Pious Pride

What self-deceptions we are willing to employ to justify refusal of submission to God!  How far we will wander from obedience because we are too proud to repent.  We say, "I will not commit because I know I cannot.  I am unable to perfectly keep my word."  So out of pride we fashion a pious cloak to cover our rebellion.  "God would not have me agree to something I cannot do."  But can a man do anything perfectly before God?  You cannot do anything for God!  We are powerless to do the first works, much less be fruitful, progress in sanctification, or even cease a single sin unless God helps us.  It begins with faith in Him and agreement with God.  Then we must commit to give no place to the devil, walk in obedience, and continually humble ourselves before Him.  No wonder pride in all its forms and disguises is abominable before God!

While struggling with a particular sin years ago, I remember in church when the hymn "I Surrender All" was played.  During the refrain which goes, "I surrender all, I surrender all, all to thee my precious Savior I surrender all" I did not sing the words.  I sang "I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live" but not "I surrender all."  What blatant hypocrisy, what pride!  I could not enter into His presence because I would not surrender all.  I refused to mouth the words "I surrender all" not because I was incapable of surrender, but because I would not.  The pretense of keeping my "word" was more important to me than holiness, and therefore preferred wickedness instead.  There I was concerned about keeping my word while I remained in sin!

It wounds a man's pride to admit he cannot do something.  Conversely, his pride is bolstered the more he refuses to yield.  As I stood that day with the outward appearance of piety, mouth closed with "intellectual" objections, praise of sin and pride was substituted for worship and obedience to God.  What a horrible, detestable thing pride is!  Pride is death posing as an angel of light!  Should we refuse to commit ourselves to Christ because we cannot follow Him perfectly when we are not perfect ourselves?  Ridiculous!

Let us seek God's favor to weed-out pride in us wherever we find it creeping through our hearts.  Pride is the secret identity of sin.  It is a slippery monster that sounds so convincing, has huge crushing teeth, and convinces us it cannot hurt us to be friends with it.  It is time to sever the relationship, once and for all!  Let us call Pride sin, and ask God to purify us of all the numbing poisons it has injected into our minds and hearts with its fangs.  It makes a man self-righteous, arrogant, spiritually drowsy and dull, unaffected by the Spirit, caustic, selfish, and judgmental.  Like a leech it fastens onto our souls and we cannot know it except the LORD reveal it.  It seems to always fog our spiritual vision.

Have you ever hesitated to sing, "Search me O God, and know my heart, see if there be anything at all that might keep me from hearing you, keep me from knowing you, keep you from loving you, dear LORD?"  I have.  Pride keeps us from opening our hearts to the LORD's searching gaze.  "You are not that bad, you have already repented," the soothing voice says.  "You have victory!  No need to worry!"  When we entertain pride, there is always cause for concern!  Are you willing to be examined by God today?  Do you fear He might find something?  Brothers and sisters, there is always something!  But He has the power to heal, cleanse, and restore.  Pride will only drag us to hell.  God leaves the choice to us!