Step 5: Proud in Heart
Proverbs 16:5 “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.”
One of the most damaging attitudes, not only for the maintenance tech, but for any Christian is the sin of pride. It brings damage to the Christian because it doesn’t take you out of the Will of God, in fact, you can go on doing the right thing. What it does is change the attitude and purpose behind your efforts.
What it does to the Christian is that it makes him focus on himself and his accomplishments, skills, education, and appearance instead of having him focus on making God happy. A proud heart refuses to forgive. A proud heart refuses to admit wrong doing. It destroys the maintenance tech as he points to his past work as an excuse or he blames the maintenance problem on others. It makes the fix it guy lie to cover up his mistakes, because he is worried what people think of him. It is a very dangerous attitude!
The danger of pride crops up when success has been realized. It is always waiting to rear its ugly head and the person seeking the will of God must stay keenly aware of it! The dead end road of a proud heart is destruction.
It is important to notice that even if everyone is on your side, when you are lifted up with pride, God is against you and punishment is coming!
Pride shows up again in this study on finding God’s will the Proverbs 16 way in Proverbs 16:18. This shows that the sin of pride can pop up at any time in a Christian's life. The one that is doing the will of God is extremely susceptible to it.
Proverbs 16:18“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”
To understand how bad pride is look up abomination and see what the Bible says is an abomination!
Many times God in His mercy, must humble the proud in heart to keep the Christian from the destruction that is the result of pride. God had to give the Apostle Paul a “thorn in the flesh” to keep him humble because of the many truths that were revealed to him!
2 Corinthians 12:7 “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.”
The lesson here is to be aware of pride and keep yourself humble. We would not be able to do anything if it wasn’t for God’s grace and His abundant mercy!
When I graduated from the Bible Institute in 1985, I was asked to make a statement. My statement and belief has not changed. Here it is:
“Anything good that I do is the result of God and His mercy and grace bestowed upon me. I take all credit for the mistakes, sins, blunders, and failures!”
So stay humble so that you don’t stumble!
With this warning on pride freshly realized, please keep reading to learn the essentials for success!