So people will be brought low and everyone humbled-do not forgive them.                                      Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty!  The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled and human pride brought low;  the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.                                                                                                               The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled), for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan, for all the towering mountains and all the high hills, for every lofty tower, and every fortified wall, for every trading ship and every stately vessel.  The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled; for the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear.          Isaiah 2:9-17 NIV

The Bible has a lot to say about pride and none of it is good.  But one promise that is made to us many times in God’s word is that the proud will be humbled.  When I think about that I think about a child who is unruly or a wild horse that needs to be broken in order to be made safe to ride.  With a strong parent, the child will eventually be brought under control.  With a strong, experienced rider the horse will eventually be broken.  We are a lot like unruly children and wild horses.  We tend to get out of hand at times and need to be corrected by God.

Now we know that sin is sin.  There are no little sins nor are there any big sins, but the bible clearly tells us that God hates pride.  We are told that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble in James 4:6.  Proverbs 6:17 tells us that pride (arrogant eyes) is one of the six things that God detests.

Perhaps the biggest problem with pride is that it suggests that we did it all on our own.  James 1:7 tells us that every good and perfect gift is from above.  If you really think about it, what can you possibly do on your own?  We don’t even take our next breath unless God allows it.  God perfectly created the universe so that we have the right amounts of oxygen to breath.  He perfectly created our bodies so that we breath without thinking about it and if we are healthy we breath effortlessly.  God can breath a ferocious wind that could completely destroy an entire city.  What can we do?

Now one thing I want to make sure that we don’t do is confuse humility with weakness.  The two are definitely not the same.  People hear the word humility and think that it means that we walk around with our heads down all the time and allowing others to walk all over us.  That’s not it at all.  Humility simply means that we know that all good things come from God.  It means that we are thankful and appreciative.  It means that we can boldly proclaim the awesomeness of God.

I can say that I am so proud of my stepson and his girlfriend.  I am so proud of my nieces and nephews.  I realize that they are God’s gift.  God gave them as gifts and placed them in homes where they are loved and disciplined and made them good people that are fun to be around.  When we are humble, it simply means that we totally understand God’s awesome power.  We get the fact that God gives us good things and we understand that we need to appreciate them.

I do nothing and have nothing that I can boast about, but God has given me some awesome gifts.  I can gladly boast about how awesome God is.  I can thank Him for the wonderful Christian family members and friends that He has put in my life.  I can brag about how awesome my God is.

So today take a minute to do a little self assessment.  When you are talking about things that you have accomplished and items that you possess are you using “I” and “me” or “Him” and “He”?  Are you putting God on a pedestal or are you trying to climb up there and perch yourself.

When hurricane Katrina came through, I stood looking out the window at my front yard.  A fierce wind came through and uprooted an oak tree and knocked it to the ground.  I stood staring in disbelief as it fell to the ground.  I had played under that oak as a child.  It was huge and towered above the driveway providing shade in the hot summers.  But with one strong wind, it was uprooted and had to be cut up and removed from our driveway.  God can cut us down just as easily.  We may stand tall,thinking we are majestic and indestructible, but be very careful my friend.  He holds all the power.

Matthew 23:12 and Luke 14:11 tells us that whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.  So when someone gives you a compliment, give God the credit.  He gives you the ability to do what you do.  So the least you can do, is let others know that your talents and your abilities come from Him.

Have a great day!