Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Captive

I am loving my birthday present, "Praying God's Word." The short devotionals are the perfect length to read multiple times throughout the day...really engraving God's word on to my heart. I'm just going to jump right into this. "If we wish to go forward from here, God must empower us to roll the boulder of pride off our road to liberty." -Moore
I believe that any and all sins are rolled up into pride. After all, pride holds us captive in a way nothing else can. We may not seek help to get out of bondage, because we want to be strong enough on our own. Pride. We may not ask for prayer when we lose a job, or are struggling in marriage, or doing less-than-desirable financially, because we don't want others to feel sorry for us, to see us fail, to see us as less than self-sufficient. Pride. Addictions, whether sex or drug related, or emotional pain that is fixed by 'cutting' or 'purging,' are all rooted in pride. The sense of entitlement to be better, look better, feel better grows from pride.
The truth is, pride stands in the way of love. Loving others and ourselves. Pride takes away from the pure joy we can have in Christ. It can lead us to be discouraging of one another's successes, when someone has succeeded where we have failed. Pride can lead us to open our mouth before thinking, and that rarely, if ever, ends well.
Read through Ephesians 4:2, then continue.
"You've warned me that when pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom (Prov. 11:2). You instruct Your people to listen carefully and heed Your instruction because pride can cause the Lord's flock to be taken captive (Jer. 13:17). But You promise to guide the humble in what is right and teach them Your way (Ps. 25:9). Give me a humble heart so I will follow You in what is right and learn Your way" (Moore).
Pride has no business in the Kingdom of God. Either we learn to seek His will and trust that His is better than our own, or we follow our will and forfeit intimacy with Him. I know that giving up our will is never easy. I constantly make my own plans and hope that they are realized, but I also have come to believe that when my plans fall through, it truly is for my own good. God is bigger than the air I breathe and this world that I'll leave. He sees more than my imagination could ever think up. And He says, "I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you, and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future." -Jer. 29:11
Do I trust Him when He says that? Do you? If we do, we have to let go of our pride, and trust His good and perfect plan.

--Inspired by "Praying God's Word," Beth Moore.

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