Jas 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
God resists the proud.
Our pride can be located front and center of many or our day to day woes. A lot of our daily laments boil down to our pride, how so? We take ourselves and plant ourselves square in the center of the entire world. Our existence is all encompassing and as such we mourn the big, the small, and the many in between sizes of things that do not go our way - according to our perceived idea of how things should go. We do have a perceived idea because sure as the sun is hot we are ready to announce when something goes wrong. That something didn't have a chance to go wrong in the first place if we didn't have an idea of something being right.
Have you ever heard the saying along the lines of one man's trash is another man's treasure? To the trash man what a glorious day it is finding a nearly new dresser with a single scratch on one drawer front. To the treasure man that scratch on the drawer ruined the dresser to the point he had to discard it as trash. This isn't to say the trash man isn't prideful, but his pride manifests in a different manner than the treasure man's pride. Good days, bad days a lot of them rise and fall upon our perception of them.
When we expect each day to go without a hitch, we are saying we want our days to go according to our plans without any unwanted deviations. We value our plans, we take pride in those plans and our pride is dealt a severe blow when something interferes with them.
Am I saying that we should never have a bad day? No. There are tragedies we all face in life that put our small woes into perspective- if only for a short while. Soon we get back to the everyday routines we enjoy and allow our pride to rear up to its preferred throne ready to lend us a hair trigger shot of anger or hurt when things fail to go as we want them to.
Pride lurks around us all and will sneak into our every crevice if we let it. Pride will become a second skin we are so used to wearing we don't even notice it at all. Pride can be found in so much that we call acceptable, normal, and understandable that we fail to see it as pride. We are ready to go to blows with those who dare to call us prideful because we just cannot recognize pride for what it is any longer.
Pride keeps us from sincerity towards God and giving Him ALL the glory, taking none for ourselves. Pride screams we have the right to things in life that we have no right to at all. Pride cries out agonies of grief over the lots dealt to us in our life that have been beyond our control. Pride blinds us to God's true glories! Pride props up vanity linking arms to form a formidable force against true humbleness.
Christ was our ultimate example of a humble man. He took no glory to Himself whatsoever, none, not a single bit. Christ was quick to give God the Father all the glory in all things- good, bad, and in-between the two. Christ did not believe it was His due to receive comforts in life. Christ told His followers to expect the worst life has to offer, He did not paint them a pretty picture filled with happiness and satisfaction. Trials and tribulations, how horrific these are for the pride filled, and how honorable for the humble. Pride tells us we deserve better. We deserve no better than our LORD.
May the pride we possess be reveal to us so that we may submit it to God, seeking forgiveness, humbling ourselves before Him.
May we resist the devil - all the evil ways of the devil that strive to consume us constantly, and may the evil flee from us.
May we be kept from evil as we draw ever closer to God, and He to us!
May we recognize our need to be cleansed from all sin, purified by God, to be single minded towards God!
May we be afflicted, mourning, weeping not laughing but mourning, all our joy heavy as we recognize all we are is to be found in God not in ourselves!
May we humble ourselves by recognizing GOD as everything! May He then lift us up- to HIM, to our life being complete in HIM and HIM alone.
Please, Lord, this is our hope, our prayer! Be our everything! Use us according to YOUR will now and forever! Please. THANK YOU! All glory, honor and praise to YOU LORD GOD! All through JESUS CHRIST now and forever! Amen!
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
God resists the proud.
Our pride can be located front and center of many or our day to day woes. A lot of our daily laments boil down to our pride, how so? We take ourselves and plant ourselves square in the center of the entire world. Our existence is all encompassing and as such we mourn the big, the small, and the many in between sizes of things that do not go our way - according to our perceived idea of how things should go. We do have a perceived idea because sure as the sun is hot we are ready to announce when something goes wrong. That something didn't have a chance to go wrong in the first place if we didn't have an idea of something being right.
Have you ever heard the saying along the lines of one man's trash is another man's treasure? To the trash man what a glorious day it is finding a nearly new dresser with a single scratch on one drawer front. To the treasure man that scratch on the drawer ruined the dresser to the point he had to discard it as trash. This isn't to say the trash man isn't prideful, but his pride manifests in a different manner than the treasure man's pride. Good days, bad days a lot of them rise and fall upon our perception of them.
When we expect each day to go without a hitch, we are saying we want our days to go according to our plans without any unwanted deviations. We value our plans, we take pride in those plans and our pride is dealt a severe blow when something interferes with them.
Am I saying that we should never have a bad day? No. There are tragedies we all face in life that put our small woes into perspective- if only for a short while. Soon we get back to the everyday routines we enjoy and allow our pride to rear up to its preferred throne ready to lend us a hair trigger shot of anger or hurt when things fail to go as we want them to.
Pride lurks around us all and will sneak into our every crevice if we let it. Pride will become a second skin we are so used to wearing we don't even notice it at all. Pride can be found in so much that we call acceptable, normal, and understandable that we fail to see it as pride. We are ready to go to blows with those who dare to call us prideful because we just cannot recognize pride for what it is any longer.
Pride keeps us from sincerity towards God and giving Him ALL the glory, taking none for ourselves. Pride screams we have the right to things in life that we have no right to at all. Pride cries out agonies of grief over the lots dealt to us in our life that have been beyond our control. Pride blinds us to God's true glories! Pride props up vanity linking arms to form a formidable force against true humbleness.
Christ was our ultimate example of a humble man. He took no glory to Himself whatsoever, none, not a single bit. Christ was quick to give God the Father all the glory in all things- good, bad, and in-between the two. Christ did not believe it was His due to receive comforts in life. Christ told His followers to expect the worst life has to offer, He did not paint them a pretty picture filled with happiness and satisfaction. Trials and tribulations, how horrific these are for the pride filled, and how honorable for the humble. Pride tells us we deserve better. We deserve no better than our LORD.
May the pride we possess be reveal to us so that we may submit it to God, seeking forgiveness, humbling ourselves before Him.
May we resist the devil - all the evil ways of the devil that strive to consume us constantly, and may the evil flee from us.
May we be kept from evil as we draw ever closer to God, and He to us!
May we recognize our need to be cleansed from all sin, purified by God, to be single minded towards God!
May we be afflicted, mourning, weeping not laughing but mourning, all our joy heavy as we recognize all we are is to be found in God not in ourselves!
May we humble ourselves by recognizing GOD as everything! May He then lift us up- to HIM, to our life being complete in HIM and HIM alone.
Please, Lord, this is our hope, our prayer! Be our everything! Use us according to YOUR will now and forever! Please. THANK YOU! All glory, honor and praise to YOU LORD GOD! All through JESUS CHRIST now and forever! Amen!
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.