HUMBLE OR PRIDEFUL?

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought,
but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,
so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
Romans 12:3-5

Do you try to be the best or to do your best?
The perfectionist has to be the best.
He has to be #1.
He can’t accept himself as God does.
He is always striving to be ahead of those around him.
He constantly compares himself with those around him.
This is his measuring stick of himself.
He always wants to stand out in a crowd.
He wants to tell the funniest stories.
He wants to know everything before everyone else does.
He wants to own things that are better than what others have.
He wants to have all the answers for everything
(and doesn’t accept or compromise when others have different opinions).
He is loud, authoritative and emphatic when making his point.
In his mind, his opinion is the only one that matters.
He gravitates and makes special efforts to get the attention and approval of those who are well known.
He enjoys dropping names and refers to those he knows by name as his good friend.
He doesn’t listen to advice very well and seldom tries anything anyone else suggests
(if he happens to try, he is anxious to point out any flaws in a loud and ridiculing manner).
He often uses derogatory names for those who do not do everything
the way he thinks they should be done (words like idiot, airhead, jerk, etc.).
He has himself on a pedestal and everyone else is below him, unless they are well known.
He is the type of person that others refer to as ‘hard-headed’ (you can’t tell him anything).
He is consumed with a type of arrogant pride and this arrogance shows its ugly head
whenever anything doesn’t go the way he wants it to go, because in his mind, his way is the only way.
He thinks more highly of himself than he does of others
Philippians 2:3 says,
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Rather, in humility value others above yourselves”
How does God feel about people who are ‘stuck on themselves’ and have arrogant pride?
The scriptures say several times that God hates this kind of pride.
“I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech”
(Proverbs 8:13)
Look at what one scripture (James 4:6) says,
“But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
The grace of God exalts a man without inflating
and it humbles a man without devaluing him.
The person who with excellence says,
“I am what I am by the grace of God.”

Do you value yourself by what you do, what you own, and who you know,
or by what and who you are in God’s eyes and not man’s?
Do you detect any of your characteristics in the ones listed above?
Remember, God hates arrogant pride and He tells us in Philippians and Romans
to NOT think more highly of ourselves than we should.
Think about how you would feel if someone claimed to be just like your child,
but you knew they weren’t anything like your child.
Jesus was humble and if we claim to be God’s children then we need to be humble too.
God has ways of humbling the proud who claim to be His children.