Dear Pride,
I have grown attached to you. Slowly you’ve crept your way into the facets of my life. The saddest part is that I welcomed you in. If I’m being honest with myself, I enjoyed having you around. You seemed like pleasant company when I scored all those points in that basketball game, and it felt pretty good having you with me as I walked the halls of my highschool. I kept you around as I entered college because I liked the things you said about me. You seemed as if you had my best interests at heart.
You then introduced me to the idea that my identity was found in what others thought about me. I was known as “that godly guy” so I made sure everyone knew that I was godly. All the while, in secret, I was running from God. As I struggled with an addiction to pornography, you made sure that I kept it silent. You assured me that I could beat it on my own, and that we could leave God and the people around me out of it, and I believed you. As I battled with the pain and regret of missing the opportunity to share the Gospel with a loved one that had passed, you convinced me to keep that pain inside, and that I deserved to hate myself for my lack of courage. As I took a closer look at you, Pride, I realized that I was chained to you. You weren’t a friend, but a liar and a manipulator. The thing I once enjoyed having around was now controlling my life.
I hit my knees during worship at training camp. I was tired of fighting you on my own. As I knelt, I heard the voices of the people around me singing, “I’m no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God.” In that moment I felt the presence of God wash over me. My heavenly Father showed me that this battle that I had been waging against you on my own had already been fought at Calvary. Jesus Christ had already defeated you on the cross. The chains that had been placed on me were broken through the resurrection of my Savior. He also told me that my identity is not found in the way that other’s perceive me, in my sin, or in my shortcomings, but in Christ alone. I am called a child of God, and NOTHING can change that.
Pride, you serve a master and his name is Satan. The Bible says that he is a lion seeking to devour. I’m here to tell you that I serve a different master. The Bible calls Him the Lion of Judah. One day my God will stomp you and your master out for good, but until that day I declare war against you. This time I do not fight alone. I put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes of the Gospel, the shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit. I also have believers standing beside me who build me up and fight alongside me. I will stand firm and resist because I know that it is not my strength that I fight with but the strength of the one who sent me, and he promises to never leave me or forsake me.
Pride, you have no power over me. You have been defeated.
-Cy
“According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”
-CS Lewis
