Undue Pride
When I was a kid, we lived in northern Indiana, and I am not sure if you’ve ever traveled to that part of the country, but if not, I am sure you have eaten a pancake. Therefore, create the image of a pancake in your mind; see the flatness; consider how this flatness continues to the edges of your dinner plate.
That’s “sort of” the image one should consider when picturing the great & beautiful territory of northern Indiana. (notice all the previous adjectives)
It was a GREAT & BEAUTIFUL place to grow up as a kid!
Now, maybe the question could be asked: WHY? It’s a pretty simple answer: It’s the terrain my brother and I enjoyed every single day as we raced out the backdoor. We loved to play together, riding our bikes, racing here and there, plowing the fields of our sandbox, jumping the “small hill” as we pretended to be motor cross riders (a hill today that I know is a small dip of ten inches deep), & of course playing “KING of the Hill” (a game I was quite good at when I was a kid).
Now, maybe by this time, we are scratching our heads and wondering “KING of the Hill,” how in the world can children play that game when the terrain of the ground is pancake flat.
The answer is quite simple: DAD & his creation of a push-pile of manure, a heap of manure that grew to great height (or at least to my kid eyes), and a heap of manure that dried and grew a forest of vegetation sprouting out from the manure to create a “small forest” to an eight-year-old brother & his ten-year-old sister.
Needless to say, these two kids were living in an Indiana-type of heaven!
Hours & Hours & Hours & Hours & Hours were spent riding our bikes, cutting through the vegetation, and playing “KING of the Hill” on that dried heap of manure!
Please don’t judge; we were kids, so a hill was a hill was a hill—to us. We LOVED every minute, and the saddest day of our existence was the day said those infamous words one night at the dinner table, “I need to spread that pile of manure on the back field.”
We were devastated, to say the least; so, the next morning, we raced out to our “HILL” and played until dad told us to go play somewhere else and we watched our hill disappear as the ground behind the barnyard became again “pancake flat.”
As we study God’s Holy Word, let us be reminded what we OWN and what Almighty God calls HIS.
“The earth is the LORD’S,
and all it contains,
The world, and those who live in it.
For He has founded it upon the seas
And established it upon the rivers.
Who may ascent onto the hill of the LORD?
And who may stand in His holy place?”
(Psalm 24: 1-3 NASB 2020)
Did we see the answer to our question?
“The earth—[IT] is the LORD’S!”
“and all it contains—[IT] is the LORD’S!”
“The world, and those who live in it—[IT] is the LORD’S!”
How do we know the earth, the contents, and the world belong to LORD GOD?
“For He has founded it upon the seas—[Almighty God Did]!
And [HE] established it upon the rivers—[Almighty God Did]!
Thus, our heaven-like Indiana hill never really belonged to my brother & me.
How can we say this with complete confidence?
“Who may ascent onto the hill of the LORD?
And who may stand in His holy place?”
As we read God’s Word, let us be reminded of our “Undue Pride.”
As we study, let us consider WHO has created the whole earth & everything in it.
As we pause to worship Holy God, let us praise the name of Jesus who brought salvation to the world.
How can we say this with complete confidence?
How can we say with assurance that we are nothing?
God is EVERYTHING!
“One who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to deceit
And has not sworn deceitfully.
He will receive a blessing from the LORD
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is the generation of those who seek Him,
Who seek Your face—even Jacob. Selah.”
(Psalm 24: 4-6 NASB 2020)
As we seek God’s face—
As we allow God to grant us through His amazing grace clean hands and a pure heart—
As we turn away from deceit and turn toward God—
Then the Bible tells us—[We] “will receive a blessing from the LORD
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
- Undue Pride has no place in the church.
- Undue Pride has no place in the body of Christ.
- Undue Pride has no place in the heart of a believer.
Abraham Kuyper wrote these words: “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, “That is mine!”
Forgive us, Father, for our Undue Pride.
- Help us remember we will NEVER be the KING of anything YOU have created.
- Help us remember we will NEVER be greater than YOU.
- Help us remember we are mere managers of that which YOU allow us to have & to touch.
- Help us remember how it is YOU who have gifted us (YOUR children) & how YOU are the ONE who continually empowers us through YOUR HOLY SPIRIT to accomplish the tasks YOU designed us to do.
- Help us remember to live EVERY DAY in consistent reliance upon YOU.
- Help us to be 100% obedient & available EVERY DAY to YOU.
The prophet Isaiah reminds us:
“So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the arrogant pride of his eyes.”
(Isaiah 10: 12 NASB 2020)
For the apostle Paul also reminds us today:
“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves;
do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.
For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
(Philippians 2: 3-11 NASB 2020)
Let us NEVER FORGET we have done nothing on our own—
Let us NEVER FORGET—
“The earth is the LORD’S,
and all it contains,
The world, and those who live in it.”
(Psalm 24: 1 NASB 2020)