Day 25: How to Get Free from Pride
Here’s how to get free of pride because pride is cancerous. It can spread to all your senses and permeate every part of your life. From the 40 Days of Daily Bread Series.
If you are not watchful something that you have become free of can begin to subtly weave its way back into your life. I’d already allowed God to make some changes in my heart and take out some pride. But then there was this one day some time after that…
Staying Free from Pride
There are some photos of me from the eighties that have been embarrassingly popping up over the years. We moved to Northern Virginia in the late eighties so my southern belle roots had influenced my hair style for that time. I used to tease my bangs up real high to add to my bushy perm.
One photo in particular became a comic masterpiece. My bangs were a trifle long, so they were teased really high. From the back they looked like a skate board ramp. They may or may not have measured the same six inches from the top to the bottom of my bangs and from the bottom of my bangs to my chin. Yeah, it was really bad!
One day someone was passing around an old photo of me from back in the eighties sporting this hairstyle. I began to be angry almost at once. I told my parents, “I have a different image I’m trying to maintain now.” My dad said, “Kelly, that’s pride.”
His words pierced. It was so true. Immediately, I recognized the anger was bad fruit from pride that had taken up residence again. I had to repent! So I went to pray, and God showed me a few things that I didn’t realize before. I’ll tell you about it in the Apply the Word section below.
Apply the Word
This section is to help us respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” James 1:22 ESV
Pride is cancerous; it spreads through all our senses. Write the following locations in your journal next to each category. Ask God to show your where pride has crept into those areas and write what He shows you. Don’t be surprised if He shows you specific examples; He did for me!
To Get Free of Prideful Thinking
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Romans 12:3 ESV
Let us not become conceited… Galatians 5:26a ESV
To Get Free of Prideful Speaking
May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, Psalm 12:3 ESV
To Get Free of Prideful Vision
Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. Psalm 36:2 ESV
To Get Free of Prideful Feelings in Your Heart
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. Mark 7:21-23 ESV
If you’ve known me for awhile you’ll probably see that I like acronyms. Yep, you guessed it. I made one up for pride. {grin} Here you go:
When you think of pride, think of this: P-R-I-D-E = Please Remember It’s Destruction Encompassing
Are you willing to get free of pride and avoid destruction? What do you think will happen in your life if it’s left unattended?
Warning: pride can spread through all our senses.