THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEING TRAPPED BY PRIDE pt. 1

THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEING TRAPPED BY PRIDE

From what we have been looking at so far, it cannot be denied that pride is a vice; no matter the cloth of ideology people try to dress it up with. The seriousness of this vice is seen in its consequences which we shall be looking at in this chapter.

PRIDE RESULTS IN THE DESTRUCTION AND FALL OF ITS VICTIM

Anyway we look at it, pride leads only one way; downwards! This is why the bible says in Prov.16:18:

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

A fall implies a reduction in value. This is nothing graceful at all. Better put; it implies a disgrace or stepping out of grace. In the Good News Bible version, Prov.11:2 says people who are proud will soon be disgraced. This text of scripture in the International Standard version says when pride comes, disgrace accompanies it. This happens when God does not extend his grace to a person anymore. In Jas.4:6, we read:

“But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”

Also, Apostle Peter reiterates this principle in his letter to the Church in 1Pet.5:5 where he said:

“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble”.

Here, we see Apostle Peter making a very strong case for humility to the Church by showing them that a precondition for the grace of God to find expression in the life of a person is humility. Humility is the opposite of pride because a person cannot be humble and proud at the same time. Pride represents the presence of satan in a person’s life while humility represents the presence of Jesus Christ in the life of a person. Both do not live together in one place. When God wants to engrace a person and finds pride in that life, he stops and rather resists the person, but takes the grace to the life of another person in which he finds humility. Consequently, proud people meet with a lot of disappointment. They could have great expectations and their expectations are cut off because of divine resistance. I do not want to be found in this place and I believe the same for you dear reader.

Destruction on the other hand is the termination of something by causing so much damage to it that it cannot be repaired. In this connection therefore, to be destroyed is to be brought to a place where one cannot fulfill his or her God given purpose at all as a result of failure in every or any area of one’s life. For instance, every time the president of our country is traveling on road to make any journey especially to carry out his assignment as the president, security agents go ahead of him to announce his coming and clear the road for him so that he would be able to pass through unhindered and protected from being stopped by any means. These security agents are called escorts. In the same way, the escort for the destruction of a man to guarantee that the man is destroyed unhindered is pride in the heart of the man. This explains why prideful people see wise counsel as a disturbance and they would do everything to avoid yielding to wise counsel. The result is that the wise counsel that would have prevented their destruction would be knocked out of the way by the escort called pride so as to seal the unhindered destruction of the victim of pride. This is why pride is a trap that holds its victim down until it destroys him or her. A good example of a man trapped by pride is Pharaoh in the red sea. He pursued Israel to the red sea in spite of all the wonders God did in Egypt just to get him to comply with divine directives to let Israel go. Unfortunately for Egypt, their leader was a proud man and the pride of his heart moved him to go after Israel with the intention to bring them back to Egypt against God’s plan and God waited for them at the red sea. A right thinking person who sees the sea parting for his former victims to cross over on dry land considering all that he had previously experienced by the hand of their God including the death of every first born in their land, would have known when to stop. Pharaoh was too blinded by pride to know when to stop, instead he ordered his army to go after Israel. Each time I read that scripture in Exodus 14, I never cease to wonder how on earth Pharaoh could have imagined that God would work a miracle for his benefit when his intention was to destroy God’s people. As soon as Israel passed over on dry ground, God ordered the sea to return to normal while the host of Pharaoh was in the middle of the sea trying to cross over on dry ground. They were completely destroyed and Egypt was stripped from the most influential to the most vulnerable nation on earth in that day and Pharaoh had to go back to Egypt without an army. What a shame! See Ex.14:13-31.

PRIDE PROMOTES CONTENTION

Contention means the act of competing as for profit or reward. It is synonymous with quarrelling and physical combat as though the parties involved in it have something to gain if they had the upper hand in the dispute. One of the most devastating enemies of a team is contention as it brings division which is contrary to the goal of every team. A team is supposed to be united to accomplish a common goal. The existence of contention in a team spells the failure of that team in the accomplishment of their intended goal. The team could be a marriage, a family, a Church, a School or any corporate body or institution. The existence of pride in the group especially in the heart of the group influencer or influencers, spells doom to their common objective.  In Prov.13:10, we read:

“Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom”.

