Friday, April 8, 2016

April 9, 2016

"In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!" Philippians 2:5-8

This pride thing is powerful! REALLY powerful! You might say that pride is holding the remote control for your life.

You are born into it and unless you do something very radical you will die in it. 

One exercise I am suggesting to help you take the remote control out of pride's hand is to ask yourself three soberly serious questions:

How does pride manifest itself in my life?

How does pride masquerade itself in my life?

And a third question, how long will I allow pride to hold the remote in my life?

Pride is a prison. It shuts you in and shuts God and others out of your life. So, how long do plan to stay in prison imprisoned by your pride? How long? 

Another day?

A week?

A month?

A year?

How long?

Why not break free from the prison of your pride?

Freedom is a decision made possible by the radical humility displayed by Jesus. He gave up the glory of God's perfect paradise and and came to earth as a man just so He could humble Himself to death on a cross.

The One who had every reason to be proud humbled Himself in every way He could in order to break the power of pride in His life and in yours!  He who deserved to be honored and worshiped instead can to be a servant to those who despised Him.

Humility is the anti-pride! Whenever I am tempted to a prideful spirit I immediately begin looking around for a way to humble myself.

God had very right to demand us sinners seek Him and repent of our sins and seek to reconcile with Him. But he didn't wait on you He initiated the reconciliation! He rebuked the paralysis of pride and humbly came as a servant!

Pride says, "Wait on them to apologize to you!" Jesus says, "Don't wait - initiate!" Think about the powerful implications this would have in your relationships!

What if you fought through your prideful emotions and declared your decision to break out of your prison of pride?

What if you stood up to your prideful self and proclaimed:

PRIDE YOU ARE NOT!
  • My Master
  • My Boss
  • My Warden
  • My Boyfriend 

What if you told your pride, "Pride, I am not waiting on that person to reconcile with me. I am going to take the initiative to humbly serve that person in hopes that I can reconcile and repair that broken relationship!"

Honestly, you could do that couldn't you?

It wouldn't feel good. It would be hard. But you could do it if you decided you wanted to.

So, why wouldn't you do it?

What are you waiting for?













No comments:

Post a Comment