THE ROOT OF SELF IS PRIDE

By: Diana Bortis 

  We all have special talents and gifts that God has blessed us with. For me, one of those gifts is creativity and I am so honored that the Master of art and design gave me a tiny, microscopic snippet of that. He blessed me with this gift and I soon found that my pride got in the way of using it for His glory. A few months ago I took the plank out of my own eye to realize I was using my precious gift for my own recognition, attention, approval, favoritism, and my own selfish pride. It's so sad to say but I was so wrapped up in my own awesomeness and self greatness that I felt God was further from me than ever in my life. Deuteronomy 8:14 says, "Your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God."  Praise the Lord this lesson God was teaching me only lasted a few weeks and not months, or years. But for some it does last that long, maybe even a lifetime. In a world full of self-seeking attention, acceptance, selfies, followers, and all about me, me, me its so easy to slip into the pool of pride and some don't even realize they are in it. Pride leads to so many insecurities, broken friendships, family issues, letting go of that one grudge, and so many other problems but at the end of the day are all those things worth losing over our own pride?  The best news is that breaking the chains of pride is much closer than most think. 1 Corinthians 13:4 says, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud." Having the true love of God in your heart defeats pride. Pride gets pushed to the side and trampled when you seek Jesus and when you give God the recognition, attention, favoritism, honor. Gods' love and faithfulness will never leave your side. I pray to always have the true love of God in my heart and instead of seeking honor, preference, approval, attention, (the list goes on and on) from people. I want to seek them from God and give that attention to The One who deserves them ALL.     Lay pride down at the cross and see how God will work in your life!  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.  James 4:10