Self examination or self bashing?

To examine yourself on a regular basis is important. Pride and self deception is always lurking in the shadows of pride and accomplishment. However, to linger too long and probe our past too much can turn from a healthy monitoring of our heart to a morbid kind of self bashing that leaves us depressed and immobilized and maybe even damaged more by the probing than by the original problem.


Sen. Mark Hatfield tells this story: James Garfield was a lay preacher and principal of his denominational college. They say he was ambidextrous and could simultaneously write Greek, with one hand and Latin with the other.
In l880, he was elected president of the United States, but after only six months in office, he was shot in the back with a revolver. He never lost consciousness. At the hospital, the doctor probed the wound with his little finger to seek the bullet. He couldn't find it, so he tried a silver-tipped probe. Still he couldn't locate the bullet.
They took Garfield back to Washington, D.C. Despite the summer heat, they tried to keep him comfortable. He was growing very weak. Teams of doctors tried to locate the bullet, probing the wound over and over. In desperation they asked Alexander Graham Bell, who was working on a little device called the telephone, to see if he could locate the metal inside the president's body. He came, he sought, and he too failed. The president hung on through July, through August, but in September he finally died-not from the wound, but from infection. The repeated probing, which the physicians thought would help the man, eventually, killed him. So it is with people who dwell too long on their sin and refuse to release it to God.

Dealing With Pride: An Obstacle To Maturity
Part II

In our last blog we talked about the causes of pride. In this writing we will look at the cure.

Helps To Defeating Pride

1. A full surrender to the Lordship of Christ. Notice I didn't simply say, "accept Jesus as your savior". A ticket to heaven doesn't necessarily prepare you for victorious living here on earth. There has to be a decision of the heart that surrenders to Jesus as Lord. It is only through Lordship that character flaws are dealt with and the residue of sin is removed. Pride sets a predetermined plan in place that exalts and glorifies self. The Lordship of Jesus deals to destroy this plan. Lordship is a surrender to the Lord's plan and an abandonment of our plan.

2. Faith in the daily care and direction of God. Psalm 25:9 tells us, "The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way.

3. Service. Jesus said in Matthew 20:26, "whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave;"

Serving others is a cure for pride. Every time you sense pride arising in your heart, go serve someone!

Dealing With Pride - An Obstacle To Maturity
Part I - Causes of Pride

There is an interesting story in the life of Jesus that reveals the heart felt desire of a loving Mother. It is found in Matthew chapter 20. The mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons and asked Jesus if her two sons could sit on his right and left side when his Kingdom was revealed. While Mom here is sincere, she is sincerely wrong. When the other ten disciples heard all this, they were less than pleased.

Pride is such a blinding handicap. Pride makes us believe we are where we aren't and keeps us where we are rather than where we could be. Jesus asked the boys if they were able to drink of the drink he would be require to drink and they said, no problem! What ignorant arrogance!

Causes of pride:

1. Believing "what Mama said". Your Mama sees you differently than anyone else. I hate to tell you this but you can't count on what she says about you. Oh, she's not lying, she's just seeing it from her perspective, through her filter. You can't view yourself in the light of what others think of you. There's good and bad here. You have to build your view of yourself on what God's Word says about you. You won't be disappointed but God's word balances who you are with how you should handle who you are.

2. Past Accomplishments. What a deadly pattern. We cry out to God for help, he answers our prayers and then we sit back and think, "Boy, did I do a great job there".

3. Faith in personal knowledge and opinion. Herein lies a character flaw. It says, "my opinion is the only opinion."

4. Insecurity. Insecurity is one of the greatest causes of pride. It is an "anti-God" answer to insecurity and inferiority.

5. Beauty. Lucifer was cast from heaven because his beauty eventually turned to pride that made him think he was in competition with God.

6. The sinful nature. We are all born with this and pride is at the heart of the sinful nature.

Pride is the sickness and Jesus is the cure. True humility only comes from the inside as sin is seen, Jesus is embraced and a new creation is manifested in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Accountability

It has become fashionable within the church to say we are accountable. It is one thing to "say" we are accountable and another thing to actually "be" accountable.

I have had more than my share of friends/spiritual sons who have failed morally in some form or fashion. All of which were quick to tell everyone just how accountable they were. In truth, they were accountable until it came time for their temptation at which time they disengaged from accountability. Accountability is designed to keep us from making the wrong choices when the hour of temptation comes. It is for the purpose of walking in a relationship of openness and clarity in the day to day life so that there is no secret life. Moral failure comes from a hidden life that is withheld from accountability. Like all life principles, accountability only works if you work it. It requires the one who says they want accountability to come forth and make it work with a spiritual father or mentor in all areas of life.

The basic definition of accountability is "being held accountable." Are you in a relationship of accountability? Are you being held accountable? If not, pursue this kind of functioning relationship today in all areas of life. You and those around you will be the better for it.