The Pride Issue

This is a post I was working on to submit to a Christian Girl blog a while ago,
I thought it might be an interesting read and a constant reminder
for the importance of humility in life .
IMTAPA
xx

The Pride Issue

I'd grown up in church my entire life, I had a great relationship with God however the topic of humility never seemed to resonate. I’d always thought that as long as you never externally accept a compliment, you were safe - 

Little did I know, God was planning a years’ worth of lessons to teach me one of the most important values I would ever learn as a Christian.

The Bible says that the Lord ‘hates a proud look’ Proverbs 6’17 – and my, had I given more than a few of those. As a girl who had grown up in my home town church there was a certain position I felt I owned, I blindly thought I was the ‘darling of the church’ and that people looked up to me as an exemplar person. I had perfect grades, always looked my best – hugely active in Church activities and completely lost in my own little world where everything revolved around me. I wasn’t always this way, but these emotions crept up on me almost subconsciously and I never even thought twice about my mounting self-opinion. It was a seed that had kept growing until the fruits suddenly started to show in my behaviour and thoughts towards others.

I won’t forget the moment an elder in my church congratulated me on a presentation I had made as part of a church celebration that weekend, I was feeling so puffed-up, so completely self-sufficient - and proud of it. He said ‘Well done you did a very good work today… but remember don’t let pride enter your life’. I brushed it off, but those words stuck and came back to me when I hit the ground a few months later.

As I entered into the last year of my studies at Secondary School, I realised I wasn’t as capable as I thought. Getting into University in England is not an easy task and everything was not as smooth sailing as I might have hoped for. Despite the constant hours of studying and applying myself to my work, it didn’t seem to be enough. I was beyond disappointed when I didn’t get into my first choice university, my world had collapsed because I didn’t get my way. I was no longer the perfect girl who got everything she wanted, and I couldn’t understand why.

I didn’t have a light bulb moment, and I won’t claim an epiphany, but through a series of events starting with a huge academic mishap God showed me:

The world does NOT revolve around me.

I realise now that God was used that situation to convey how severe the sin of pride is. He was not punishing me, He was re-shaping me. I needed to understand that there is no hope for a man who is ‘wise in his own eyes’ Prov26’12

Pride is a personal struggle, and it is a battle that must be consistently fought on a daily basis. It was pride that made Lucifer the devil and it is pride that causes us to sin, when we think our ways are better than obedience to God, we make the mistake of raising ourselves above God in our own minds.

 I did just that. I thought I was an un-touchable in my own right and that God would never let anything or anyone rise above me, when really, He calls us to do just the opposite. If we really want to follow Jesus by His example, we must first look at the greatest act of humility … [He] emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men.’ Phillipans 2’7. It was Jesus’ humility that enabled the Great Exchange to even take place.

My pride was very subtle, but it was killing my relationship with God and I didn’t even know it. I want to encourage you today to take a look at your life, and see the various times you may have thought highly of yourself, ask God for guidance , confess your known and subconscious pride to Him so that He can honour you with a stronger deeper relationship.

‘One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honour.’ -Proverbs 29’23

Do you think of yourself more highly than others?

Have you ever given a ‘haughty look’ before ?

Do you consider humility to be an important part of your life?

It's Gods-Team or No-Team People !!!!

So I was reading 2PETER2'8 this morning and a verse was highlighted to me: 

'Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day.'

In this chapter, Peter is warning Christians against false teachers. Now this is really poignant, because 'false teachers' are very much part of the end time concept or eschatology (as Paul Washer recently let me know ;) We often think of the sheep dressed inwolves clothing (MATT7'15) concept as a modern-day reality. - But it really started from the early days of the church, (2 PETER was written in AD67.) So false teachers were very much a reality in the church just about from the very start. 

'Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. '2

The real pick up for me this morning was found in verse 8: 

'Yes Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day.'

--- I was reading this and thinking, could I put myself in Lot's Position in this particular verse?

Am I tormented in my by the evil that I see around me every day, I mean, does it REALLY torment me? (Defined as, creates a severe sense of suffering in my soul?)

This question reminded me of a message I heard preached from my home church entitled: ‘Desensitisation'. It centres on the idea that Christians who live in the world should not grow cold to the things of God by subconsciously accepting the evil they see around them due to constant exposure. 

One of my really good friends, who just happens to be 80 years old said something so profound to me before she passed away 2 years ago. Whenever she used to watch the news and hear about people dying and the horrors of the world she would cry. She actually began to watch the news less and less because the horrors of so many people without hope and God in their lives made her so sad. In that moment, she made me realise how truly heartless I am. I could hear news of mass murders, wars and distastes and my emotional state doesn't usually exceed more than a 'gasp'/sigh or slight whimper. I realised that I am in danger. In danger of having a hardened heart. 

