PRIDE.

There’s a verse in the Bible (James 4:6) that says, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble”. Quite frankly, that’s a terrible verse, no matter how simple it sounds when reading it. And why’s that? 

Well, it is often said that being separated from God is basically hell on earth. So if God should be the one to resist us Himself, that’s Him stepping back from the very people He wishes to be close to. And that’s detrimental to our lives because we are to always be constantly connected to Him. 

There are various forms in which Pride can come. It’s not just Impoliteness or Egotism. It could also come in form of worry. The Bible in Matt. 6:25 says that we should not be anxious about our lives, and it was quite recently that another interpretation was revealed through a teaching. The preacher said that being worried was synonymous to denying the existence of God our Strength. In other words, being worried about something could be us saying that we’re in charge of our lives, and it’s our will that would be done, no matter what. 

But it’s quite the opposite, which is why we’re admonished to cast our burdens upon God, because we cannot sustain ourselves. Without knowing, we’re actually acting as though we’re more than capable of handling our situations ourselves, when in fact we’re nothing without God. 

As I listened to that teaching, I was in shock. Utter surprise. For the first time I saw worry in a totally different light. And an even worse aspect? Job says, “It is that which I feared that has happened to me”. Meaning most of the time, when we’re focusing on our own strengths, we’re actually giving way for the devil to act, because we’ve told God to step out of the equation.

So, even though I still get extremely anxious from time to time, I do my best to cast my burdens on God and depend on Him alone, even when the road isn’t clear. 

Another form pride can come in is through procrastination. Strange, isn’t it? Procrastination, of all things? 

Well, I was also confused when I heard that, but then a quote was dropped. It was something along the lines of, “Procrastination is having the self-assurance that God will give you more time to do tomorrow what you can do today”. 

Boy, did that hit me square in the face. I got so scared when I heard that, and realised that many of us didn’t even know we were being arrogant and taking a lot of things for granted. 

That’s one of the issues of pride, by the way: having some form of independent syndrome. “I’ll wake up tomorrow, no matter what”, “I have the money”, “I’ll be fine. After all, I’m me”. Slowly, very slowly, I’ve begun to see that nothing is certain if God isn’t in the equation. Because of that, I’ve begun to appreciate a lot of things I didn’t see before.

That’s where humility comes in. Being grateful, modest, meek enough to accept our imperfections and relying on God to sort that out for us- things like that. That’s what humility is about. Depending on God, because we’re literally a part of Him. 

So, what will you do with this knowledge, child of God? Will we continue to collect the reins of our lives from Him, or will we make conscious efforts to show Him that we’re not proud and do not wish to be dissociated from Him at all?