Who do we think we are? Do we see ourselves in a self-righteous, arrogant way? Or do we see ourselves for who we really are?
- What’s with the pride?
- Maybe you’re a good person. Maybe you never drink, never smoke, never party, never engage in immoral behavior, try your best to never curse, go to church every time the doors are open, read your Bible every day, say a prayer when you wake up and before you eat and before you go to sleep. Maybe you are kind to others.
- So you think you’re a good person, and perhaps you are. But that is not the big picture. It is not us who have the power to change ourselves for the better. We all have a sinful nature, and without the Spirit of God where would we really be today? We simply cannot be righteous enough on our own to make our way to heaven. Our goodness will never outweigh our sin. In fact, our righteousness is like “filthy rags” to God, because He is so unfathomably holy and righteous. Isaiah 64:6 says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
- So what do we do?
- We end up thinking we’re doing this on our own.
- We try to work our way to heaven.
- We try to think that somehow we can do enough for God to earn our way to heaven.
- We become prideful in our own “good works” and completely ignore what God commands us in His Word.
- What does God say about pride?
- Proverbs 8:13 says, “To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.”
- Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
- Obadiah 1:3 begins, “The pride of your heart has deceived you.” Likewise, the pride of our hearts deceives us into thinking we are good enough; into thinking we are somehow making it on our own.
- But in reality: none of us are good enough on our own. This is why we NEED Jesus! We need His Spirit in our lives, guiding us toward His holiness. We need to rely on Jesus for everything. We cannot “try to find balance” between our lives and God. He needs to be infused into everything we are and everything we do. We need Him in all we do. Without Him, we are nothing! We must come to that realization before He can do wondrous works in our lives!
