The Dangers of Pride

Pride is when a person thinks too highly of his or herself. They feel like they don’t need anyone of anything to help them achieve their goals and accomplishments. It is a place of arrogance and egotism thinking that you are above others and that you “have it all together.” This way of thinking is extremely dangerous because what a person with this kind of mentality is saying is that they don’t need God’s help or guidance.

There is such thing as having healthy pride. For instance: you are proud of your child for getting good grades in school or you are proud of yourself for getting promoted at your job. Both of those examples are exhibiting healthy pride. It is when your pride turns into haughtiness and conceit that you begin to develop negative characteristics. A prideful person will have issues in their personal life as well as with their relationship with the Lord.

The spirit of pride is one that the enemy is very familiar with and in fact it is what led him to be cast of out heaven to begin with. In order to have an understanding we need to look at the verses of Scripture found in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 14:13-15 “For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.”

 Here we can see that the Prophet Isaiah through the leading of the Holy Spirit is giving us the revelation of the fall of Lucifer. If you notice in the text there are multiple times that the Lord is emphasizing the devil’s use of the words “I will.” In other words because of his own pride and selfish ambition he wanted to be above God. Why? One of the main reasons that Satan wanted to be in the position of our Heavenly Father is because he wanted to be worshiped like the Lord.

In Matthew 4:9 the passages of Scripture reads, “And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Here we can see that the devil is speaking to Jesus and one of the things that he wants Him to do is to bow down and worship him. That is still the case today; the enemy loves when people knowingly or unknowingly give him worship.

The enemy will use your prideful thoughts to make you feel like you don’t need God. This overwhelming emotion will turn into poisonous self-reliance which means that you are not completely dependent on the Lord. If you are truly attempting to walk this Christian life entirely surrendered to our Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot afford to have one shred of sinful pride found in your heart. He wants you walking in a path of humility.

 We have to remember that the Lord hates pride and makes it clear to us in many Bible verses found in the Word of God. One passage in particular is found in Proverbs 16:5 King Solomon writes, “Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.” The Lord goes so far as to call it an abomination which is the Hebrew word tôwʻêbah which means disgusting thing.

When we are filled with ourselves there is no room for God and He is supposed to be the One that comes first, Matthew 22:37. A proud heart will prevent you from being used effectively by the Lord and can actually block you from receiving blessings that He wants to bestow upon you. Pride is a very dangerous characteristic to have and it is not worth the repercussions that are attached to it.

Developing your relationship with the Holy Spirit will help you overcome the overwhelming emotion of pride. I have many articles on the Holy Spirit and I will list them here: The Holy Spirit-The Spirit of Power, Love, and a Sound Mind!, The Holy Spirit-Our Helper. and The Holy Spirit-Our Prayer Partner!

I am going to highlight three verses of Scripture that describe some of the dangers of pride: