Tools to detect pride
If
I am prideful in the wrong way, many times it is hard for me to
recognize it in myself. Even if I ask a trusted Christian friend that
question, they might not know how to answer honestly to you or to me.
These five indicators that we went through yesterday morning could be a
help to know so that you can go from being on the prideful path where
you will end up walking all alone to the humble highway that is suppose
to be full of Jesus followers.
Remember that the expert in pride is Satan and Jesus said to His disciples and to us when addressing ungodly pride that we and they are to be, "But it is not this way among you,..."
First you take a look at your speech. Is your speech grateful about God and about others? Or is your speech full of complaining and criticizing? If you ask a trusted friend about being prideful and they don't know how to response then ask them about your language. What do they hear? What do they read in your e-mails or Facebook posts? You can actually help them to answer you more honestly about your condition of pride. Remember that you want this because following ungodly pride is following after the expert on pride.
Second you take a look at your willingness. What is your response to need? Do you move toward responding with constructive action or do you revert to just pointing the finger at it with no indication to lift the finger to help? Again, ask your trusted friend if you offer help and then actually give help voluntarily or when asked? It is nice to be asked to help but it can lead to a prideful situation if you only help when asked because it makes you feel important to be asked. Remember that being "great" and "first" in God's system is to be a servant and a slave to all and Jesus Himself was the model of this.
Third you take a look at your listening. Am I really listening to others or am I thinking about what I am going to say next? Am I focused on them or is what I have to say so much more important than what they have to say? Ask your trusted friend who talks the most in your conversations together? Do you know as much about them as they know about you? It is really hard to be a servant and slave for God of people that you don't know because you haven't stopped to listen to them. I fail at this one miserably. Some people last night were honest with me about how I don't focus in on them and they notice my "moving on" mentally and sometimes literally physically before the conversation has ended.
Fourth you take a look at your hold on your position. God has laid upon you a spiritual gift to be used. He has placed it in your open hands. Are your hands still open or have then clinched around it so God can't remove it and replace it if necessary for and in His sovereign will? Prideful Christians become very territorial about things and positions. Ask your trusted friend if they see you training others to what you do for the Lord. The reality is that we are all going to die and whatever we have been doing is going to fall into the hands of another and the question will be if they have been trained by another, namely you, to do it. We need to remember that it is God's church and God's resources and God's people and God's instruments and God's programs and God's music and God needs to be kept in control of it while we serve Him. He is always better at it than you and I.
Lastly you take a look at how you address things that need to be addressed. Does your own sinful condition of needing a Savior come before addressing someone else of a Biblical concern? We all need to be addressed at times. We are accountable to the Word of God and God uses His people at times to bring those things up to us. Ask your trusted friend if they know of your failures or do they just hear you talking about and pointing out others failures? Is your language harsh about sin and lacking in compassion to the sinner? This side of heaven, we will never be out of the need to confess to God and to others and we are in the dangerous waters of pride when we cease to think we have any need of it.
These are just tools to ask yourself or better yet to ask of others to speak honestly about you in the area of pride. C.S. Lewis called pride "the great sin." He also said, "Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense." John R.W. Stott said, "Pride is your greatest enemy, humility is your greatest friend." I pray that you will go on this journey with me to be great and first in God's kingdom but the path to those things is not through pride but through being humble before our God. Don't settle for being great and first in the world's system, it is far inferior to what God has for you. Trust His ways. Let's pray.
"Lord, thanks for the extra time to look at this subject in the Scriptures. Thanks for not letting this go when James and John brought up ungodly pride. You kept Your composure of humility while You dealt with these men whom You love. How often have You kept Your composure with me? Lots I fear. Help me to be great and first in Your kingdom by being a humble, strong in You, servant of Yours today. Amen."
Pastor Adam
Remember that the expert in pride is Satan and Jesus said to His disciples and to us when addressing ungodly pride that we and they are to be, "But it is not this way among you,..."
First you take a look at your speech. Is your speech grateful about God and about others? Or is your speech full of complaining and criticizing? If you ask a trusted friend about being prideful and they don't know how to response then ask them about your language. What do they hear? What do they read in your e-mails or Facebook posts? You can actually help them to answer you more honestly about your condition of pride. Remember that you want this because following ungodly pride is following after the expert on pride.
Second you take a look at your willingness. What is your response to need? Do you move toward responding with constructive action or do you revert to just pointing the finger at it with no indication to lift the finger to help? Again, ask your trusted friend if you offer help and then actually give help voluntarily or when asked? It is nice to be asked to help but it can lead to a prideful situation if you only help when asked because it makes you feel important to be asked. Remember that being "great" and "first" in God's system is to be a servant and a slave to all and Jesus Himself was the model of this.
Third you take a look at your listening. Am I really listening to others or am I thinking about what I am going to say next? Am I focused on them or is what I have to say so much more important than what they have to say? Ask your trusted friend who talks the most in your conversations together? Do you know as much about them as they know about you? It is really hard to be a servant and slave for God of people that you don't know because you haven't stopped to listen to them. I fail at this one miserably. Some people last night were honest with me about how I don't focus in on them and they notice my "moving on" mentally and sometimes literally physically before the conversation has ended.
Fourth you take a look at your hold on your position. God has laid upon you a spiritual gift to be used. He has placed it in your open hands. Are your hands still open or have then clinched around it so God can't remove it and replace it if necessary for and in His sovereign will? Prideful Christians become very territorial about things and positions. Ask your trusted friend if they see you training others to what you do for the Lord. The reality is that we are all going to die and whatever we have been doing is going to fall into the hands of another and the question will be if they have been trained by another, namely you, to do it. We need to remember that it is God's church and God's resources and God's people and God's instruments and God's programs and God's music and God needs to be kept in control of it while we serve Him. He is always better at it than you and I.
Lastly you take a look at how you address things that need to be addressed. Does your own sinful condition of needing a Savior come before addressing someone else of a Biblical concern? We all need to be addressed at times. We are accountable to the Word of God and God uses His people at times to bring those things up to us. Ask your trusted friend if they know of your failures or do they just hear you talking about and pointing out others failures? Is your language harsh about sin and lacking in compassion to the sinner? This side of heaven, we will never be out of the need to confess to God and to others and we are in the dangerous waters of pride when we cease to think we have any need of it.
These are just tools to ask yourself or better yet to ask of others to speak honestly about you in the area of pride. C.S. Lewis called pride "the great sin." He also said, "Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense." John R.W. Stott said, "Pride is your greatest enemy, humility is your greatest friend." I pray that you will go on this journey with me to be great and first in God's kingdom but the path to those things is not through pride but through being humble before our God. Don't settle for being great and first in the world's system, it is far inferior to what God has for you. Trust His ways. Let's pray.
"Lord, thanks for the extra time to look at this subject in the Scriptures. Thanks for not letting this go when James and John brought up ungodly pride. You kept Your composure of humility while You dealt with these men whom You love. How often have You kept Your composure with me? Lots I fear. Help me to be great and first in Your kingdom by being a humble, strong in You, servant of Yours today. Amen."
Pastor Adam
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