Scripture
A person’s pride will bring him low, but one who has a lowly spirit will gain honor.
~Proverbs 29:23, NET
Quote
The god of this world is pride.
~Martin Luther
Dr. Graham’s September 29 devotion is about spiritual growth. We begin as babes in Christ, craving the milk of the word, but we are not to remain in that infant stage. God’s plan is for us to grow and mature and that takes time. Even God Himself does not grow an oak overnight. Dr. Graham says there are three exercises we must do to grow and I added one more to the list: [1] Read/study God’s word daily [2] Have a daily quiet time {pray} [3] Fellowship with other believers and [4] Share your faith {Ministry, Evangelism and Missions}. One of the things that can stun our growth is PRIDE. Augustine labeled pride as A SAVAGE MONSTER. I call pride a snake in the grass. Pride is subtle, deceitful, sneaky. Pride is like the noon day sun, it can blind us and keep us from seeing reality. Example: condescending people don’t think of themselves as being condescending. They actually believe that they are superior. Self-righteous people don’t see themselves as being Pharisees. Without being too personal, let me give you a litmus test.
When you read through Genesis and the story of Joseph and his brothers: who do you picture yourself as: The highly intelligent and noble Joseph or the scoundrels and hooligans that we know as his brothers? When you get to Hosea, who are you in the story: Hosea the loving, forgiving one or Gomer, the unlovely, ugly, marred and scarred one? Pride is a pit that is easy to fall into. Pride is so subtle and deceitful that you may not recognize it until you get to the reaping stage. Trust me, we do reap what we sow. If you have sown condescension, you will reap it. God cannot be mocked, whatever we sow, we reap. It could be years before you realize that you were bitten by pride and your actions were motivated by pride. I am not kidding folks. There were times in my earlier days when I was convinced, I was acting righteously but now that I look back, I see the ugly truth: I was acting self-righteously. I was driven by my pride and didn’t know it. I actually thought I was being humble. Now I am in the reaping stage, and I know for sure that I am reaping what I sowed in pride.
There are some good things about it: I know for sure that God means what He says and that He sees all, knows all and has the ability to forgive all. I know that my sin and pride are great, but His grace and mercy are infinitely greater. I know my distaste for sin and pride is growing and so is my appreciation for the atonement. My hate for sin is growing and my love and devotion for Jesus is also growing. Although I am ashamed of the shame, I bring on Jesus by my poor behavior, I am not ashamed of Jesus. Joe David and I were about to go to B’town last week to have lunch with Scott and I put on my JESUS IS MY BOSS cap and a little voice said, “You need to take that cap off. You will bring Him more shame than glory.” So, I removed the cap. Than another voice said, “Are you ashamed to wear that hat in public and to places where Jesus is not recognized as LORD?” So, I put the cap back on and prayed, “LORD, I am not ashamed of you but please help me not bring shame on You.” I am afraid of monsters, aren’t you. Augustine said, “Pride is a Savage Monster.”
Extra
I saw a funny dog commercial, but I clicked the ship ad button so quick that I didn’t catch the entire thing. In my search to find the commercial where dogs cuss, I came across this top ten. Three of them are beer commercials and I am not promoting beer and one is graphic, but you are all adults. I think they are hilarious, especial the dog choir. You have to hear he dog choir, they are good.