These six things the Lord hates,
Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
A proud look,
A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that are swift in running to evil,
A false witness who speaks lies,
And one who sows discord among brethren
Proverbs 6:16-19 (NKJV)
Happy New Year! 🎉
2023 will be full of many more smiles and a lot less tears...in Jesus' name 🙏
Let us pray that the good 2023 brings will far outweigh the bad because you see this life we are living? Bad will always find a way to sneak up on you...no matter how hard you try to run away 😒
While some of you are still high on the hope and inspiration a new year brings, some of us are already nursing wounds, scratches, and bruises...metaphorically speaking. But we move...that's life 😀
Alright, let's jump right into it. What is the deadliest of them all?
PRIDE
"...there is nothing so natural to man, nothing so insidious and hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous, as pride." Andrew Murray (Humility: The Path to Holiness)
Pride is the one sin that can hide itself so well, we can be full of it and go years genuinely oblivious to the fact. And that is what makes it so deadly.
Pride is also the one sin that not only separates us from God but also causes God to actively work against us. It is no coincidence that this truth is repeated so many times in the Bible. When life gets hard, pride might just be the reason why.
...“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:6 (NKJV)
“Behold, I am against you,
O most haughty one!” says the Lord God of hosts;
“For your day has come,
The time that I will punish you.
Jeremiah 50:31-32 (NKJV)
I am so grateful that God has been opening my eyes to the pride in my life, and boy do I need help to change. That is why I am dedicating 2023 to studying all I can about Humility (and Meekness)...oh how I pray for the grace to truly embody this virtue...because it is definitely not by physical effort, only the help of the Holy Spirit.
The most poignant thing I have learned so far is that pride often does not manifest itself the way we expect (boasting, superiority, mistreatment of others/abuse of power, etc). There are many other much more subtle prideful acts. Some of these somewhat "invisible" manifestations of pride are quite easy to walk in daily. Let me list a few:
- Being quick to take offense or being easily offended
- Unforgiveness
- Difficulty admitting one's faults and apologizing
- Obsessive fear of embarrassment/public failure
- Failing to recognize and acknowledge the work of God or the help of others
- Finding it difficult to show/share weakness
- Finding it difficult to submit to authority or be a follower
- Having a hard time seeking and accepting counsel
These are things that come naturally to us humans, therefore they are impossible to change on our own. It is usually a lifelong fight to stay humble...and in our increasingly self-centered world, it is only possible by holding on to Jesus and walking by the Spirit. As we are instructed to in Romans 8:3-6:
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
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