The word pride also has two connotations. In the context of self-respect and dignity, pride motivates us to tend to our health and general well-being and to appreciate our God-given talents and strengths. We don't often talk about this kind of pride.
The flip side of pride offers a warning-with good reason. The evil inclination of pride contains self-centeredness that leads downward. Rather than building spiritual health, the other side of pride carves out a path of destruction: arrogance, conceit and egotism.
Crowned king at the tender age of 16, Uzziah knew success as long as he sought God. But his career as king careened out of control when pride clouded his vision of himself and of God. Within this chapter, we observe how a once good king spiritually declined to a leprous and isolated man. What a prime example of the adage, "Power corrupts." King Uzziah's power and fame inflated the evil inclinations of his pride, which ultimately led to his downfall.
Have you ever witnessed the downfall of another person? Have you watched someone make a horrible choice when you knew they should stop and turn around? Maybe you watched your parents divorce, and nothing you said made a difference. Maybe right now you're watching a child that you love turn prodigal, and your heart is breaking because they're choosing not to listen to you or God.
So how do we cultivate the right kind of pride in our lives? Just as a healthy diet requires the right balance of foods, the right kind of pride requires balancing humility with a right relationship with God. When we understand that the positive and wonderful gifts he's given us come directly from him, we learn to cultivate healthy pride, not in ourselves, but in the Lord who had given us everything. As Paul wrote, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" (2 Corinthians 10:17).
-Women's Devotional Bible
-Psalm 10:4-18
4 The wicked are too proud to seek God.
They seem to think that God is dead.
5 Yet they succeed in everything they do.
They do not see your punishment awaiting them.
They sneer at all their enemies.
6 They think, “Nothing bad will ever happen to us!
We will be free of trouble forever!”
7 Their mouths are full of cursing, lies, and threats.
Trouble and evil are on the tips of their tongues.
8 They lurk in ambush in the villages,
waiting to murder innocent people.
They are always searching for helpless victims.
9 Like lions crouched in hiding,
they wait to pounce on the helpless.
Like hunters they capture the helpless
and drag them away in nets.
10 Their helpless victims are crushed;
they fall beneath the strength of the wicked.
11 The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us!
He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”
12 Arise, O Lord!
Punish the wicked, O God!
Do not ignore the helpless!
13 Why do the wicked get away with despising God?
They think, “God will never call us to account.”
14 But you see the trouble and grief they cause.
You take note of it and punish them.
The helpless put their trust in you.
You defend the orphans.
15 Break the arms of these wicked, evil people!
Go after them until the last one is destroyed.
16 The Lord is king forever and ever!
The godless nations will vanish from the land.
17 Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.
Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.
18 You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,
so mere people can no longer terrify them.
-Proverbs 16:18-20
18 Pride goes before destruction,
and haughtiness before a fall.
19 Better to live humbly with the poor
than to share plunder with the proud.
20 Those who listen to instruction will prosper;
those who trust the Lord will be joyful.
-Proverbs 22:4
True humility and fear of the Lord
lead to riches, honor, and long life.
-James 3:13-16
13 If
you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable
life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.
14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.
15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.
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