A Sign Among Us - Chapter 5 - Pride and Humility

Luke 12:48 states, '...For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required...' That piece of scripture enters my head whenever things get to be too much. Whenever I don't understand why I am going through this turmoil. Whenever I want things to go easy. How do you react when the pressure seems to be too much?

We start to plead with the Lord in our prayers or in our mind as we are driving. We might say things like, 'Lord I am tithing... Lord I stopped drinking... Lord I do read my Bible... quite often...'

When I didn't understand what His lesson was that I needed to learn I would start my studies from that verse. '...For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required...' That verse is for me. That verse is for you. How much has He given you? How much do you have? When we really take time to stop and think about what we take for granted we have to admit even with all our struggles, all our setbacks, we have been given a lot.

I would like to share with you what the Lord has revealed to me about pride, and what I am still trying to learn from it. I also pray you will be able to take something from this.

'Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded. Be afflicted, and morn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.' James 4:5-10

Do you remember where you were on September 11th? I was sitting at my desk, I noticed the time was four minutes after nine 0'clock, and my phone went off. My co-worker said, 'Jeff, is there a television in the office? Turn it on. My wife just called me, a plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers. They thought it was an accident. Then a second plane crashed into the other twoer and they knew it was not an accident. We are under attack.' I was humbled. Things were put into perspective. The things that were so important at eight o'clock that morning could now wait. For me a line was drawn in the sand that day.

Priorities

I had established my order of priorities some time ago. Faith, Family, Country and Job in that order. I could not allow a lower priority to violate one of higher importance. That was the day I decided to try to act it out more than just talk about it. Did my faith and my family really come before my job? When I would stay late at work was I really doing it to help my family or strengthen my faith? Don't we hide from our important obligations at times? Do we justify it by saying we are bringing home the bacon to help the family?

I want to share with you areas that I believe we need to grow. Areas where I am still growing and we will need to occasionally monitor. I know that you will be able to relate to this and I also believe you will get something from this as we keep in mind, 'Pride is the only disease that makes everyone sick but the one who has it.'

Pride was affecting my performance at work. Pride was affecting my home life. Moreover, pride was affecting my testimony. I needed to re-evaluate what was important to me. I have been evaluating these three areas for most of my adult life. I have been evaluating my work life, my family and my spiritual life. How much time have you truly spent keeping these area's in check? How often should we evaluate these areas of our life?

Too Proud at Work

Alex Haley, the author of Roots, has a picture in his office. The picture depicts a turtle sitting atop a fence post. The picture is there to remind him of a lesson he learned long ago, he states, 'If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he had some help.' He also states, 'Any time I start thinking, Wow, isn't this marvelous what I've done! I look at that picture and remember how that turtle, how I, got up on that post.'

Yeah I was proud at work, too proud, I would say things like, 'You need something done, give it to me...' Or, 'Why are you doing it that way, why don't you do it like em...' I would also take all the credit for any accomplishments I had a part in. I would brag about them. Then the Lord had to have a little talk with me. 'Thankfully, God wisely desined the human body so that we can neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily.' (Guideposts)

'...God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.' James 5:6-7

In hindsight, I believe I onced prayed for humility. Much like patience, we need to be careful what we pray for. The Lord had to break me. The Lord had to let me know, that I was getting a little too big for my britches. You could say He rocked my world.

The job I thought I would have forever, I found out was more fragile than I realized. I thought I was going to retire there. I had set goals, I was going places, and this was the vehicle I believed would take me there. Little did I know that this company was soon going to close its doors forever. How was I to know that over seventy people, myself included would have to find employment elsewhere. Are you also putting too much trust into the item that should be fourth on your priority list? Are you putting your trust and family stability in another man's hands?

Too Proud at Home

Health issues developed. A tick bit my youngest daughter, possibly containing Lime Disease. Another daughter may possibly have a long-term disease. Financial problems also developed. Not too long ago the money situation looked very different. It soon was in chaos.

It was very humbling when on the coldest evening of the year, in upstate New York, our home ran out of fuel oil. It was at about eleven o'clock at night. Well, I knew what I had to do. I had to drive twenty-five minutes one way. Get ten gallons of fuel and drive back. The whole ride down there, over and over in my head I'm thinking on this verse...

'But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.' I Timothy 5:8

We read before, '...Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you...' Was I too proud? Yes. Was I taking credit for the family the Lord has allowed me to watch over? Yes. Was I humbled? You bet I was. Do you take your family for granted? Are you providing for our own? Are you providing for them spiritually as much as you are providing for them financially?

Here is a quote I found from David Rhodes, Pride is the dandelion of the soul. Its root goes deep; only a little left behind sprouts again. Its seeds lodge in the tiniest encouraging cracks. And it flourishes in good soil. The danger of pride is that it flourishes on goodness.'

Have the seeds of pride begun to sprout roots yet? Are we allowing encouragement to water and nourish our roots of pride? We know those dangerous roots will grow best in good soil. That is why the enemy planted them in us. We need to constantly be monitoring our levels of pride and humility.

Too Proud at Church

Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography, 'There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.'

As we read before in James 4:9-10, 'Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.'

What more could I say than that. We are so rediculous at times. We are proud of ourselves if we read the Bible two nights in a row. When the Pastor asks us to turn to a scripture, we turn there as fast as we can, as if it were a face. Then, when we get there and find it to be underlined, we nudge our wives or hold our Bible in such a way hoping someone would dee it.

Why are we so silly? '...Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.' Who's eyes are we peforming for? Who's praise are we searching for? We know whom's we need to be seeking. Let's work harder toward remembering we do not need to find praise from another man, or another person.

It was John Riskin who said, '... the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own power, or hesitation in speaking his opinion. But really great men have a feeling that the greatness is not in them but through them; That they could not do or be anything other than what God made them.'

Example

We need to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift us up. We can see this example through the apostle Paul. His letters of the New Testament articulate this. Let's look at his three descriptions of himself. They are dated from A.D. 59, 63, and 64. As the years pass, he goes lower; he grows downward. As his self-esteem sinks, so his delight of praise and adoration for God who so wonderfully saved him rises.

(59) I Corinthians 15:9, 'For I am the least of the apostles...'
(63) Ephesians 3:8, '... who am less than the least of all saints...'
(64) I Timothy 1:15, '... Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.'

I would like to end this chapter with five quotes from others and a scripture to remember.

Foster, 'The pride of dying rich raises the loudest laugh in hell.'
Franklin, 'The proud hate pride in others.'
Kelly, 'Pride and grace dwelt never in one place.'
Smith, 'When a proud man thinks best of himself, then God and man think worst of him.'
Spurgeon, 'There is nothing into which the heart of men so easily falls as pride. And yet there is no vice that is more frequently, more emphatically, and more eloquently condemned in Scripture.'

Most importantly, here is a scripture to remember when we find ourselves being a little less humble than we were yesterday. Or when we find ourselves a little more proud today than we were the day before.

'I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.' Psalm 34:1-3


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