The Problem Of Pride

Pride only breeds quarrels,but wisdom is found in those who take advice.

Proverbs 13:10 (NIV)

Pride is the topic today. Question: Do you really understand the nature of pride? It’s so easy to see it in other people when they’re bragging excessively about themselves or putting others down. But pride is more complicated than that. Pride doesn’t always manifest itself in outward boasting. Sometimes pride takes the version of just digging in its heels. Of self-preservation at all costs. Of arrogance: no one is going to prove them wrong. This is called “stubborn pride.”

Stubborn pride is really a sentence of death—emotionally, relationally, and even spiritually. It is exactly the opposite of having a soft, receptive, teachable spirit. Stubborn pride won’t forgive, because everything is everyone else’s fault. Stubborn pride is not a team player, because it’s “my way or the highway.” If a wife thinks she must always win, the husband becomes defeated. If a mother never listens to her kids’ side of the story, the kids build their own world and shut her out. Stubborn pride is stuck. It isolates you.

So, dear sisters, let’s be honest. Don’t make this little discussion about everyone else but ourselves.

God himself has some wonderful advice in 1 Peter 5:5: “Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (NKJV).

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

Pride magnifies everything that is wrong with others and at the same time minimizes anything that is amiss in ourselves. That is why pride breeds quarrels. Do you bicker with your husband? Bottom line: you are irritated at not just one thing, but many. Therefore, you are never dealing with just one moment of conflict; you are piling up ten years of annoyance and reacting to it all. This is not wise. When we do that, it makes us very hard to live with. You need to clear the slate. That’s not just what I say, but that is what God says: “First forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too” (Mark 11:25).

One Year Bible Reading

Joshua 15:1-63; Luke 18:18-43; Psalm 86:1-17; Proverbs 13:9-10