February 22, 2011

Read Daniel 4:4-18

Pride! Ouch! That word hurts just to hear it doesn’t it? Do you suffer from pride? Do you have pride in your heart?  Proverbs 16:18 assures that pride comes before destruction.  Proverbs 8:13 assures us that the Lord hates pride.

Pride comes in many shapes and sizes. Often it can even be hidden beneath a false humility. King Nebuchadnezzar had pride in his heart. God had elevated him to King and ruler of the known world. But he was, as verse 4 avers, contented and prosperous.  He began to congratulate himself on building a fine kingdom. He was impressed with his own power and achievements. He had forgotten that God gave him everything he had.

How often we can also forget God in our lives. We work hard. We earn and we buy things, often thinking that it’s our work, our money and therefore our things. We forget that the job has been given to us by the Lord. The Lord’s mercy has allowed us to be healthy and to work. The Lord has graciously given us all things, even our very breath.  And still quite often, like King Nebuchadnezzar, we feel that temptation to congratulate ourselves, to wallow in our own achievements and to bless ourselves for our hard work and efforts.

How can I work against pride in my own life? There are several ‘good habits’ to get into ward off even the slightest temptation of pride.

1. Take time to thank God privately and publicly for all things you receive even your daily meals. Build habits of thanking God on payday, on your days off, at meal times and so on ... get the picture?

2. Acknowledge God and his goodness to you at every step.

3. Get rid of every thing physical in your life that tempts you towards pride. If your car is a source of pride, trade it in on a lesser vehicle. If your money or pay is causing pride, give substantially more each week in your tithe.

4. Develop your relationship to God by making it a priority to spend quality time with him each and every single day - time to be alone with God for prayer and for reading his word. It’s hard to be proud when you’re close to God.

Prayer:

þ Pray that God would use you to bring light and salvation to others. Pray for 5 other non believers you know by name. Pray that God would bring opportunity to speak the Word into these five people’s lives.

þ Pray for the leaders in your church - pastor, elders, staff, ministry leaders, cell leaders etc. Pray that these men and women would be humble before God, willing to listen to God and willing to put the Word into practice in their own lives first and foremost.