Pride

WOW!! what is pride? Took a good look at some dictionaries and here's what I reckon is the best definition I came across:-

"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"

So in other words a great opinion of oneself either in the words, deeds or thoughts.

If you've had some enviable successes in your life, you've probably tempted to replay them in your mind from time to time. Resist the urge!

Nothing will cause you to lose your way faster than looking behind you.

If however, you insist in rehearsing your accomplishments, make sure you give credit where credit is due. Apart from God, you could have done nothing. Apart from you, God can still do anything.

If you still want to show thankfulness to Him then go ahead - knock yourself out. BUT if you are just looking for a little bit of praise - don't bother - just get over it.

There is certainly a big difference in the pride of self where we can can get so consumed with ourselves we have utterly no room for God at all and say for instance the pride in your family or a job well completed.

In Psalm 10 it says "In his pride the wicked man does not seek God, in all his thoughts there is no room for Him". God is after a spirit of humility not pride! Pride tells us that we are capable of anything - that we can be the master of our own destiny - our very spirituality depends wholly and solely on us.

On the other hand the humility of what God speaks makes us recognise that we are so spiritually poor that there is absolutely no way to come to Him except through His grace - His eternal grace. Nothing lasts in this world - not our fortunes or our pride - nothing! Except the very grace of God by which we are saved through the sacrifice of Jesus.

The proud are just full of their own importance; they believe that somehow they deserve his acceptance.

We hear a lot of D.I.Y these days - everything seems to come in flat packs and so often you need an engineering degree to assemble it. BUT D.I.Y isn't an option for those who come to Christ - at least not where their spiritual life is concerned.

God is the source of our strength. Without Him, we are helpless. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge that fact has allowed pride and ego to block their view of the truth. And they may have to learn the hard way just how dependent they are on God.

Read and ponder John 3: 20-21. Swallow your pride and be willing to come into the light of God's Word. Be willing to open your entire heart to God and let him continue to change you.

Remember that God wants all of your life; your job, your spouse, your money, your dreams, your next two minutes, your next two years. You can't have Jesus simply sand down your rough edges, rather, the crucified carpenter wants to shape your life and make it into a different piece of wood entirely.

Pride has kept many people from accepting the saving grace of Jesus. 2 Corinthians says we are not to boast about what we do but if we must boast then we should boast in God's work in us. Pride is sinful because it is giving ourselves credit for something that God has accomplished. Pride is self-worship!

We can't keep our pride and our relationship with God. He won't allow it. In fact, I reckon, God abhors our pride - Jesus died to do away with our pride and if we make a point to grab the attention and praise for ourselves then we are guilty of taking something that belongs to him. We are robbing God of His glory and he won't stand for that.

It's so important to scan our lives regularly for signs of harmful self-regard and ask our heavenly Father to forgive us, to rid us of self so that we can see Him and His amazing plans for us.

God bless you this week as we together lay our prideful selves at the foot of the cross and pick up the grace of God freely given for all of us.

Temptation

Satan is a pro's pro when it comes to temptation. Look at the strategy against Jesus.

Remember, Jesus hadn't eaten for 40 days. So Satan attacked what he assumed would be Jesus vulnerable area. He tempted Jesus to turn rocks into bread to feed himself.

The question I would ask you as I ask myself is:- How might Satan tempt you?

What is your most vulnerable area? Are you susceptible to saving and hanging on tightly to your 'hard earned'?  Maybe you are a sitting duck for destructive angry impulses. Are you susceptible to sexual temptation, perhaps at work or on-line porn. Do you struggle with the urge to lie so that you can look good?

As a wise warrior for Jesus we have to get to know our vulnerable areas and take the necessary steps to shore up our defences.

On saying that, If we don't stand for something, we'll fall for anything. That goes for all of us. No matter how 'seasoned' or 'street-wise' we may think we are!

No one is ever immune to temptation - Satan loves to hood-wink us into thinking that all is well with our spiritual lives, then when we are really settled, out of the blue comes along our 'old favourite' - that good old temptation that we thought was dead and buried - and yet there it is staring us in the face once more and sadly often we fall for it over and over again.

Once we stop making decisions based on reason and God-given wisdom, we become susceptible to just about anything the evil one can throw at us - we become putty in his hands.

Sexual temptations can scramble our brain waves; greed can drive us into all sorts of amazing and sordid ways to make and keep our dollars and 'things'; unforgiveness can harden our hearts to the point where we are carrying around in our bodies a lump of rock so hard that Superman would find it hard to break; anger can alienate the strongest human ties - families and marriages.

Apart from our Lord and Saviour, he who died for us and gave us the pure gift of the Holy Spirit, I believe all of us could benefit greatly with a rock-solid Christian advisor in our lives.

I feel our Spirituality would continue to grow if we find someone we can share everything with and depend on to give us Godly advice, without us having to 'take over the show'. Let this person, whoever he or she may be, serve as an extra guard against allowing us to be manipulated by Satan and in turn fall again for the 'temptation carrot'.

