Proverbs 16:18
Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
I think we greatly underestimate the potency of pride. We used to think of it as a bad thing. We knew there were problems that arose when someone had too much pride. But that was then.
Now, we think we need more of it. Maybe it started with schools. We had pride week and the whole school was supposed to do something different every day to show that we had pride in our school.
Okay.
But, now it’s not uncommon to hear people say things like, “Don’t you have any pride?”
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think confidence is a bad thing. In fact, I think it’s a good thing. But, only when it’s put in the right thing. When our confidence is in ourselves and our own abilities, that’s wrong and foolish. We are nothing unless God allows us to be. And He allows us to be something because we give Him the credit for the making.
We ought to be careful about pride. We must be careful. It’s a very dangerous thing. It makes us think we are superior. And not just better than everyone else, but arrogant in our superiority. And when we do this, we isolate ourselves.
We don’t just isolate ourselves from the people we think we are better than, we isolate ourselves from everyone. No one wants to be around someone who thinks they are better than everyone around them.
We also isolate ourselves from God. Pride isolates.
And as we isolate ourselves from everyone and everything, we will soon discover what we needed to be successful in the first place – people and, more importantly, God.
Pride isolates. Humility unites.
