THE POISON OF PARADISE: PRIDE

For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”~ Genesis 3:5

REFERENCE
Genesis 3:1-6

Pride goes before a fall. It led to Satan’s fall and it played an active role in the fall of man in paradise. Satan (disguised as the serpent), knowing that he lost his place and prominence in the Angelic hierarchy in heaven through pride, understood that for man to lose his paradise, pride must be injected. He knew from experience, that when pride comes, a fall follows because God resists proud people; they are obnoxious to Him.

Satan’s deceptive strategy was simple. He told the man: “You are bigger than where you are,” “You can be in the class of God,” “You can know what He knows…and have no need to be in subjection to anybody.” Eve bought it and crossed the lines. The rest is history. Pride is poison and those who ingest it eventually are brought down from great heights. It blinds men to their weakness, makes them have a bloated opinion of themselves, and gives them a lust for power to be number one; the center of attention.

A proud soul cannot bear being subject to another, it cannot stand to see another praised, neither can it play a part in promoting the interest of another person. Satan promised Eve enlightenment and knowledge; and these are the roots of pride in many – what they know that you don’t know and where they have been that you have not been. Job rebuked his friends when in pride they spoke to him. He said, “What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you,” (Job 13:2). Eve took this poison because she wanted a level of wisdom that would make her stand out – but it was all a lie. Pride, just like poison, kills. She and her husband lost their paradise.

Pride is one sin that subtly creeps in on us; we, therefore, must constantly check our hearts to see every allurement to pride. Many great men have fallen and lost all because of pride; thinking they were too powerful and beyond correction. Therefore, any thought that suggests, “I’m better than them,” “I don’t see anything spectacular about this other person,” “I am always right, you are always wrong,” etc., should be seriously checked. Also, that argumentative spirit that refuses to yield or the anger that rises within when corrected by someone in authority may just be seedlings of pride. Watch it lest you ingest the poison and lose your paradise. Remember, pride demotes, but humility promotes!

PHOTO QUOTE

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:
I Corinthians 4:6-7, Isaiah 2:11-17 & Isaiah 14:12-15

PRAYER POINT
Lord God, purge my heart of every form of arrogance. Cure me of the sin of pride. Teach me to walk humbly before you and to deal in humility with the people around me in Jesus’ name.