Baptist City Blog

Identifiers of Pride

Jeremiah 43:2

"Then spake Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely: the LORD our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn there:"

If you were to dissect sin, you would find that the core of all sin is pride. In fact, one of the first things that God mentions to take care of if you want revival is pride. In the verse above, it was pride that caused the men not to listen to the Word of God. Jeremiah preached the truth to these men and told them to stay in Judah, but it was their pride that caused them to think they knew more than they did. It was their pride that blinded them to their rebellious heart, which eventually led to their destruction. If these men would not have listened to pride, then they would not have lost their lives.  

It is no doubt that the greatest sin destroying people today is pride. It all started in Heaven when Lucifer's pride caused him to rebel against God. Still, today we find many Christians who let their pride lead them away from God's will for their life.  If you don't deal with your pride, then you will find heartache is to come.  

We find in Jeremiah 43 some of the identifiers of pride. In verse 2, we can see that pride rejects truth. These men would not accept truth because truth was condemning them.  You must be careful not to let your pride cause you to reject the truth about yourself. Pride blinds us to what we truly are, therefore, because we are blinded to what we are we reject any truth that is spoken about us.  Let me remind you that you are a sinner, and as a sinner you are going to be wrong at times.  Don't let your pride make you think that you are right all the time.  

Second, in verse 3, pride blames others. These men blamed Baruch for what was said instead of accepting the truth about themselves.  Let me ask you, when is the last time that you ever accepted that you were wrong? Do you find that your first response to any situation is to blame others? Is wrong that happens always someone else's fault? Your best response to any situation is to blame yourself first.  Don't let your pride cause you to always blame others. Stop blaming your spouse for everything and accept the blame yourself. Stop blaming others for your child's wrong, and accept the blame.  Stop blaming others for things going wrong, and accept that you are wrong.  Look honestly at yourself and the situations you face, do you find it is always someone else's fault? If you say you don't, then when have you blamed yourself lately?  

Third, in verse 4, pride always wants its way no matter what. Christian, if you are not careful you will let your pride drive your decision-maker.  That is not good!  Pride will always think that its way is right because it will blind your eyes to right. You must always set your desire completely aside, for if you don't your pride will cause you to always want it your way.  

Be careful not to let pride control you. The end result of pride is destruction and death. Don't let your pride destroy you and the one's you love. Face your pride, get rid of it and let humility control your every action. The best way to do this is to always defer to others, and pride will step out of the way.