“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” James 4:10………..
Call it sick. Call it dirty. Call it filthy. Call it wrong. Call it horrible. Call it awful. Call it heinous. Call it an abomination. Call it what you will. But no matter what you call it, the truth is the truth. PRIDE is an ABOMINATION to God. It is SIN. It must – it MUST – be repented of. It MUST be gotten rid of. Immediately. Every time we see it in ourselves. Every time it’s burrowed it’s horrific way into our hearts, into our thoughts, into our minds, into our words, into our actions. And thinking that we know better than God is flat out, totally, undoubtedly, SIN. And it is PRIDE. And it MUST GO. Now. Pronto. Right this very minute. And before you think to yourself you’ve never felt or acted like you know better than God, please hold up. Until you’ve read this message.
I’ve been following the Lord for years. Yes, years. And I still scarily, truthfully, genuinely come across pride in my heart, in my mouth, in my actions. As much as I despise it now, there it is. Right inside me, right before me, right out of me. Without plan. Without intention. Without foreknowledge. It burrows its slimy way in when I seem to be looking in another direction, and there it is. With the Holy Spirit gloriously mercifully lovingly pointing it out to me so I can seek God’s forgiveness right away. So I can humble myself before Him this very minute and get on with my life. My life FOLLOWING CHRIST. Just this very day, yes, this very day, I saw PRIDE that had stolen into my heart. The specific pride of thinking I know better than God does. And if you think you can’t relate, please read this to the finish and see if you can relate.
I have been praying about something. A yucky situation I have come across many times before. A situation involving someone doing something really yucky and yuckily refusing right now anyway to change directions. And something innocent, unbelievably innocent, is the victim of the person doing something yucky. I so can’t stand knowing about this without doing something about it that I am prone to spend hours a day figuring out how to handle the situation. What does God want me to do? How will I go about it? When will He tell me? Why can’t He hurry up already? Doesn’t He know something innocent is suffering because of all this? Can’t He get on with it already? Doesn’t He realize what needs to be done? And if He doesn’t move any faster, and just stands by without doing anything, surely I’m going to have to jump in and fix the situation. Right? And how come no matter how much I pray, in this situation and in other ones, does He not answer IMMEDIATELY knowing something needs to be done IMMEDIATELY, and why doesn’t He see what I see? What I see is what needs to be done, and who should and shouldn’t be involved, and that this person or that person shouldn’t get away with it? And why did He give me this information and expect me to do something all the while I’m going nuts in my mind over my inability to fix it? Oh, God, please, please God. Don’t you realize what needs to be done?
Friend, your thoughts might not be like mine. Your prayers might not be like mine. Your challenging situations might not be like mine. Your vulnerable places in your heart might not be like mine. Your struggles might not be like mine. You might say and do different things than I do. But if you’ve ever been frustrated with how God is answering your prayers, or not, or what He is doing, or not, and you’ve lashed out at Him angrily verbally or in your heart, or been bitter and resentful over how He is handling something, or not, then please face what I’m facing in what He has brought to my attention.
THE LORD KNOWS WHAT IS BEST, and HE KNOWS THE BEST TIMING, and HE KNOWS WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE, and HE SEES THE OVERALL BIG PICTURE, and HE IS ALL POWERFUL, and He is ALL KNOWING, and He sees ALL that needs to be done, and HE KNOWS THE BEST WAY TO HANDLE IT, and HE HAS THE PERFECT TIME FRAME, and if we are angry, frustrated, bitter, stressed out, resentful, raging, pushing God away, running away from Him, lashing out at Him, resisting Him, rebelling against Him, judging what He is or isn’t doing, getting in His way by coming up with our own plans and doing what WE believe needs to be done in OUR time without taking Him into account and submitting ourselves entirely to Him, guess what. We are struggling with PRIDE. And PRIDE IS SIN AGAINST GOD, and we MUST REPENT, we must seek His forgiveness and toss it out, trash it, get rid of it, and humble ourselves before Him, placing our TRUST IN HIM, NOT in ourselves, NOT in others, BUT IN HIM, the LORD, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WHO WILL REIGN FOREVER.
I know better than you God. Sounds awful to read, doesn’t it? Sounds impossible some of us would experience this in our hearts and lives. But if we’re all honest with ourselves, is it not true we all have at one time or another struggled with this? Even possibly right now?
As much as I hate my sin, and hate having to face my sin, I thank God He is so loving that He brings it to my attention because He loves His children, He wants us to repent of our sin and place our trust in Jesus, and He wants to forgive us, and He wants us in His fellowship and to draw ever closer to Him in forever fellowship through faith in and lives dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ for eternity.
Please examine your heart. Not just once. But regularly. Let the Holy Spirit show you what is wrong in your heart, what is wrong in your words, what is wrong in your actions, and get rid of all of it, turn to God, turn to God, turn to God, surrender all to Him, and to His Word, and learn day by day to live in loving, humble, submission to Him, to His forever lordship, to the Lord Jesus Christ forevermore!
amen!