“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18
June 5, 2023
C.S. Lewis in his essay,“The Great Sin,” offers the unsettling assessment that “unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison” to pride. King Solomon throws a knockout punch to pride: Wisdom tells us that pride is the quickest way to self-destruction. For the record, we are not talking about the “proper satisfaction in the achievement of excellence” (e.g., “I am proud of the hard work and self-discipline you have done to graduate with honors.”). Ask God what He thinks of pride. He singles out “haughty eyes” as one of seven sins that are repulsive to Him (Prov. 6:17). It is the vice of the pompous. You know you are in the midst of cultural decay when an affair with oneself is celebrated. It is the spirit of independence from God. It is preferring the satisfaction of one’s own will to doing God’s will. Dethronement of God, takes us down into the dark cellars in which we think we are all right. Because it puts us into such a mental and spiritual fog, we are easily self-deceived and get into situations which are fatal. Proud people dance down the road that leads to destruction and miss the narrow gate of eternal life. C.S. Lewis rightly says, “If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggesh step, too. At least, nothing can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.”
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“Lord, open my eyes to my deceptions. Reacquaint me with the reality that you are opposed to the proud, but give grace to the humble.”