Spiritual Cancer 2: Pride
by Oge Maduka

Another form of Spiritual cancer is pride, which is a very dangerous 'disease'. The kind of pride I am talking about here, is the one that can be described as an excessively high opinion of oneself, involving conceit and arrogance. We all know of the proverb, which says "pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly spirit and among the oppressed that share plunder with the proud" (Prov. 16: 18-19).
Without beating around the bush, God hates a proud and haughty spirit; and it's easy to understand why. Pride as spiritual cancer, is as destructive as bitterness. It overshadows every good gift in you and ties you up so much that you can't see beyond yourself thereby stealing the glory of God in your life. The Bible says in (1Peter5: 5-6) "And all of you, serve each other with humble spirits ,for God gives special blessings to those who are humble, but sets himself against those who are proud. If you humble yourselves the Mighty Hand of God in His good time will lift you up"

Pride is a terrible thing, so bad that it even lies and deceives the carrier. Because it gives you a false opinion of your self, making you feel you are 'up there' and others are 'down there' when most times the reverse may actually be the case.
Why would anyone be proud as against being humble? Let it be known, Pride and God have no business together. There is no compatibility between pride and the Holy Spirit. They cannot simply work together, because Mr. Pride by nature cannot submit to the Holy Spirit so they can't reach a consensus in any issue. Generally, pride interferes with our ability to reason and it blinds us to our faults, it is an ingredient in every quarrel and comes from self-exaltation and self-righteousness.

Pride keeps us from asking others for help even when we desperately need it, it causes us to always want recognition and taking full credit for other peoples achievement. When wounded, pride makes us to lash out and harbour anger unnecessarily, and worst of all is that it stops the flow of God's gift to us.
All in all there is nothing good about a proud heart. Therefore it is important that we uproot every seed of pride living in us. Let us swallow our pride for it has destroyed so many people including relationships and families.
Don't pretend you are a child of God, when you walk with a highly inflated ego; looking down on every person like you are the original and others are counterfeits. Don't think that God is with you, when you will rather die than say 'I am sorry' or 'thank you'. It is such a shame that a lot of people find it difficult or see it as an uphill task to say ordinary sorry, a simple word that can diffuse many problems, just because pride wont let them. Don't think you are fooling God when you are engrossed in a one-man battle of class-consciousness or superior complex euphoria. For He is never fooled by our foolishness!

If you let pride persists in you, just remember, that why pride strips off every beauty in you, it also brings reproach to your life in its entirety. Don't forget you are nothing without God, everything you are and all that you have is all because of His grace. Without the grace of God, you won't be able to dress yourself up in the morning. So is not about your strength, beauty, wealth or intelligence but about the grace of God, which has sustained us. There are people who are more intelligent, more beautiful, but cant afford to feed or could not afford more than a primary or high school education; it doesn't mean God loves them less. So why should we act like the blessings around us came to us by our power and might? It's just by His grace and nothing more.
Why should we let pride destroy us when clearly God abhors it and sets himself against those who are proud. This means that God will resist you as long as you have a proud heart. But I thank God that the moment we truly realize who Jesus is, all the pride in us will vanish and humility will take over. Jesus was an epitome of humility during His time on earth and that is the way He wants us to be.

Humility as against pride is one of the greatest and the most outstanding virtue of any personality. It attracts favours to you and people will lift you up, without your having to struggle for it. While God hates the proud He especially blesses the humble in spirit and says, " If my people who are called by my name will obey me and humble themselves I will bless them and heal their land" so why let pride destroy us?
Whilst pride results from over valuing ourselves and undervaluing others, it leads to restlessness because it makes us dissatisfied with what we have and concerned about what every person is doing. Haughtiness keeps us always demanding for attention and adoration, but by contrasts, humility puts others first and allows us to be content with God's leading in our lives. Such contentment gives us security so that we no longer have to prove ourselves to others.

However, some people try to give the appearance of humility in other to manipulate others, but truly humble people compare themselves only with Christ, realize their own sinfulness and understand their limitation, ability, moral performance and knowledge. Humility is not self-degradation, it is realistic affirmation. Truly humble people do not get that way by trying to be humble; they are humble because of their relationship with God.

Take away pride today and put on the garment of humility, which comes from embracing Christ totally and dwelling constantly on His word. May God give us the strength and wisdom to serve God and others an humulity.

Ogechukwu Maduka is a christain evangelist and a lawyer who loves to write as a means to inspire. A passionate humanitarian and an ardent believer in upholding the digniity of man. She is happily married and blessed with four lovely children. Email: [email protected]

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com







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