I struggled with which characteristic to talk about this week, as two have completely destroyed parts of my life and those I know. But there is nothing like the consequences of when this particular sin rears its ugly head.
When I was in school, one of the questions was, “Which character quality do you think is foundational to all of life?” Ever since then my answer has never left my mind and I still can’t answer that question any differently. I chose self-control, because the definition they used went something like this: Immediate obedience to the initial promptings of the Holy Spirit.
It doesn’t matter what goes wrong in life, if you can hear from God and you are willing to obey his promptings, you don’t need to know everything about a situation, all you need is having the peace that you are doing exactly as God asked. This then gives us confidence that there is a special strength through Christ that comes to those who obey God.
I’ve said before that God has asked me to do something I struggle with greatly. Every day He reminds me of it and every day I have to ask for His grace. It wasn’t until a couple years ago that I surrendered to obey Him, but it still hurt and I still argued with Him. Just a few weeks ago He asked me to stop arguing with Him and just trust Him. It may be one of the hardest things He has ever asked me to do.
But why?
And what is this characteristic that is so dangerous?
It’s the very sin that goes against the definition of self-control and got Satan kicked out of heaven.
Pride
As runners, pride is huge, widespread, and very common. I get it, we are so proud of what we can accomplish. We are so proud of how our bodies or our health has gotten better. We hang our medals to remind us and motivate us to keep collecting more. We accomplish huge feats we never thought was possible. We go for personal bests… The list goes on.
So What is So Dangerous About Pride?
Here is a quick list of a few things it does.
- Pride gets in the way and discourages any common sense or healthy confidence.
- Pride makes us do things that we may regret later.
- Pride discourages others.
- Pride elevates yourself and doesn’t show others who you really are.
- Pride causes us to miss God’s blessings.
- Pride causes injuries.
- Pride causes us to miss out on a close relationship with Christ.
- Pride damages those around us.
- Pride ruins our testimony and doesn’t give God a chance to do miraculous things through us.
- Pride blocks us hearing from God which allows other sins to take root.
- Pride blocks us from receiving the love of God.
“A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.”
Proverbs 29:23
What Can you do About This Ugly Characteristic?
- Pray, pray, and pray some more.
- Ask God to remove this sin from your life.
- Start looking at who is really responsible for everything you are able to do.
- Start thanking God for the ability to do what you do.
- Start thanking others who do the behind-the-scenes work to help you do what you do.
- Obey God in the crazy things and watch Him do things through you that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
James 4:6
Listen to episode #25 of the Be Still and Run by Alli Anne podcast on your favorite platform or by using the link below to search for it.
I love ya’ll. Happy Running!
Join us next month on the topic of Redeeming the Time, so You Have More
Up Next: Your Biggest Resource in Doing the Will of God
#44 Missing Something? – Be Still And Run by Alli Anne
Be Still and Run 