still, the difference was that they obtained it thanks to their own strength and capability. They even mentioned the Lord’s name, but the battle this time was different. At the end of the chapter, we read that David joined the battle and finished what his generals had started. Sometimes, we can attain success through our own capabilities and strengths. It might look like it is from the Lord, but it is actually by what we have learned and by the experience we have. This doesn't mean that we glorify God with that. They, in a way, religiously mentioned the Lord’s name but without trusting in Him. Pride is manifested also in our self-sufficiency and independence from the Lord. It might come in a way that we almost fail to see it.
The devil was the first one to sin in such a way (Isaiah 14:12-15). He wanted to become like God and to do things on his own. He wanted to be independent. This is the way that he also deceived the first people, Adam and Eve. He told them that they would be like God. In a way, they didn’t want to depend on God anymore and sinned. This is one of the ways pride is manifested. “I feel strong enough and don't want to depend on God.” For those who do not believe, this occurs consciously. They do not want to depend on God. For those who believe in God and already walk with Him, this happens unconsciously sometimes. They become strong, or they think they are experienced and start to depend less on God. We as people always need to depend on God. We are always weak. We just don't always recognize it. We might be able to do things and be capable of succeeding in life and in the work of our hands, and we need to glorify God for that as well and thank Him, but for what is spiritual and is supposed to bring fruit for His kingdom and glorify Him, we are certainly not capable. We cannot do it if He doesn’t empower us. That’s why God works in us to teach us how to depend on Him and make that possible. This is for the purpose of being in communion with Him and to glorify Him. This is the work He performs in us. Human beings are meant to be with God. With Him, we are complete. What the devil told Eve was deceit. They became incomplete by separating from God, and their eyes were opened to evil, not in the way that God meant for them.
Returning to David’s story in 2 Samuel 10, we see that he obtained victory in that battle through his own strength and wisdom. This fact just shows that he didn’t have that dependence on the Lord as in the past days. When this happens in our life, it makes our faith weak and our relationship with the Lord to grow colder. As Christians, we can start unconsciously trusting in our own capabilities and not trust in the Lord as before. We need to be awakened and reminded to trust again in Him. To David, that happened the hard way. That was also what caused him to remain the next year at his home instead of going to war. He thought that the blessings and the victory were something granted already. He sent again his generals to attend the battle. That was apparently a logical move, as they did well the last year in the battle. Here, we see the attitude that precedes sin. It was independence from the Lord and trusting in his own capability. This is also how pride manifests. When we don’t trust in the Lord but in our own strength. This happens often to most people, and they know well they trust in their own strength but to believers, it might happen slowly, and they might still think that they are fine with the Lord. We see the generals sent to the battle in 2 Samuel 10, saying in verse 12: “And may the Lord do what is good in His sight.” They used the Lord’s name. It looked like they were doing that through His strength and wanted to glorify Him, but they actually did it without trusting in Him. So. Here, in this story, we see that the passages in Proverbs saying that pride precedes failure are confirmed. When we don’t trust as much in the Lord and our relationship is not good with Him as happened to King David, we become easy prey for the devil, and he tempts us.
Looking at some of the examples we gave, such as Paul’s and King David’s, we see that when talking of pride, we speak of something that can occur in believers’ lives. Many people might be thinking that as believers have repented and have new lives, pride is not easily manifested in their lives but as we said, it can be manifested in attitudes such as attributing God’s glory to themselves or stop relying on God and relying on their strength instead. Pride is not manifested into the lives of non-believers only in a specific outwardly behavior. It is something that occurs in a person’s heart. God wants to preserve His children from it and that’s why He works into their lives. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. He will not reject a broken spirit and a contrite heart, as Psalm 51:17 says:
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.”
This is the conclusion he came after repenting from the sin he committed with Bathsheba and after trusting in his own strength. At times, we grow in pride, and that attitude leads us to failure, which helps us realize that we are weak and need God.
There is a story I heard from a famous preacher’s teaching one day. He said that once he received a great revelation from the Lord and that was a revelation of Heaven. He saw in part how that place would be. He said that not so long after that experience, he went through one of the lowest and toughest stages of his Christian life. He fell into a deep pit of discouragement and experienced plenty of difficulties regarding his faith. He even began doubting his previous experience with the Lord of Heaven. Some people even told him that God was probably working in his life to show him that what he experienced wasn’t real. He was confused for a while, but he knew in his heart that his experience was real. He then acknowledged that a person, after being on a high point of faith and being on a mountain, is taken by God to a valley. That is only with the purpose of humbling a person so that he can understand that God is above all and he can really give glory to God. God doesn’t do that to hurt us. He doesn’t humble us in a way to underestimate us. The Bible says that those who humble themselves will be exalted (Matthew 23:12). That means that when we humble in God’s way, we will also be exalted His way and that it is not as we may imagine it, but when it happens, we will understand our real value the way God sees it. Therefore, He works His work in us for a good purpose. Sometimes, we might think we glorify Him for what we have or what He has done, but inside us are inner attitudes that we cannot control sometimes, and He works in us so that we can really glorify Him, be humble, and believe. This is His work in us, and it is only possible because of Him. This preacher noticed that this is a common occurrence to believers, and many people could go through a time of trial after experiencing a height in their faith and a good time with the Lord.
We also see some of these situations happening to godly people in the Bible. This, most of all, confirms to us that these experiences are from God. We see the disciples going through a storm and fearing for their lives in the sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:22-33) after participating in one of the biggest events and miracles in the New Testament, which is the multiplication of the bread and the fish (Matthew 14:15-21). They were sent by Jesus to get on that boat. We often could be going through storms in our lives.
One of the other examples is the one of the prophet Elijah. He had one of his greatest experiences after facing the false prophets of Baal and showing God’s power to the people (1 Kings 18:20-40). He made an offering to God and a fire consumed it before the people standing there. Everyone could see God’s majesty. Not so long after that, he was threatened by Jezebel, and he feared for his life. That made him run away in the wilderness (1 Kings 19:4). He was going through one of the greatest crises he ever had in his life. It happened straight after he had one of his greatest successes. Elijah was eventually encouraged and comforted by God. He works in our lives through these trials and situations. He only knows the purposes, but one of them is to make us humble. At times, these trials and difficulties come before achieving success so that we can know that what happened was because of His grace, and other times, the difficulties come after so that we can have a humble attitude. Obviously, there is not a specific path in which things need to happen the same way all the time. These are just examples in which we see the way God works at times. Our hearts are like deep wells, and only He knows the way to work in them. His purposes are higher, and they are for our good.
There are many passages talking about pride throughout the scripture and God left them to warn us against it. He wants to keep us humble and to create His image in us. Image through which we can glorify Him in the right way and know more about His majesty.
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