11-23-23 Thanksgiving Day

Pride, Disobedience, Rebellion, and Sin

Waking up this morning I realized just how thankful I was that God brought me through so much pride, disobedience, rebellion, and sin. Doing things my way has been a constant theme throughout my life.  Not that I have completely overcome pride but that I’m on that journey to walk with Jesus in humility.  Humility is a funny thing: once you say “I finally have humility,” you’ve lost it!  God has been opening up the word to me which really got my pride going.  That pride led me to the place where I entered into grievous sin that really derailed my relationship with Him as well as others.  I would like to share with you some of what He has spoken to me in my quiet times concerning pride.  My prayer for all who read this is that you allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you through my experience and have a closer walk with Jesus. 

Disobedience is rebellion to God.  Pride is at the root.  Satan’s fall came as a result of pride.  He fell into sin because he exalted his throne above the throne of God (pride).  This pride brought disobedience in his heart and he rebelled against God.  Sin ALWAYS follows this path: pride → disobedience → rebellion → sin; (heart → thoughts → action/sin); (soul → mind → body/sin).  Pride is the attitude of the heart, fueled by the thoughts of the mind, ending with actions of the flesh.  Instead, God calls us to recognize Him with an attitude of humility, to think on things that are true – right – excellent – praiseworthy, and to walk in obedience to His word and the Holy Spirit (walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature/flesh).  The process of my sin is no different than Satan’s sin or Adam and Eve’s sin.  The result is the same: being eternally separated from God with no way out unless He Himself pardons me. 

I thank you Lord Jesus that You were obedient to the Father.  By your death, burial, and resurrection, I can be pardoned of my sin and brought back into fellowship with the Father when I accept your free gift of salvation. 

Related Scriptures

Titus 3:3-7

“3  At one time  we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,  5  he saved us,  not because of righteous things we had done,  but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing  of rebirth and renewal  by the Holy Spirit, 6  whom he poured out on us  generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7  so that, having been justified by his grace,  we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.…”

We are saved by the washing of rebirth once for all time when we accept Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross, then, by the Holy Spirit, we are renewed daily (often moment by moment).  

Romans 12:2 NIV1984

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

The battle of pride starts in the mind!  Where is pride based?  It is an attitude of the heart.  When we walk in pride we are devoid of love for anyone else.  It is narcissism in its truest form.  In the beginning of the Great Shema we are told to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength (Deut. 6:5).  This is the opposite of pride!  Jesus quoted this when asked what the greatest commandment was. In the Gospel of Mark Jesus adds to it “mind:” Mark 12:30 – ^“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”  He went on to say the second commandment was like it:  “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:28-34).  The antidote for pride is to love God and then love others with everything you’ve got.  Then our minds will be renewed to walk in His will.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NIV1984 (the first section of the Shema)

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

It’s interesting that God did not include “spirit” in this passage.  Strict obedience of the Law prior to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross took them to the Bosom of Abraham after death (also called Paradise).  They needed to wait there until Jesus’ work was completed.  Following the Law will not cause you to be born again.  The New Testament speaks of both soul and spirit.  Jesus said we must be born again which is an action of God on the spirit of those who believe.  We were spiritually dead in our sins and trespasses by living by the flesh.  Following the Law still leaves you spiritually dead too.  But God made us alive spiritually in Christ!  Those who were in the Bosom of Abraham or Paradise were led by Jesus to heaven after His crucifixion when He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men (Eph. 4:8).  After Jesus ascended and sat down at the right hand of the Father where He makes intercession for us, the Bosom of Abraham was no longer in effect.  Now, when born again believers die they immediately go into the presence of the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8 KJV – “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”).  When Jesus cried out, “It is finished” as He died on the cross, the veil into the Holy of Holies was ripped in two giving us access to the throne room of God through His blood poured out on the heavenly alter for our sin.  The remedy for pride can be found by loving the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind and then to love my neighbor in the same way I love myself.  Love God and treat others how I would like to be treated!