Chapter 6: Overcome Pride, Cling to Humility

#58 Finding Solutions for Pride

Discipleship Level 2: Reaching Beyond Mediocrity

By Paul J. Bucknell

#58 Finding Solutions for Pride

Introduction

• Are you ready to overcome pride? Get ready for a fight. The evil one will do what he can to counter you. But also be prepared to meet God in His wonderful glory. This first step is the most important.

A believer can, by God’s grace, overcome pride by regular confession and seeking of humility. This is an ongoing process rather than a one-time event. Some things like confession are done in a quick moment, but other tactics to resist pride’s touch require diligent attention. Fortunately, as we learn how to properly handle pride, the process gets easier and even becomes delightful. Our souls can acclaim the wonder of the Lord’s glorious ways rather than needing to indulge in bloated, biased thoughts about ourselves.

In these remaining lessons on handling our proud hearts, we will focus on solutions. The solution is not only to eliminate pride (that is only part of our goal) but to obtain and retain a humble walk before God. The first step focuses largely on repentance.

Repentance

Sins of misplaced confidence are only effectively dealt with when we uncover the lies that are associated with them. Deceitful beliefs lead us into pride and disdain for the value of humble living. We will discuss strategies to confront these attempts to commandeer our minds and hearts. Our flesh has prideful desires, but they are often instigated and enhanced by

Satan, who manipulates our thoughts from behind the scenes with temptations.

What is our goal? We want to put prideful thinking away and remain humble in heart, always being attentive to God’s gracious work in our lives. Repentance involves several steps that lead us toward to humility. Let’s define a few terms here.

A Faith Definition of Pride and Humility

A proud person wrongly believes he is greater than others because of his own success, work, or innate abilities and therefore thinks highly of himself. Pride is never a good thing, even if one works hard at something and feels good about it. Pride misses the contribution one has gained from others, including God, that has enabled him to be or do what he has done.

Humility is not the absence of prideful thoughts but is the joyful delight deriving from our belief of the way God and others have and are graciously contributing to our success. Humility is walking in the truth because we are fully aware of how dependent we are upon God and others. We might be successful, wealthy, or powerful, but it is because God has placed us in certain positions to accomplish His works. We are blessed servants though we may rule a nation or even just father a family. We live for a higher purpose than merely gloating in our success. We glory in God’s work through us. This is our calling and chief purpose in life.

Confession of our Arrogance

Repentance literally means to change direction. I find it easiest to do this through confession because it brings a freshness of perspective that is needed to follow through with other actions and thoughts. James says, “In humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). While

pride keeps us from God, humbling our hearts as Hezekiah did enables us to draw close to God. The first step of repentance, therefore, starts with confessing our arrogance. This is the way we start humbling our hearts.

During this confession, we want to make sure that we acknowledge all our wrongs, especially the ones that deal with pride. Along with our proud hearts, we must also state our wrong attitudes, acts, and treatment of others. Doing this aloud helps us identify the particular items that need to be addressed. I find myself more honest, detailed, and less distracted when praying aloud. There are two reasons for this. First, Satan can easily distract our inward thoughts. He is a specialist in meddling with our inward thoughts (i.e., temptation), but the more our words are brought out, the less he can hamper us. Second, there is also profit from pulling the words out of our minds so that we can more clearly identify the problem and better see its association with other problems.

Humbling of the soul means that we are willing to adopt the true perspective of God and apply it to our own lives. Pride is always built on pretense and some measure of untruth. Satan makes our rationale for pride feel real, but it is actually false and is only an exaggeration or distortion of our minds. To break pride’s tight grip, we need a strong appreciation for God’s glory and ways. Being able to glory in God is the bonus of crippling our pride.

Acknowledge that through our pride we have neglected to give God praise for all that He has done. Not only this, we have arrogantly stolen His glory. We wanted people to praise us rather than point them to God who “from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever” (Romans 11:36).

A Sample Prayer

Perhaps we could begin our prayer like this. Adapt it as necessary.