There’s a scripture that says: 'Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.'

Now I'll say that this context is talking about love for God, but in many cases this can relate to our love for others, our tolerance of sin. 

I'll speak for myself here and say that : I'm not as sensitive as I want to be  to the horrors of the world because I've seen it so often. 

And that worries me, it worries me immensely because I feel like I'm getting used to sin.

If you aren't disgusted by the transgender affairs taking place, if you laugh at crude jokes and don't feel out-of-place in groups of secularists, if you don't freeze on the inside when you hear blasphemy in songs and shudder at the halloween-aisles in the stores. If you can watch explicit movie scenes and listen to secular music all day long. - THEN YOU are being desensitised to the things of God. 

The sad part is... you may not even know it. 

MATT24'12 Says: 'Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.'

These things should scare you, and 'torment' your soul' 

We are only passing through, we are the light, and we have to outwit the darkness. 

We see in the cases of so many Biblical Characters that sin is not displayed on a plate and held for the taking; satan plants a seed, slowly makes you less sensitive to the truth and more accepting to sin, and starts luring you into a concept that you have never expected yourself to do.

'So that we would not be outwitted by satan; for we are not ignorant of his evil schemes'

2 COR 2'11

 --- The more familiar and common we become to pop-culture, and the less we are disturbed by the lesbian and gay agenda the probable and likely it is that we are going to accept it.

And I'll tell you this, it is a sin to accept something that God detests. 

I love the verse in: MATT12'30 that says: 

"Anyone who isn't with me opposes me, and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working against me.'

We can't be a humpty dumpty and sit on the fence trying to please men with your diplomatic political correctness. 

Who cares what they say!?!??

Who even are 'THEY'

THEY are no-one

ESPECIALLY when compared to my God .It's Gods Team or No Team. 

'You adulterers! Don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God'

JAMES4'4

And when you accept the things of the world, and the lifestyles being promoted by it, you are dismissing the lifestyle that God promotes. Of following Him.

They are on POLAR OPPOSTIE side of the scale, and not allow ourselves to walk into darkness, without even realising it because it's just such a gradual process. 

So going back to the initial verse, we are living in a Sodom and Gomorrah today. We ARE living in a place where you have to be alert and keep watch, be the watchmen of our souls and our circles. 

Because the COMING OF THE LORD is soooo close, it could be any minute. We do not for 1 second want to let our guards down and be desensitised, and be at peace with what we are seeing around us. 

KEEP WATCH.

Here's the fact: a consistent exposure to sin will lead to desensitisation. Becoming less sensitive/ more open to the things of the world means you are getting further away from God. And as you separate yourself from God, your love for him will grow cold. And that's that. It’s a fact. 

Okay, now if God is convicting you in this (you're feeling guilty)

You're thinking: I'm AM at peace with worldliness. I am insensitive to the things of God.

Immorality doesn’t affect me at all.

Then CONGRATULATIONS!

Why???

Because realising the error of your ways is the 1st step to recovery for a wounded Spirit. 

What you have to do, is go to God, and tell Him what you’re feeling. Say to Him - ' In Your WORD in 2PETER2, You say that Lot was a righteous man, and he was tormented by the evil around him.

I want to be righteous, I want to be tormented in in my soul by the evil I see day after day.'

Go please help me. 

And when you do this, 

God will make a way of escape you for.

It says in His Word in 1CORINTHIANS 10 '33:

'The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.'

We need to be able to endure this world till we go home to be with Jesus, It kind of like eating a rice cake before you go to an expensive Restaurant. The world is not supposed to satisfy us. It only leaves wanting more. And that MORE is eternity spent with Him.

So let’s not get comfortable. 

Let us ask God to Show us the way of escape (HEBREWS4’16) that we need to get to the place that we need to be in Him 

Get into the Scriptures, start reading the Bible.

Read as much or as little as you can, but with understanding. And ask God every day to show a portion of Himself to you. 

You can study scriptures 24 hours a day for 70 years, but in all that time, you will not uncover even a fraction of God in His entirety.

He is too big to capture in our minds.  

When you fill up your mind with the things of God, the things of the world will grow strangely dim.

So fix your eyes on Jesus.

IMTAPA

Lakechia xxx

(In my thoughts and prayers always.)

A Christian Girls response to AUDACITY - The movie