Pride vs Humility

If anyone has a right to be proud, it must be God. After all, He created the world without any help from you or me. He Himself is uncreated, eternal, and utterly faultless. If you think there is a problem with God, you are just showing your ignorance. He Himself dwells in unapproachable light, He is mighty, glorious, perfect in beauty and splendour, ominiscient - no one and nothing can compare to Him. He is the only One qualified to be proud. And yet, He is humble.

5 Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwelleth on high,
6 Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth! (Psalm 113:5,6)

Since God is always beholding the things that are in heaven, and in the earth, this means that God is continually humbling Himself! The Bible says that there is nothing hidden from the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. It must give God pain to look at some of the stuff that is going on here, but He does it anyway. He is always humbling Himself.

In case you think this is just false praise for God, think again. I want to give you one example of how humble God really is. He is so humble, it is shocking.

As human beings, we have a tendency to want to be selective about the people we associate with. Our natural tendency is to seek the company of those who we find interesting, attractive, well-bred, intelligent, accomplished. We don't mind if people know we have some distinguished friends. On the other hand, for most of us, there are some people we would rather not spend much time with at all. People who are mentally retarded, sloppy, who have obnoxious habits, who let their saliva drool from their mouth in public, who love to talk a lot - at a party most of us would be off like a rocket to the punch bowl if we found ourselves talking with such a person. And yet, I have found that God Himself is willing to associate with such people! In fact, He is willing to come into their lives, permanently! He is willing to adopt them into His family! God risks His great name accepting people like this into His family - he takes that risk with all kinds of folks, yes, even people like you and me. So God is very humble.

I have attended Bible studies in a bad area of Sydney where all the people were like this, and my uncle, who is a very wealthy medical doctor, was there, ministering to these people, and clearly taking delight in the way he could see the Spirit of God beginning to move in their lives. I am telling you, God is there for the people whom the world rejects. But are we there with Him?

When God sent Jesus into the world, He could have arranged for him to be born in Caesar's palace, or at least in the house of a nobleman. But no, God sent His Son, who is God the Son, into the world to be born in an animal's feeding trough. That's what the word "manger" actually means. "Away in an animals-feeding-trough, no crib for a bed..."

There's got to be a message in this for all the pretentiousness and hubris of mankind. None of us would be willing to have our children born in an animals feeding trough. But that was about the only place that was available for the Son of God when He came to earth. And it seems like God would like to be welcomed into our lives, He'd love to live in us, and move with us, but we are too busy exalting ourselves, and so we end up treating God like he is someone of a lower social caste than ourselves. So much of what we say and do is an affront to God, because we are leaving God out of things. Its as if our business is more important than His, as if our opinions count for more than His word, our ideas are better, and He is not worth consulting, except possibly after we've made our minds up anyway.

The Holy Spirit also is humble. He is the One who comes and lives in us, even though sometimes we don't offer Him very good conditions. Sometimes we give Him a dirty house to live in. Sometimes, we don't talk to Him for days or even weeks. And yet He, the wonderful Holy Spirit, waits patiently for us, hoping and believing that one day we will, together with Him, be all God wants us to be on the earth.

So How Does God Feel About Pride?

Pride is that attitude of self-worship which causes a man or woman, a boy or a girl to think more highly of him or herself than he or she ought. It was well expressed in the Frank Sinatra song, "I Did it My Way". I couldn't believe it when I actually heard some of the words to this song at a restaurant in Bucharest, Romania, as a lady sang the words in English: "Mistakes, I've made a few, but then again, too few to mention". Unbelievable. If this does not make you cringe, nothing will.

One man in Romania said, "I have so much wisdom I am amazed that even God could fit it all into my head!". When I hear statements like this, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. But people have said them in all seriousness!

The mind of a proud man seeks to construct everything in his internal world to offer up continual adoration and praise to the self, to the ego. All a man's accomplishments and achievements are marshalled before his own internal gaze, he views them with self satisfaction. If others seem to excel more, the proud man can find a way to belittle that person or find fault. Pride has many symptoms and features. The difficult thing about it is that it is so hard to see in yourself! Often the people who hate pride the most in others are those who are the proudest themself.

A lot more can be said about pride, but how does God feel about it? On this point, the Scriptures are very plain.

"Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord". (Proverbs 16:5)

"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." (Malachi 4:1)

"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6). If you are proud, God will fight against you, He will oppose you, He will resist you! Does it sometimes seem to you like that it what is happening in your life? Maybe God is resisting you - maybe you are proud! At least keep an open mind on the possibility.

Psalm 138:6 says, "Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off." He knows them from afar, and that is where He keeps them. You cannot maintain an attitude of pride and be close to the Lord.

Sometimes we are wondering why we cannot seem to get close to the Lord. We pray, we study, and yet it seems like God is not willing to talk to us. Many times the answer to this lies in the fact that there is pride and hardness of heart in us, that we are not directly conscious of. If we will ask the Lord about it, and are willing for a bit of painful humbling, He may show us. Sometimes, we know there are things not pleasing to God, and we still hold onto them. This too, can be a form of pride. Sometimes you have to just come to the Lord and admit that you know there are things in you that are not right, and what is worse, you are not really willing to change. Perhaps in confessing this to the Lord, He will give grace and your heart will be softened.
The Bible is very consistent in the theme of God's hatred for pride. In this respect, God is very different to the world system. The world system encourages pride up to a point, as long as it is somewhat covered over - so as not to be revealed in its full ugliness. I don't think anyone really appreciates raw pride in others. It generates a kind of loathing in all men, especially other prideful people. God also hates pride, not because he is

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