The Pride Masquerade

"Pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18

Pride is the root of sin and you are born with a sinful nature so pride is as natural to you as breathing.

I am not talking about the pride that is proud of your family or your country or things that motivate and inspire you. I am talking about pride that destroys and divides.

The problem with pride is it closes you in while it closes God and others out.

Like the sin nature itself, unless you kill pride it will kill you!

I am sharing three questions to help you deal with your pride before it does you in.

Honest questions are a good way to bring you to honest revealing insights into your struggles with pride.

The question from yesterday's post was "How does pride manifest itself in you?"

Today's question is similar but goes a layer deeper: 

"How does your pride masquerade itself in you?"

Once you are confronted by the ugliness of your pride you either have to deal with it or disguise it as something more acceptable.

Let me share several ways pride masquerades itself into more acceptable forms.

"Its not pride, its confidence!"

Confidence is a not a bad thing if it is based upon your confidence in God and from your faith. But any confidence that arises out of your talent, or your intelligence, or your level of education, or your success is not actually confidence it is pride.

"It's not pride, its competitiveness!" 

You tell yourself that you're not proud you are simply competitive. But why are you competitive? Is it because you don't want to look bad? Is it because you want to make the other guy look bad? It is because you feel bad when you lose and good when the other guy loses? 

Are those not reflections of pride?

"I'm not proud just because I make comparisons!"

When you compare your personal worth based on the worth of others that is a pride issue.

When you build your self-worth on how your abilities or your success or your IQ compares with another you are probably motivated by pride. 

Again, I ask you, "How does your pride masquerade itself in your life?"

Are you dealing with your sin or are you trying to disguise it?

That's a crucially important question!