A great many nonbelievers seem to think that the chief characteristic of God is that He is against just about everything … and that He is annoyed by the fact that some people somewhere are having a good time.
And yet the truth is that everything God disallows and everything He commands of us has, at the very least, a two-fold aim – His glory and our good.
Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the instance of pride. A proud heart acts as though it is both in the place of God and independent of God. It usurps God’s glory.
It’s like the dust settling on the frame of the Mona Lisa taking credit for and bragging about “my” painting.
But that’s not our focus for today. Here I want to impress upon us how pride is contrary to our good. I want to show how it harms us both spiritually and psychologically.
Pride turns into prison, because ...
If it’s “all about you,” as the saying goes, anxiety, fear, and worry will soon follow.
The proud person has to see to it that they are always on top, always in the ascendency, never seen in a bad light.
What did they think of me? They don’t deserve a second chance. How did I look? Did I convince them? How dare they question me? I deserve better than this. I’m not going to forgive them. I have a right to do what I want to be happy. I got here on my own.
These and a hundred more like them are the thoughts and attitudes of the proud. And it’s a trap!
So why do I say that being convinced you’re all that, will lead to anxiety, fear, and worry?
Because you’ll have to work endlessly to maintain all that.
There’s the anxiety.
You’ll worry that you won’t be able to maintain it. (You won’t, by the way. The aging process alone will slowly begin to reel you in.)
You’ll be in near-constant fear of the façade cracking, of being found out for the insecure person you really are, or of doing something foolish.
And you will be offended, angered, or devastated if someone affronts the idol you’ve made yourself into. It’s exhausting!
Isaiah 14:13-14 tells us that in his unbridled arrogance, Satan asserts his illusory superiority. He says five times “I will...” “I will...” “I will...” “I will...” “I will....”
All the devil can talk about is himself. He is doomed to a life of perpetual self-referencing. That is hell.
And pride will make for us a hell on earth.
It is a prison … a prison Christ died to free us from.
