Five deep,
self-destructive, crippling emotions, that can prevent us from breaking the bondage of alcoholism and addiction. They can stand between us, God, Love, and Sobriety...
ThirdStep.org is blessed to offer you this free study on the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus!
CLICK HERE!
The following are some of the topics
in the forum....
Don’t drink or use, sounds simple, Right?
Surrender is the Answer
Making a Decision...
Seeking the Truth and
Freedom inThe Third Step!
The War can be Over
Break from a Dark Past
Freedom from the
Demonic Prayer
The “New Age” is getting
Real Old!
Sobriety and Salvation
True Life Testimonials
Touched by an Angel, Realy!
What does it mean to be a Christian?
Click the forums button to check-in. You’ll have
full access to all of the
ThirdStep.org ministry
|
Pride
Today pride is looked upon in our culture as a good thing. A characteristic we are encouraged to develop. Even looked upon as being a virtue.
When in fact, what it is actually, is a moral independence that attempts to live a life without God, or His word.
Think about this a moment.
God’s word, being the Bible is our standard for life.
Believing that God is the creator, and that He has not just left us here to flounder, He has left us a ‘manual for living’ as it were and that is the Bible.
Looking into the Bible we see a picture very contrary to what is taught and lived out day to day in our lives and the lives of those around us.
Why is pride so destructive?
First, pride would have us to believe that we can take care of our self, we don’t need any help and that we are capable of running our own lives.
This presents a real problem when we trapped in an addiction, and powerless in a bondage that we can see no possible way out of. Our pride keeps us from admitting the truth of where we are.
Secondly, God does not see pride as something as simple as a character flaw, but rather this is one attribute that he has spoken quite a bit to about.
In the simplest of terms, He hates it!
Look at a few things He says about it.
Proverbs 8.13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.
Proverbs 11.2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Proverbs 13.10 Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.
Proverbs 16.18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 29.23 A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.
Since the beginning of time we can see the result of pride. Satan, who was the most beautiful of all the angels, was so full of pride that he attempted to raise himself above God, and he was cast down because of it. When man was tempted in the garden of Eden and fell, it was the temptation of pride, and the desire to be like God that caused him to fall and to be expelled from the garden. We have followed in Adams footsteps, generation after generation. Rebelling against God, the creature wanting dominion over the creator.
That is totally opposite of what is right and our proper position in this world. We have tried to turn everything upside down and then wonder why we have problems.
God created us to interact with Him and others. He wants us to love Him and enjoy Him forever.
Pride destroys this relationship by pushing Him, and those we love away in an attempt to fix things our self. We find ourselves digging deeper into addiction and looking for any way possible to relieve the pain, and any excuse will do. We deceive our self and pretend that no problem exists. All the while it is our pride that keeps us from admitting we are helpless and out of control. It is our pride that keeps us from admitting to those we love we have a problem. It is pride that tries to hide our habits and behaviors and the cycle spirals downward.
The remedy is simple yet hard. Our human nature struggles against it. We have been programmed to avoid it. It is exactly the opposite of what pride is, and that is ‘humility’. A coming to God and a dependence on Him to come along side us as the fallible human beings we are and to help us to realize the destructive nature of what we have been caught up in, and a knowledge that we can not break the cycle of destruction with out the divine intervention of God Himself.
And that confession, my friend, takes humility. Pride would have no part in that sort of thinking or decision. Pride would love to see us self-destruct, and we will, with out the humility we need to turn to God.
This pride is also the root of all of the other unhealthy emotions that keep us bound, as we will see.
Pride is defined as exaggerated self-esteem, arrogance.
Pride is our biggest block from God. In our false-pride we think that we are better than everyone else. But we feel deep down inside that we are not better than others- we feel apart from them, less than. We could never let others see how we really feel! So we wear our false-pride as our armor and often believe it ourselves. We are playing the role of an omnipotent being, too prideful to ask for help.
This is the how and why of it. First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn't work. Next, we decided that hereafter in this drama of life, God was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father, and we are His children. Most good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom.
If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you. If you still think you are strong enough to beat the game alone, that is your affair. But if you really and truly want to quit drinking liquor for good and all, and sincerely feel that you must have some help, we know that we have an answer for you. It never fails, if you go about it with one half the zeal you have been in the habit of showing when you were getting another drink.
Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!
|
|
|
Back to Home Page
    
Pass it on!
Tell A Friend about Thirdstep.org
|
