PRIDE – THE SILENT KILLER
John 3:30 “He must become greater; I must become less”
I heard a wonderful preaching by an American Pastor called Robert Madu, he spoke on a topic that many of us don’t take that seriously. Pride!
What is pride?
What does it look like?
Well, pride is a silent killer, it is the carbon monoxide of sin, you can’t see it, you can’t smell it, but it’s there, and it’s killing us slowly. Pride suffocates the plans and purposes that God has for us in our lives, it is our biggest stronghold.
Pride is trying to tell God how YOU thought YOUR life should be
Pride is not taking a step of faith and doing what God has called you to do, instead you ask the questions:
What if I fail?
What if I mess us?
What will people think about me?
You would rather stay at the bay of procrastination why? “Because I have a reputation to uphold” …. PRIDE!
Pride turned an angel into a devil, 33% of the angels fell because of Pride.
Pride will block your access to the father why? Because all pride thinks about is, me, me, me. It’s all about me, I have a reputation to hold, I want things to go MY way, not God’s way.
Robert Madu said, “humility is the hinge upon which the heavens open up your life.” In other words, when you ask God to help you become humble, that is how the heavens will open up in your life.
If you want to see miracles happen, start with humility, if you want to see a move from God, start with humility.
Begin everyday on your knees – “God I can’t do this without you, I NEED YOU”
You want to know something interesting… God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, that’s in James 4:6. Now look at James 4:7, resist the devil and he will flee… if you’ve got pride, God will resist you, so what will the enemy continue to do? Hit you with the thing that will remove you from the presence of God… PRIDE!
So, how can we recognise pride?
Well, the problem with pride is that it hides, ask yourself this question, are you prideful?
People that struggle with pride are often the ones who deny that they are prideful why? Because pride hides. Sometimes something on the outside may look like humility, but let me tell you something, sometimes its just pride in a costume.
But then, there are often some things that may look like pride on the outside… but its really just confidence that God CAN and WILL come through for you! There’s evidence of this in the Bible, read 1 Samuel 17:20-28.
David’s older brother told him he was prideful, he said, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”
David didn’t have pride, oh no, he had confidence in God! He knew God could do something through him! Because the same God who helped him defeat the lion and bear is the same God who would help him defeat Goliath. David was humble! He showed humility and completely trusted God. God can do great things through if only you would humble yourself and trust him.
So, be careful what you call pride because sometimes GODLY confidence looks like arrogance and be careful what you call humility because sometimes its just pride in a costume.
Stay clear of this silent killer.
With Love,
Faith / YAFC Team