From this text we gather that at the base of every unhealthy competition in a team is pride. The International Standard version of this text reads:

“Arrogance only brings quarreling, but those receiving advice are wise.”

The good new version says arrogance causes nothing but trouble. From the second part of this text of scripture we now understand why proud people cannot take advice. In fact, they tend to avoid relating with anyone that would give them useful advice. This is what happened with King Rehoboam the son of King Solomon as we saw in an earlier chapter of this book. The result is that his kingdom fell and was downsized to two instead of twelve tribes. This was indeed a great reduction considering the influence wielded by his progenitors.

Another means by which contention founded on pride can destroy the harmony of a team is that it causes strife and where there is strife; there is confusion and every evil work. The Apostle James makes us understand in James 3:16 that where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. Strife which is born out of pride always results in envy. Envy is the anger at the good fortune of another that drives the envious party to do something to stop their good fortune. This is why where strife exists, there will be envy and the result is confusion and every evil work. This has led to the destruction of many families and institutions. So the vice of pride is something to be treated like cancer; the victim must make every effort to see it uprooted from his or her life.

Several years ago when I was in secondary School, I had an experience which brought this situation out clearly to me. I happened to know two sisters; unknown to me, the younger one was jealous of the elder sister for no apparent reason I could see. One day the younger sister came to me and said her mum wanted to see me at their place and that her sister was going to confront me with some questions and that I should not answer a word. I was wondering what was going on; but out of respect for the mum, I went to see her and when I got there, to my amazement, the elder sister furiously began to harass me and even got physical claiming I said certain uncomplimentary stories about her one of which was that I saw her driving her father’s car to some questionable places with some undesirable characters. I was shocked because in the first place, I never saw such a thing and while I may not lay claims to having always been truthful in my life, this lie was too much for me to tell and in my shock, I forgot that the younger sister told me not to say a word and I burst out that how can I saw such a thing when I never saw such things. Thankfully, her aunt was around who did not share the younger sister’s sentiments and she resolved the issue and told me to go back to school.

I was so naïve then (because such situations do not exist in my own family) that I did not even know what happened until several years later; I believe up to about twelve years later. This incident happened in 1982 and I got to realize the implication of it sometime in 1994! I do not know what became of the sisters but I can assure you that if their mother did not handle that incident wisely, it is only a question of time before the whole family will be torn apart by the envy of one person and I believe this envy was rooted in pride.   

PRIDE CLOTHES ITS VICTIM WITH EMPTINESS AND SHAME

In Prov.11:2, we read:

“When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.”

Another translation of this same text of scripture puts it this way:

“when swelling and pride comes, then emptiness and shame come also, …”

In other words, the existence of pride in the life of a person announces a future of emptiness and shame. What does emptiness mean? It means the quality of being valueless or futile; in other words, being stripped of any worth or value. Having no ability whatsoever to add value to any one, place or thing; have no productive contribution to make in any life or institution. This is born out of the state of containing nothing to give. I will liken this person to a keg full of water that got punctured and the water in it gradually leaked out of the keg until the container became empty and ceased to serve any useful purpose like holding liquid of any kind. In the same way, pride punctures a person’s bank of resources and gradually empties the person of resources until the person is stripped of what little contribution they can make to the point that they have no value left to add to anyone. This explains why prideful people always seek to receive and never make any effort to give because they know that all such efforts will be futile knowing they have nothing to give. People cannot give what they do not have. Pride is so bad that it can reduce a rich man to poverty of a most unimaginable proportion.

Shame on the other hand is a state of dishonor or a painful emotion resulting from an awareness of inadequacy or guilt. This is why Jesus Christ taught that when people attend weddings for instance, they should not seek seats in the place of honor because if out of pride, they do, they may later be told by the host to move to a lower place of honor for a more dignified person to sit and they would begin with shame to go for the lower place; that it would be more honorable for them to first take the lower place and later be told to take a higher seat from there. Then he set out the principle of exaltation here that whoever humbles himself shall be exalted and whoever exalts himself shall be abased. These are his words in Lk.14:8-11:

“When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;

And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.

But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.

For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

This is a good example of pride resulting in shame. No wonder Apostles James and Peter tell us that we are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and in due season, he shall exalt us. See Jas.4:10 and 1Pet.5:6.

