FROM THE DAWGHOUSE
PRIDE AND THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving Day got me thinking in my DAWG:
For what am I thankful?
God’s Word to find truth and direction every day. Salvation that makes me know that I have incredibly higher worth than I was told and led to believe while growing up; that though my days are limited on this planet in this body I’ll get a new one and this planet will be renovated and refurbished back to its original form and that will be my home with a lot of perfected people, for time without end. So death is the beginning of life. Not to be feared. I’m thankful for the opportunity to be married, have a family, be a Chief (grandpa). For a clear identity, purpose and path for character development. For confidence that can only be born of the Gospel. For freedom from having to obsess about a legacy. I’m deeply thankful for the opportunity to hang out with strong, growing, Christ committed men like you guys who want to become great men as God defines greatness. I’m also thankful for spiritual results that God has brought into my life because of His work through me.
But there’s where the friction lies. What constitutes my work and what is God’s work? Male pride often blocks my giving God thanks, I think. Mmmm, does that ring true for you?
I got out my concordance today and looked up pride. The New Testament Greek word Jesus used (Well, translated from the Aramaic, the word Mark used) is: Hyperephania. Whenever the word Hyper is prefixed to a Greek word it means…well…”a lot”. In this case, too much…uh…self.
Check it out:
Mark 7:20-23
20 And He was saying, “That which comes out of the person, that is what defiles the person. 21 For from within, out of the hearts of people, come the evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, acts of adultery, 22 deeds of greed, wickedness, deceit, indecent behavior, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile the person.”
“Pride” is a little word in English, a longer word in Greek, and a gigantic problem among all of us descendants of Adam. Pride is sandwiched in between other sins with more words and so we can easily overlook it. Well, I can.
Look at other places where we find the noun Hyperephanos in the New Testament:
Luke 1:51
51 He has done mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
Mary here got some real insight. A humble born girl, still humble, hears from God what He will do to the proud. The proud will be scattered by Holy God.
Romans 1:28-32
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a depraved mind, to do those things that are not proper, 29 people having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unfeeling, and unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.
The Bible has several lists of sins and if you look closely pride or a synonym is always there. Sin leads to self-over evaluation and adulation which leads to under worshipping God.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these.
Pride and almost unbearable arrogance seems to be the most obvious trait of most of our political leaders these days.
Note: These last two NT uses quote Proverbs 3:34
James 4:5-6
5 Or do you think that the Scripture says to no purpose, “He jealously desires the Spirit whom He has made to dwell in us”? 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
1 Peter 5:5
5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.
God opposes my pride. There’s no future in pride. Let’s abandon it, shall we? Pride hurts my marriage, my interactions with people, my leadership, my work…it toxifies everything it touches.
The antidote to pride is to drink deeply of the reality that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and that my salvation is a gift of God’s unbelievable grace (Ephesians 2:8-10). Grace means you didn’t deserve the gift of being loved and forgiven by God, that you and I didn’t deserve Jesus to die for us on the cross, but He did it anyway. Grace means, further, that we never on our own in a billion years if we lived that long, would be good enough to merit salvation. Put that in your brain and let it percolate. That humbles human pride.
This also helps to wrestle down pride for a time: When we praise and thank God for the gifts that we were born with and the spiritual gifts that we were born again with. That we’re living very useful lives now, when we pursue our calling as Sons. That God uses us, as frail and weak and self-possessed as we are.
Oh I gotta stop. You keep thinking about this and see what you come up with.
But today, Thank God for Himself…who He is and what He’s done.
You take it to heart,
Pete Alwinson
