The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. – Proverbs 16:5
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There is a voice that whispers to our heart that cleverly says “look away, look away”.
Look to yourself, look to what you have, look to what you’ve built, look to what you want…look to what you deserve….and desire.
The voice tells us:
- You’re important.
- You can figure it out.
- You’re powerful.
- You’re smart.
- You’re right.
- You’ve done great things.
- You’re popular with so many.
- You deserve the best.
- You don’t have time for people who have done you wrong.
- You have no time for little people.
- Your ideas are best (especially your political ideas).
- Your family is more stable than theirs.
- You don’t sin like they do.
- You are surely good person for all the great things you do.
That voice is actually three voices in concert – our own flesh, the evil one and the world system – telling us that we can get our needs met and get our worth validated from some source other than the true living source.
The voice tells our heart that we are owed something good, something better…that we deserve something great…that we are something great.
When we are blessed in some way, we hear a quiet whisper in our heart that says “you did a great job”. When we listen to and agree with that whisper, our hearts are then “lifted up” in pride.
Indeed you say that you have defeated the Edomites, and your heart is lifted up to boast. – 2 Chronicles 25:19
When we are offered kindness, we often take without gratitude. We “lift our heart” in a prideful way and take more and more.
But Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up; therefore wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem. – 2 Chronicles 32:25
Will you allow the tempter’s voice to flow into your heart and mind and then be converted to action in your will and body?
Satan’s goal is to disrupt our heart connection to God, discourage our heart, distract our heart from our real source of life. He talks to our heart and tempts us to turn away…to turn away from our first love…our true love.
What does God want?
He loves us deeply and wants the highest good for us….truly the best. But to get there, He desires us to have a contrite, humble, lowly, meek heart….one that is submitted to Him alone. He wants us to look to Him and confess that we are bankrupt without Him.
Prayer
Father, I confess my pride. I confess that I’ve ignored the warnings from others and their words of truth into my life. Father, I want a heart that is humble and surrendered to You. I want Your peace to flow over my heart and protect my heart from pride. Help me to be dependent on You alone, not my ways, my wisdom, my luck, my strategies, my, my, my… Lord, break the tether of pride. Give me strength to say no to the enemy. In the name and power of Christ, Amen.
