The Pride Before The Storm

Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
(Proverbs 16:18 ESV)


This verse is one that we have all grown up, like a John 3:16 or Genesis 1:1. But for me i understood it in a vague way. And that is because my understanding of Pride was very shallow. See for me this verse was more like, when someone says there are gonna win a game they will lose or if someone says they are the best something embarrassing will happen. Thats because my definition of pride was similar to boasting but that was it.


See Pride is manifest in all sin, as Christians there must be a level of pride to sin. We know what is right and what God calls us to do, yet when we sin we are must first think it is in someway right to it. We are forgetting God and being prideful. C.J. Mahaney wrote in his book Humitlity about Pride saying, "Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon Him."




Now when i read that at first i said, "I dont do that!" But right i did it. See if sinning starts with pride, then by committing the sin we are doing what C.J. said. It's a scary thought but in no way can you sin without aspiring to the status and position of God and refusing to acknowledge your dependence upon Him. If you look at it you will see that in no way can you while sinning have a sense of your dependence on God. That is though until, by God's Grace alone, he reveals you sin. Then you see you dependence on him but not until then.




Now that we see that pride is manifest in all sin it is easier (at least for me) to see what this verse is saying. Pride, in this verse, is not just boasting but doing what C.J. said before doing something. You are putting yourself next to God and saying, "I know whats right" or "I can always stop if it gets to bad, i know what i am doing." And this is before the fall and destruction. 


See Pride is in everything sinful and humility is what God wants us to seek. But without seeing pride we can not seek true humility. Seeing our pride is the first step to humility. Since it is in all sin one thing i try and do is when God gracefully reveals my sin to me, i try and see where pride is manifest.


I hope and pray we can all grow in the area of Pride. And by God's grace we will persevere through the condemnation we may feel seeing our sin and continually seek God, and stay in his word continually. Cause without being in God's word we cannot grow.  




If you have any comments or thoughts please make them known. Any and ALL thoughts are welcome!! Thanks.






Food of the day: Left-over ribs! :D