Verse I Like:

Weekly Dose

Pride has long been considered a deadly sin in most church traditions for good reason. With all the pitfalls that come with pride, we should be fearful of becoming subject to this false god.

It’s the most alluring sin to me, personally. Pride tells me I should put myself on the pedestal. That I should build myself up, regardless of what that “self” is serving, even and especially if it’s serving nothing but itself.

Today, with the sea of self-help content around us, this temptation feels even more rampant, at least in my echo chamber. Some of that content is genuinely good and offers valuable wisdom, but it must be integrated correctly.

Fill yourself up for what purpose? If the answer is anything along the line of “To be the best version of yourself,” I become extra cautious. That’s not the whole picture.

Combatting these inner callings may best be done through humility. In my experience, humility has come from orienting myself toward truth, and it often grows out of thankfulness.

Pride builds you up falsely. Humility strips away the falsehoods and reveals you as you are. It is in alignment with the truth.

Fasting, for me, has become one of my antidotes to pride. Fasting cuts straight to the truth. You are a mortal being who struggles to function after only a certain amount of hours without food.

It humbles you quickly and honestly. Yet fasting also invites thankfulness—the gratitude for food when it’s there, and the gratitude for the lack of it when it exposes your dependence. Both realities pull you toward humility, and ultimately, the Lord.

Quotes I Like:

Mane Message

Uzziah became king when he was just sixteen, and through his faith in the Lord and commitment to doing what was right, he was built up into a powerful and mighty king. A king who ruled for more than fifty years. So long as his life and kingdom were properly oriented, the Lord was with him.

But later in his reign, when he was strong, comfortable, and established, something shifted.

Pride crept in.

Uzziah started to usurp the role of the priests. He entered the Temple and burned incense, something God had set apart exclusively for the priesthood. It was not his place to do so. But he thought himself above his boundaries, nd even above the order God Himself put in place.

He was a powerful and mighty king, but the moment he crossed that line, it’s as if the Lord removed His hand. Uzziah was struck with leprosy, a judgment that the King would carry until the day he died.

There are several themes woven into this story—the danger of corruption when success outgrows character, the deep relationship between pride and improper orientation, and the willingness of the Lord to build up those who follow Him, contrasted with the swiftness with which pride can unravel everything.

But the focal point for this season, at least in my experience, has been this. The remedy to pride is thankfulness.

Had Uzziah been thankful for the priests, thankful for the boundaries God set, thankful for the authority already given to him, who knows how much more God might have entrusted to him?

Instead, a deep seed of ingratitude poisoned his heart. Uzziah wasn’t elevated high enough in his own eyes, so he reached for more than God had assigned. This eventually led to his downfall.

Pride says, “What I have is not enough.” Thankfulness says, “What I have is a gift.”

One path leads to collapse. The other leads to life.

Weekly Ponder

If God gave me only what I thanked him for this week, what would I be left with?

When do my good desires suddenly turn into a need to be seen?

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