In the Bible, we read about Haman. It’s a story we can all learn from. We read that he left Esther’s banquet happy. That he was in good spirits. That all changed as soon as he saw Mordecai. Because Mordecai refused to show him honor. This is where things turn south for Haman. When he got home, he let his pride get into the way. He began bragging about how much money he had. About how the king had honored him. He even talked about Queen Esther inviting him to her banquets. But as much as he was prideful about these things, he wasn’t gonna be satisfied until Mordecai would pay for dishonoring him. He plotted a way for revenge. He let his pride begin to dictate his actions. His thoughts. His desires. And that is where the danger lies. Which ultimately led to his death.
There’s nothing wrong with having pride in what you do. It helps us keep focused on the task at hand. It helps us keep focused on priorities. But that requires us to keep our pride in check. Requires us to be in control of it. I take pride in being a good husband and father. I take pride in being a good Opa to my grandkids. When I was teaching and coaching, I took pride in what I was doing. And now I have pride in watching Charlie 22 Outdoors, working in peoples lives. But I consider all of these things blessings from God. Trying to make sure I keep him as the focus. Trust me, there are days that I fail at this. But I do what I can to make sure I keep God first and foremost.
Today, let’s all take a look at ourselves and see just how much we let pride dictate our actions and our thoughts. Let’s all look to see if our pride causes us to be arrogant. Let’s all look to see if we are becoming self-centered. We can probably even look and find what it is that causes us to be to prideful. Let’s work on making sure that we don’t allow ourselves to be so prideful that we don’t submit to God. That we don’t follow his purpose for us. Let’s try to be humble. Let’s try to have servant hearts. Let’s focus on lifting others up. Helping them succeed. Let’s thank God, and give him all the glory in all that we do. Let’s praise him. Let’s even pray for him to help us from being too prideful. If we do these things, God will bless our efforts. And that will be awesome.
