Matthew 23:12
“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Pride.
According to dictionary.com (it’s the age of the internet, duh!) pride is:
–a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.
We already knew that. Pride is prominently displayed by the masses everyday. It’s something that we’re taught as children to avoid. So for the last 25 years I’ve tried to humble myself; I might even go so far as to say that I’m proud of being humble (which is another predicament altogether). But sometime during the various stages of shame, repentance, love, freedom, and joy that were experienced last week, God opened my eyes in regards to the pride in my life. I don’t suffer from pride as it’s defined above; however, I do succumb to a much more inconspicuous version of pride and its cousin, fear:
“You don’t know what you’re doing God. You want me to do ____? I’m obviously not the right person for this because I ____ and I don’t have any experience with ____ and surely there is someone more qualified.”
All this time I thought I was a nice, humble Christian when actually I was too proud to admit my fear, step out on a limb and trust God that I wouldn’t fall on my face. Humility isn’t a passive, inactive state; rather its boldness cloaked in a gratitude to God for giving me His strength to persevere through obstacles such as fear and trepidation.
The unofficial theme of the week for the males at training camp was “Rise up, man of God!” The sheer ratio of guys to girls on this trip makes that statement all the more important. Last week forever changed the lives of every single participant of the July 2008 World Race. As for me, I will no longer succumb to fear by hiding behind my pride. Rise up, man of God, and walk in boldness!
Acts 4:31
“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”