Dear Father in Heaven, I can’t believe how sinful I am. I just didn’t realize how I neglected to give you praise all these years. Pride captured me, and I didn’t know it. I didn’t want release because I liked gloating in my abilities. I have sinned against you. Please forgive me for stealing your glory. Forgive me for thinking that “I” could or did handle everything on my own, as if You had not given me all that I have. I have gone astray by focusing on my accomplishments rather than yours. Would you please be so gracious as to forgive me through the blood of Christ and restore me to a humble heart? Thank you for your gracious acceptance of me in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Forgiveness

It is crucial that we end a time of confession with requesting forgiveness through Christ’s blood. Pride is an offense against God. John tells us not to sin, but if we do, we have propitiation through Jesus’ blood (1 John 2:1-2). We need forgiveness. Yes, God has forgiven us when we were saved but to maintain a good relationship with God, we must get rid of the offenses that arise during our walk with the Lord.

No matter how guilty we might feel, we need to experience the freedom that forgiveness brings. Make a list of ways your pride has disrupted your life and confess them one by one. Remember to apologize for focusing on thoughts about your life rather than esteeming others around you (Philippians 2:29-30). This confession is only part of our prayer, but it is the most important part.

Confession is like diving into a cold pool—nobody likes getting in. This is the way it is when trying to get rid of pride. There is a

strong “I don’t want to do this” sentiment hovering about our minds, trying to prevent us from God’s grace, forgiveness, and presence that comes through confession. But you need to just dive in by stating what you have done wrong. “Oh Lord, look at what I have been doing these all these years, or even these past few hours! I can’t believe it. I have been so prideful....” Once in the water, you get used to it. Once you start confessing your pride and its impact, it seems quite normal to keep going. Continue for as long as items of your pride come to your mind. Focus on pride, but if other sins come up, it is important to deal with them too. Stroke by stroke, you will see the Spirit refresh your mind and soul.

Handling Temptations During Prayer

Be careful. When repenting from pride, you might experience more aggressive temptations than usual. There are several kinds of temptations, but there are two primary types that distract us when we are praying.

• The devil inserts the temptation of a prideful thought into our minds, such as, “You are really holy now. You are much better than those phonies out there.”

Even when repenting, the evil one might tempt you to be prideful! He introduces a thought to your mind to tempt you to agree and conclude that you are more spiritual than others. Don’t take his bait. Continue to observe the truth that the prayer outlined above speaks of. Just admit to being a sinner and delight in God’s glory. Never focus on how you are better than another or that another is less holy than yourself.

• The devil will also make you think you cannot escape pride. If you succumb to a proud thought when trying to confess, he wants it to appear as though you can never escape your pride.

“Oh look, you think you are so good repenting. But you are still so prideful, comparing yourself with others who haven’t repented. You are still so proud. You may as well forget that you can get rid of such pride. You are terribly prideful and have no hope of change.”

He wants you to give up confessing your pride. He is full of schemes. If one plan does not work, the evil one will use another one; after all, the devil is desperate to control you.

Keep Focused

Even in a holy stillness before God, the evil one can pounce on you and will attempt to steer you away from the purpose God has for you. If the evil one tries such a tactic, just use the truth, the sword of the Spirit, to more openly declare the truth in a prayer as below:

Dear Lord, even now the evil one tries to tempt me. He wants to make me feel prideful. Though I am sinful, Lord, I want to give glory to You alone who has saved my soul. I humble myself before You because You are great, and I am in such great need of You. Be my Lord. Be my Savior forever. I choose you and your ways and reject the lies of the evil one. Praise be to Your Name forever! (Then quote appropriate scriptures, such as the following:)

“Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, And lift them up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah” (Psalm 24:8-10).

Repentance enables us to see and state the truth about God and ourselves. With those insights, we see the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How wonderful is His forgiveness! How glorious is

He who cares for sinful people like ourselves! We get to boast of such a wonderful Savior (Ephesians 2:8-9; 2  Thessalonians 1:12). As God points out thoughts and behaviors to change, you must humbly agree with Him. While obedience displays humility, rebellion stinks of pride.

Points of Reflection

What is pride? What is humility? How do they differ?

Why is confession the best way to begin humbling one’s soul?

Why is it important that we get to a point of seeking forgiveness?

What are two temptations that Satan brings to your mind during your confessional prayers? Have you ever experienced such temptations? Explain.