Most personal consequences of our temptations that lead to sin, come to us when we are alone and our 'falling' is easy to deal with - no one knows and we can live our lives as if nothing has happened - we continue to step out in life putting up with our inner torments of guilt but keeping our pride and reputations in tact.

Sooner or later, though, most sin makes it way out into public - then  all manner of consequences 'hit the fan'. For some it may mean being caught in an affair. For someone else the tax department may come knocking, and we know what happens to tax cheats!. For others it may mean someone discovering their stash of computer pornography.

Way back in Ezekiel 39, God used public revelation as part of his plan in dealing with the sin of the Israelites. Who are we to to imagine that God wouldn't use the same method in dealing with us?

Maybe we should keep this in mind next time we are tempted and encouraged by Satan to sin and disobey. Those times when Satan whispers in our ears "Go on, do it, no-one can see and no-one ever will - you are safe".

Let's guard ourselves from shame and run  from temptation! If we don't we can find ourselves in BIG trouble if we let temptation/sin get a foothold in our lives. No matter how strong and or self-controlled we think we are, we need to do what King David did after his affair with Bathsheba and subsequent murder of her husband. We need to call on God for help!

God won't magically remove temptation from our lives. That's not how he operates at all. But he will give us the resources we need to fight it.

Those resources may include anything from friends who hold us accountable to a change of location  to help us escape some long-standing temptations.

God is absolutely committed to the ultimate destruction of anything and everything hostile to his eternal plan (which includes plans for your life - see my last blog).  This is exactly what the Bible teaches us and promises!

God will one day crush Satan, our great enemy. By calling on God's promises today, especially the moral power to say NO to temptation, you hasten the demise of Satan from your life.

When we resist the devil, he has no choice but to retreat (James 4:7)

God bless you this week as you fight, with God's mighty hand there with you, the urge to sin and may you be victorious in this battle in which we are all so susceptible.

Plans

Have you ever realised that God has a plan for your life? Yes you!

Our great God the Creator of the universe - the one who hung stars in space and surrounded our magnificent world with all sorts of incredible beauty (which we have since tried desperately to destroy) has a special plan just for you.

Unlikely as it sounds we puny humans are so loved by this amazing God that it is so very hard to even take in let alone realise that this awesome (in the true sense of the word) God of our's love is so deep that He has individual plans for us all springing out of his deep deep love for us.

People parrot the phrase "God is Love" in a superficial way. Divine affection isn't some sappy, sentimental slop. God's love Risks, It suffers. In fact, it is always marked by wrenching sacrifice.

The Bible goes to great pains to urge those who have experienced God's lavish love to turn around and become courageous lovers themselves.

God's great love for us should be played out in our lives by showing that great love to others. In this way God's plans for us can be fulfilled BUT if we aren't growing more Christ-like every day then these amazing plans for us can't possibly take root in our lives and bring a magnificent harvest to our God and King.

So where are you situated at the moment in God's plan for you? Is there something holding you back from being in the centre of His will for your life?

Do you show kindness and compassion to the undeserving? To cheats and liars? Backstabbers and betrayers? To rude and hateful and cruel people?

As imperfect people none of us have such love in ourselves. What we do have, however, is Jesus Christ living in us and impacting our actions and attitudes and that is more than enough for God to show His mighty plans to us and change our lives forever. Oh! if we only let Him.

We may never really understand it BUT God has a plan for each of us as individuals, as well as complex plans for each civilisation across the globe. But regardless of whether we understand these plans or not, we still need to be obedient to God and accept that His ways are far exceeding ours and to accept His will for our lives.

God's plan for our lives involves us to be faithful to Him in everything we do regardless of what that involves. THE BIG plan for our lives is just trusting Him completely, obeying Him and walking closely to Him every day.

If we can do that then His plans for us will unfold before us, often in surprising ways.

So you can be absolutely certain that God has a plan mapped out for you but only if we let Him work His wonders - only if we are obedient - only if we are trusting Him daily to work in our lives.

It just makes so much sense that we would be created to accomplish what God wants for our lives.

God also calls the shots when it comes to His plans for civilisation itself. They rise and fall. World leaders come and go and all of it, the Bible tells us is according to the will of God.

He is in control and as his children we can trust His goodness and wisdom. So we should prayerfully and carefully make our daily/weekly plans but do so with a joyful willingness to let God alter our agendas to fit His bigger purpose and perfect will.

In lots of ways the lives of us Christians, the Redeemed, if you like, could read like an action adventure. We have been given a mission from the Almighty God of the universe. This mission will expose us to all kinds of risks. We have people, our fellow believers depending on us to carry out our mission. Then on the other hand we have our age-old enemy who will stop at nothing to prevent us from completing it.

So how will your story end? Will you be able to say "mission accomplished" at the end of your life? Or will your enemy celebrate your incomplete, abandoned and thwarted mission.

Let's decide today to be a HUGE threat to satan. Don't let him write us off as a non-threat.

God bless each of us as we obey our Father and seek His perfect plan for our lives this week.