Pride and Humility

      Before I start writing this, let me just go ahead and tell you- Pride is a huge issue that I struggle with and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Pride is one of those sins that keep you away from God. It's thinking of you as better than someone else, or on dictionary.com, it's "a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc." God says this in James 4:10- "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up." Wow, so if you humble yourself, God will lift you up; but if you try to lift yourself up, God will have to bring you back down. So just do what Jesus did! He knew he was God's perfect son, but he humbled himself to die on the cross for us (and we are SO not perfect). And even if you don't brag about yourself or anything like that, pride might still be an issue for you. My biggest issue with pride is when someone compliments me on something, I need to learn how to respond in a humble way and not get a "big head". We need to be constantly thinking of others. One thing I have figured out to help with that, is whenever someone compliments you, compliment them back. That way you will always be lifting others up instead of yourself. And humility needs to be something that happens on the inside and outside - not just what everybody sees about you. Humility has to happen ALWAYS (your personal time with God, worship time, and whenever you are around anybody). Ephesians 4:2 says, "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Also, if you are in an argument with someone, instead of trying to defend yourself constantly, say something like, "You know what? You're so right. I really do need to work on that." (This is also something I need some serious work on.) God tells us ALL throughout his word, that he loves humble spirits, and he hates pride. Pride definitely comes with our human nature, but it is definitely something we all need to get rid of! If you don't remember anything else from this post, remember this - Humble yourself and God will lift you up!!