Twelve Evidences of of the Sin of Pride

Nebuchadnezzar

God hates pride. He hates it so much that He destroys the proud. He knocks them off their feet - for a little while or for a long time - until they learn a little bit about humility. Nebuchadnezzar, proud king of Babylon, learned humility by losing his mind for a time. Some Jewish kings learned it by having their kingdoms taken from them. Proud Haman lost his life. Over and over again we see that pride gets people into so much trouble. Throughout Scriptures we see the dangers of pride. Jesus lists it together with such sins as adultery, murder, and theft, yet we often do not take it very seriously. We sometimes see it in other people, yet we are so often so proud that we do not see it in ourselves.

The thought of God needing to do something drastic to humble me scares me enough that I periodically take stock of where I have allowed pride to creep into my own life. I read Scriptures to look again at what it says about pride. Sometimes I go through the evidences of pride like this one to see where I need to humble myself before the Lord and others to ask for forgiveness and repentance.

Am I proud? Here are some evidences of pride that help me evaluate how much this sin has become part of my life.

1. I am proud when I want others to notice me. A truly humble person does not need the approval of others. They simply do the work they need to do in order to fulfill their responsibilities. If they feel they need to make a statement about something, they say it but without fanfare. It always amuses me when I hear someone say, "In my humble opinion." If I am really humble about my opinion, I will not need to point out my humility to others. 
2. I am proud when I "persecute" others who are less fortunate than I am. Psalms 10:2 says, "The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor." James agrees with this idea when he warns against giving preference to the rich (James 2). While this is specifically pointing to mistreating the poor, it applies to other areas where people are less fortunate as well, such as a beauty queen looking down on a plain girl or super jocks making fun of the uncoordinated. Anytime we seek to put someone else in their place, we are showing off our pride.
3. I am proud when I am more concerned about myself than I am of others. Selfishness and pride are often co-dependent. While selfishness can sometimes function without pride, pride needs selfishness in order to prosper. We tend to put our own needs first. We do it so naturally and instinctively that Jesus calls us to love others as much as we love ourselves. But when we ignore the opinions, needs and desires of others, not only has selfishness crept in, but so has pride. We have begun to think that our needs are more important than theirs. 
4. I am proud when I put myself down or compare myself to others. Why is this pride? Pride is seen in self-absorption. Someone who spends time thinking about oneself, whether the analysis is positive or negative, is proud. If I think I am too short or too tall, too skinny or too fat, I am comparing myself to others around me. On the other hand, if I seek to please the Lord and invest my time in helping others, I will not be preoccupied by self-deprecation.
5. I am proud when I do not seek God in the decisions of my life. Psalms 10:4 says, "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God."  It is pride that keeps us from seeking God. Anytime that I go ahead with my own plans without seeking the will of God, I am demonstrating my pride.
6. I am proud when I stir up trouble. Proverbs 28:25 says, "He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife." Whenever I am the cause of unrest in a relationship or an organization, it stems from pride. We justify it by saying that we were right. Rather than seeking to reconcile, we defend ourselves. We are unwilling to admit that our attitude may be the cause of the trouble. You see, I am usually willing to take advice and correction from someone who is genuinely concerned for my welfare, but when someone is "defending the truth" because of their own pride, it stirs up trouble. Too often, when we are the cause of the trouble, we do not see it because our own pride blinds us to the truth.
7. I am proud whenever I think that I would never fall for a particular temptation to sin. We are all sinners, and given the right circumstances apart from God's grace at work in our lives, we are all capable of any sin. I can hear some of you saying, "But I would never do what that person did." Yet if we think we are incapable of murder, just hear what Jesus says about anger in Matthew 5:21-22. If we think we would never get involved in an inappropriate relationship, Jesus makes it clear that we are definitely capable of going that direction (Matt. 5:28). And if you stop to think about the circumstances that lead people into heinous crimes, we should be able to say, "But for the grace of God, I could be there too. God protected me all along the way so that I would not fall into that sin." God said to the first murderer, "If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." (Gen. 4:7). One sin leads us into another which then leads us down a path which at one time we would not have followed. As Paul said, "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." (I Cor. 10:12) Pride is often the very sin that will lead us into other sins.
8. I am proud when I am unwilling to forgive. Over and over again we are commanded to forgive. There are no qualifiers placed on forgiveness. We are not told that we only need to forgive others if they are repentant or if they have asked for forgiveness. Instead, we are told to forgive. We are given an example in Jesus' words of forgiveness on the cross that show us that we forgive even when the perpetrator is in the middle of committing the sin and obviously not repentant. Paul says that we are to forgive as we have been forgiven. I know that I have sinned against my Father in heaven far more than anyone on earth has sinned against me, so it is incongruous that I would refuse to forgive someone else unless I want to endanger my own soul. Jesus tells us that if we refuse to forgive, we separate ourselves from God's forgiveness. (Mark 12:25-26) In addition, God is not pleased with our gifts unless we are ready to forgive others. (Matt. 5:23-25) If I am unwilling to forgive, I am telling God to His face that I know better than He does when it comes to this matter of forgiveness. If that is not pride, I do not know what is.
9. I am proud if I think my sins are less offensive to God than those of other people. According to Proverbs 6:16-20, the sin of pride is listed first in a list of "abominations" to God. The sin of pride keeps us from following God. It keeps people from asking God to save them. It causes discord among the brethren. It gives us a bad reputation. Yet sometimes we keep insisting that we are not as bad as others, refusing to admit the pride that is standing in the way of restored relationships with God and with others.
10. I am proud if I think I need to defend myself and stand up for myself. Paul wrote, "Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, sayeth the Lord." (Rom. 12:19) If we take vengeance into our own hands, we will do it poorly and, in so doing, we get in God's way in His ability to do it perfectly. Years ago I met a wealthy Christian businessman who lost millions to an accountant who had stolen from him. I asked him what he had done about it. "I fired him," he replied, "but I forgave him because I knew God had forgiven me much more." He went on to say that his friends thought he was crazy for not trying to get all that money back, but he believed that he needed to leave everything in God's hands and let God take care of it.
11. I am proud when I speak evil of others. (Ps. 101:5) Slander and gossip destroy. They destroy reputations and careers. Often when we speak evil of others, we do not know the whole story, yet we are prone to cast judgment and speak to others of it when we would never want the same thing done to us. Once again, we sometimes think we are "above" the sin which the other has committed and so we speak too freely of what they have done. Instead, we need to remember that we are not to let ANY bad communication come out of our mouths but only those things that edify the body. (Eph. 4:29)
12. I am proud when I think I am more spiritual than others. Too often those who are thought of as "spiritual" by others are a lot less spiritual than they would like to think. Jesus had very critical things to say of the spiritual leaders of his day because they were blinded by pride. Often it is pride that holds "spiritual" people from advancement because they think they have already arrived. If they were truly spiritual, they would encourage those who are weak rather than tearing them down. (Rom. 15:1) They would be quick to forgive as Christ has forgiven us. They would, in other words, not have these and other evidences of pride in their lives. 

I hate the pride that I see in my own life. It is a daily struggle. Like a pervasive weed, it springs up in a new area whenever I think I have properly humbled myself before the Lord. I often find myself pleading with God to have mercy on me and to do His work of humbling me so that I will be useful to Him.

Do you hate the pride you see in your own life? I hope so.

Note: This is far from a complete list. If you want more help on this topic, a variety of ministries have come up with more complete ones. Revive Our Hearts, for example, has put together a list of 41 evidences.

If Life is Like a River, then Ministry is Like Rafting

Some say that life is like a river. It makes sense. A river bends and winds its way down to a vast ocean, just like life winds its way through the years and ends in a vast eternity, either with God or without him. You never know what lies around the bend. It could be beauty or devastation, waterfalls or still water.

If life is like a river, then ministry is like rafting.  There are times of still waters where you get to enjoy the beautiful scenery as you float by. Routine and quiet days fill the weeks of ministry. Ordinary milestones like anniversaries, weddings., baby dedications, and birthdays are like the beauty on the banks of river where you see carefully planted gardens, towering trees, and flowers blooming. You float peacefully through those days, reveling in their joyful serenity, appreciating the warm sunshine and relatively cloudless days. Sometimes the quiet can lull you into thinking that life is peaceful and all the hard times are behind you.

Then, suddenly, the current speeds up and you know that difficulty lies ahead. At times in our ministry lives, we have had some warning that ministry was going to get difficult again. Perhaps, it was an undercurrent of unhappiness or a conflict that did not quickly resolve. At other times, it took us completely by surprise. As we rounded the bend, we were able to see the white water ahead and know that it would take all of our energy and all of our skill and strength to avoid the rocks and stay upright through the roiling waves. We knew that we might even be injured in the process, but that at least it would be tough and exhausting. We knew, too, that we needed to lead the raft of people in our ministry in such a way that we would not cause permanent damage to anyone on board.

However, in ministry "rafting," we have a Guide who has been down "our" river ahead of us and knows every unseen danger. If we were to try to navigate on our own, we would put ourselves and those with whom we minister at serious risk, but with our Guide we can rest assured that He will help us navigate around the sharp rocks and through the white water. He will even help us over that massive waterfall that looks impassable.

These days our journey in ministry with IPM often feels like river rafting. We have quiet, peaceful days when we are preparing for our next trip. We spend our days studying, writing, corresponding, making phone calls, connecting with churches, and reaching out to those around us. Then the speed picks up as we buy tickets and start making lists of the things we need to take with us. We stop the mail and the garbage pickup. We alert our neighbors to our upcoming absence and send out emails to relatives and friends asking for prayer. And then we take off - into the white water, speeding through the next days and weeks when we touch down in a new place to teach.  Then almost as suddenly as it began, we end our time there and find ourselves back in relative calm.

We would appreciate prayer that God would use us in each phase of our ministry - on those quiet, calm days and on the exciting, rushed ones. More than anything, when we eventually find our way to the end of our river and enter into the ocean of eternity, we want to hear a shout of "Well Done" from the Captain of our souls.