Dale Ridge church of Christ

When Ronald Reagan was Governor of California, he once spoke to a group in Mexico.  Throughout his speech, the crowd seemed very unenthusiastic about what he was saying, and when he finished, he felt embarrassed and took his seat.  When the next speaker took the podium, he spoke in Spanish, and Reagan did not understand what he said, but the crowd applauded very enthusiastically after each pause.  In order to cover up his own embarrassment, Reagan made sure he clapped before everyone else and longer than everyone else.  He did this until his ambassador leaned over to him and said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you; he’s interpreting your speech.”

We have all heard the saying “proud as a peacock.”  Pride is something we do not like to see in others; yet, sometimes we tend to overlook it in ourselves.  In the Book of Proverbs, King Solomon spoke of the seven things that God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19).  Interestingly, a proud look is at the top of this list.

The kind of pride that God hates is the type when one has a puffed-up view of self.  It is when one is haughty, arrogant, and conceited.  It has been said, ““Pride is like the beautiful acacia that lifts its head proudly above its neighbor plants–forgetting that it too, like them, has its roots in the dirt” (Christian Nestell Bovee).  Another has stated, “When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it” (Bernard Bailey).

Pride is one of the root causes of all sin (Genesis 3:5).  It is one of the characteristics of the devil who seeks to destroy God, His authority, and all his people (1 Timothy 3:6).  Solomon says that the fear of the Lord is to hate those things God hates.  The first of these to be listed is pride (Proverbs 8:13).  Pride results in self- defeat (Proverbs 16:18; Proverbs 29:23).  The pride of life is one of three main avenues of sin of which we are not to love (1 John 2:16). 

 Rather than being filled and puffed up with pride, may we be those who are to be clothed with humility (1 Peter 5:5).  James reminds us that “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6).

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Filed under: Devotional, Michael Carter on October 26th, 2008