-Strength for Today- “The Cost of Pride.” - 1 Peter 5:5-9.

The Bible warns us about “the consequence of pride,”?and?“how it?impacts our relationship with God.”?1 Peter 5:5-9 says,?“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may?exalt?you?in due time; casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.??Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,?whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”?

These verses caused me thinking about just how costly pride is, and how much it costs us to hang on to it. Instead of asking for help,?but due?to our disdained depraved minds, we?internalize?our despair by try solving our problems on our own, but we?can't.?

So,?we need to come to grips with this because “pride always costs us way more than we realize.”?The Bible?warns us about the consequence of pride, and how that it?“impacts our relationship with God.”??Because “God opposes the proud,?but shows favor to the humble.” And to this James says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw?nigh?to God, and he will draw?nigh?to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.??Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up”?- James 4:7-10.?

???So, from these two texts?“we’re shown that the?answer to the problem of pride is humility.”?God’s grace is?“to the humble not the proud.??Because Grace is God's "sacrificial act of allowing His Son to suffer,?in order to?secure?mankind's eternal salvation from sin. Humility is?submitting?ourselves God. By doing this?“we’re?declaring that Jesus is worth more than my pride.” Therefore, because of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, “we have the power of resist the devil, whose “chief sin was pride??

So, starting this morning, lets “actively pray, as the psalmist said,?“against pride forming in our hearts and lives,”?“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts, and?see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”?- Psalm 139: 23-24.?

God Bless?

?Author: Plez Lovlady, Jr., PhD

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