PRIDE
Detector
“Pride goes before
destruction; and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Proverbs
16:18 (NIV)
One
of the most fascinating objects in our house for our workers is our smoke
detector! At seemingly random times, this little white thing goes berserk and
makes all sorts of racket! They don’t seem to realize it is tied to when I burn
the toast or leave a pan on the stove! When I finally explained it to them, I
said, “No, this little thing protects us from fire! It beeps annoyingly to tell
us that smoke is around!” To which they responded, “We have one of those too,
in the roof of our houses. It’s a clump of leaves from the witchdoctor that
doesn’t beep when there’s smoke, but it’s supposed to protect us from our house
burning down.” Well, what can you say? Not exactly the same thing!!
This
made me think: Wouldn’t it be nice if we had “pride detectors” in the roofs of
our hearts? Little white, round machines that went berserk when pride reared
its ugly head, threatening to burn us to the ground. Pride truly is a raging
fire that can destroy us before we know it. “Pride comes before the fire!”
Proverbs 16:18 (my version!) It’s also sneaky! It appeals to our “humanness, ”
saying, “You deserve this! How dare they treat you in that way!” And, it takes
on multiple forms: false humility, flattery, reverse flattery, outright slander
and insinuating comments. God help us!! We need an advanced warning system!
Well, we have one…the trouble is that often we fail to hear its beeps!
Our
pride detector comes in the form of the Holy Spirit! He takes up residence in
our heart and works like an alarm system, warning of incoming or indwelling issues.
He has a tough job – problems can come from without (Satan and his crew) or
from within (our Flesh – PRIDE being number one on the list!). The problem is
that we can quench this alarm system. Disable it enough times, the detector
just stops warning us! Or worse yet, we can sear our consciences into not even
hearing Him at all.
So
don’t go up in a puff of pride, keep your heart tuned to the effective Pride
Detector - - God Himself in your heart! When the first fumes of pride’s
smoldering fire are sensed, may we all be quick to recognize it for what it is:
a tool of our flesh and the Enemy that is both destructive and debilitating.
Stand ready to extinguish the fires of pride with the cooling waters of
humility following our Leader, Jesus.
GOING
DEEPER:
1. What will you do today to cool down the fire
of pride with the waters of humility?
FOR
FURTHER READING:
Oakwood’s
missionaries Elin Henderson (a registered nurse) and her husband Phil serve as
church planters with New Tribes in Mozambique,
Africa.
Elin is mother to thirteen-year-old Callie and ten-year-old Elias. They
are currently in America
on Home Assignment.
