The Deception of Pride

The pride of thine heart hath deceive thee…

Obadiah 1:3

The crown of pride… shall be trodden under feet:

Isaiah 28:3

Lately I have really been working on my own problem with
pride… It has been very hard, but I finally realized that this was one of my
big problems…

As I have been working on this, I’ve had the opportunity to
look around me, and see that this is no longer a problem that can be ignored…
This isn’t just a problem in my own life… It’s a huge problem everywhere in the
“Conservative Christian” circle… somehow we have fallen into the mindset that
we are better than others…

Why?

We think we are better
because we are more spiritual… When we see someone who doesn’t have the
same high standards as we do, we jump to condemn them…

Just because someone doesn’t dress like we do doesn’t mean
that they aren’t saved… I know many people who I know are Christians, but don’t
dress like me…

Just because someone listens to non-Christian music doesn’t
mean they aren’t saved…

Just because someone uses a different Bible version doesn’t
mean they cant be saved…

Just because they go to a liberal church doesn’t mean they
cant be saved…

Many times I believe that these people are actually more
spiritual than we are… Why? Because we get so big in ourselves because we say are
“so totally sold out for God”. Are we really? I mean God died for them too… He
didn’t just die for those who are “conservative”… people who don’t have as high
standards can get saved and go to heaven too, you know!

We should know better than to be prideful… If we really
think that we are as spiritual as we say we are, then we should know that pride
is an abomination to God.

Pride is wrong, and that is where we are getting away from
being spiritual… Our pride is turning people away from growing in Christ…

I personally know someone who was otherwise open to our
views of the Bible, and other things, but when they were basically told they
couldn’t be saved because they wore pants, it turned them off… I know this
person is saved! I see the fruit everytime I see them…

Because of our pride, we are turning people away from God!

I will be the first to admit that I have a problem with
pride… I used to look down on people who didn’t believe as we do… I was wrong…
I don’t know how I ever got to be so prideful, but honestly, I believe that I
was just following the examples of those around me… I was totally surrounded by
it, so why was it wrong? Everyone was prideful, so wasn’t it okay?

NOPE. It wasn’t okay. It isn’t ok. It doesn’t matter that
EVERYONE else has pride… IT. IS. WRONG. VERY. WRONG.