Are Your Relationships Split by Pride

Or United Through Humility?

Spring officially arrives this week and for most of the country the absence of named winter storms will be a pleasant change.  This has been the worst winter on record for a very long time. Most will not be sad to see it leave.  Some seasons are clearly more challenging than others in the natural as well as in the spiritual.  Just think about your own life and all that God has walked you through.  Were there not times you felt in the midst of a major storm?  Did you feel you could not take another minute?  Yet, here you are moving forward on your journey.

What Name Holds the Power in Your Life?

Many things can interrupt life in ways you would not expect or choose.  Sometimes it is simply life.  Things happen.  Jesus clearly tells us we will have trials and tribulations in this world.  He overcame the world for each and every one who follows Him.  If you place your life at His feet He will take you through every single trial to the other side.  It does not matter if your storm has a name or not. 

His name is above every other name.  He will prevail in your storm if you let Him.

Sometimes heart issues can impede.  After all, it is always a heart issue.  In reading Job this week I was impacted by the Lord’s description of leviathan.  Leviathan is the name given to a sea creature, at times a dragon and also representative of Satan.   In Job 41:15-16, the Lord says, “His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.  One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.”  Take a moment to re-read that a few times.

Picture how tight his scales are that no air can even go in between.  I could not help but think that this is how pride is in the human spirit.  If pride goes unchecked it can wreak havoc in your life and relationships.  Pride is a storm of immeasurable proportion.  Pride feeds on itself and can grow to great magnitude if not alleviated.  Pride allows no space to hear another.  Pride allows no space to hear God.  Pride puts your way above all else.  Remember, Lucifer was thrown out of heaven because his pride grew so that he believed he was equal to God.

The Great Divide is Pride!

I think pride is one of the most insidious corrosion of spirit as it can so often be undetected in its early stages.  The enemy is the master of manipulation and deception.  Pride can begin so simply as perceiving that how you see or do something is superior to the same activity by someone else.   I am not talking about God given discernment here but rather the heart issue of pride.  Pride gives a feeling of loftiness at the expense of another.  Pride causes relationship turmoil.  Pride keeps people from accepting Jesus. Pride can severely limit His work in your life.   Pride separates you from God.

When pride takes root in your heart it will morph and often grow subtly undetected until  you think your ways are equal to or better than God’s for your life.  Much of this can remain subconscious without Holy Spirit intervention.  Did you ever know exactly how a certain scenario in your life should play out for what you think: a) makes perfect sense, and b) clearly would be the best for all concerned?    The more you think about it the more God moves in another way.  Or, perhaps, He appears to not be moving in your life at all.  I know I have struggled with this very scenario at times in my life.  What I perceived really seemed best.  Looking back, however, I thank God that His will prevailed not mine!

Do Not Miss the Glory of This Season!

Identifying pride in all its subtleties can only be done by allowing divine intervention into your heart.  Pride is such a root issue with so many tentacles that it is humanly impossible to detect every insidious link.  To humble yourself before the Lord and allow Him to show you where pride has slithered into the recesses of your heart will set you free.

  To allow Him to take you from the depths of your humanity to the glory of His Kingdom is a journey you do not want to miss!

Jesus died to set you free.  To fully walk in that freedom means to be willing to let go of emotional patterns that keep you earth bound.  Pride is a sin of huge proportion.  Do not spend another day entangled in the web of its deceit.  Take some time to list each area of pride in your heart.  Humbly repent.  Seek the Lord with a humble heart and allow Him to cut away all the prideful parts that may have been there for a lifetime.  Seek the Lord with a humble heart to help you walk daily unencumbered in Kingdom power and authority on earth as it is in heaven ‘for such a time as this!’

.Quotes to Ponder This Week

“Your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God.” ~Deuteronomy 8:14

“In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.”  ~Psalm 10:4

“When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.”  ~Proverbs 11:2

“Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.” ~Proverbs 13:10

“Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.  Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” ~Proverbs 16:18-19

“The end of the matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.”  ~Ecclesiastes 7:8

 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow…”~Jesus, Matthew 6:33-34

“You are these who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”  ~Jesus, Luke 16:15

A Prayer Request

Thank you for your continued faithfulness to pray. Please keep all who serve our country, our servicemen and women and their families in prayer for salvation and safety. They are our front-line on the battlefield, let us be their front-line in the spirit. Also, let us cover all who have come home wounded that they and their families will receive the kindness, help and support they need to go forward in their lives.

God bless all our diplomatic and military personnel and their families. May the Lord keep them safe. Pray for all throughout the world for hedges of protection against radical Muslim extremists and all forms of terrorism. We have long prayed for spiritual victory over radical Islam in Esther’s Warriors Ministry. We now see the reality of this threat come to the forefront in this time in world history.

Please pray for all in authority over us, for the full truth to come forth concerning Benghazi and for safety in Israel. May God richly bless the United States of America, bring to light every single crooked place and keep her safe. May we may arise united once again as One Nation Under God in this auspicious season in our country’s history.

We continue to pray for truth to prevail as we saturate this country in prayer and stand for all that is right in America and for all of us who call ourselves American. These are treacherous times and now more than ever we must maintain our walk. Fail not in this hour.

Please Join Me in Prayer

Father we thank You that You have made a way through the shed blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ, for us to come boldly to Your throne.  We determine this day to seek first Your kingdom.  Jesus, let us keep our hearts focused ever on You.  Lead us in the way You would have us go in our life.  Grace us, Father God, that we will hear and follow Your will not our own.  Break every stronghold and pull every root of pride from our hearts so that we can glorify You and bring Your Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven ‘for such a time as this.’  We pray this in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen and amen.