The story below paints the picture of pride resulting in emptiness and shame very clearly:

When I was in secondary school when we were in form two, after the second term, we were placed in classes A to D according to how well we did. Those with the best result were put in form 2D whereas those that followed were put in form 2C and down like that. Two girls had an exchange one day and one of them was in form 2D and the other in 2C. The one in 2D was mocking the one in 2C that her result was substandard to hers that was why she was in C and the one in C replied that that 2D girl got there by mistake and that by the promotion exam, their places were going to be adjusted and the one in 2D now would come to 3C while she would go to 3D and it came to pass as the girl said it and this second girl now in 3D did not stop at that, she went on to get the best result in one of the subjects in form 3 and the other girl never caught up with her again.

I believe that both girls were brilliant, but what happened to the prideful girl was that pride punctured the substance in her and brought her under the curse of emptiness.

PRIDE STRIPS ITS VICTIM OF DIVINE FAVOUR

Favour can be defined as an act of gracious kindness; an advantage to the benefit of someone or something. It is an inclination to approve; a feeling of being favorably regarded. It is the means by which God makes His blessings visible in the life of the blessed. In Exodus 3:21, God promised to give favour to the Children of Israel so that when they leave Egypt after their four hundred years slavery, they would not go empty but leave with substance. God’s will as shown in Ps.5:12 is to bless the righteous and encompass them with favour as with a shield. No matter how good a person is at their task, without the favour of God, the opportunity to stand before kings would never come and all their efforts to succeed would be in futility because favor is the magnet that attracts blessings to the beneficiary and it is God given. If the righteous however steps into pride, he/she will meet with divine resistance and be stripped of grace. In Jas. 4:6, we read:

“But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”

The Apostle Peter reiterates this principle in 1Pet.5:5-6 where he says:

      “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:”

Grace can be defined as divine ability and divine favour. Now if a person walks in pride, God will personally resist him/her and supervise his/her destruction by stripping such a person of grace which is the foundation for productive living and when a person is not productive, he/ she is said to be barren and cannot add any value because they would be void of the substance required of them to add value. This is a very sorry state to be because if God resists you, your case is hopeless except you repent in time. The bible says seek the Lord while he may be found. So a time comes in a person’s destiny when the Lord can no more be found; this is when you cross over to eternity. Please do seek the Lord now. If you are not yet born again because you believe that you are better that some Christians you know, you have issues with pride and God is resisting you. This explains all the hardships and calamities in your life and family in spite of your “goodness”. This is why you are the constant victim of witches and occult powers without anyone helping you. This explains why your promotion has been hanging for a long time even though you are very diligent. If you however repent today and give your life to Christ, all that will change and you will enjoy the grace of God.

Sadly today, even some Pastors and other ministers of the gospel are experiencing divine resistance for this same reason of pride. Some have resorted to adding titles upon titles to make up for their inadequacies because they lack the substance required to deliver on their job as a result of lack of grace. They speak the word but it makes no impact because like Gehazi, the rod would not work in their hands (See 2Kings 4:29-36). Some in their desperation have even gone to the extent of seeking evil powers to achieve divine purpose. You cannot use the devil’s method to further the cause of God; all you need to do is humble yourself, repent and learn and let God exalt you when He considers you due for exaltation.

Recently, as I write this book, a friend of mine told me the story of a highly placed Pastor who was having an affair with a Church member living with them because of the loss of her parents and she had nowhere to go. He had made her abort so many pregnancies that the last one cost her her reproductive ability. When my friend confronted this Pastor on the issue, he denied it; eventually, the matter came into the open and the Pastor’s wife left him and his ministerial life went down the drains; NO MORE GRACE! From the way this story went, this behavior of the Pastor was not new and this girl living with them was not the only strange woman he was involved with; I guess that was the cheapest one he could find so he made nonsense of her destiny because she either could not or would not cry out in time.

God stripped him of grace and he was brought to disgrace because he would not open up his weakness to his wife and repent when he should have done so. A sad but true story showing the seriousness of this vice of pride; it brings a person to a place where God would personally resist him or her. The bible says if God be for us who can be against us? I want to say: “If God turns against us, who can be for us?” It is therefore very safe and wise to avoid the wrath of God by humbling one’s self under God.